What Are IT Asset Management Best Practices?

IT Asset Management Best Practices: 15 Asset Management Principles for Your Company

If you own or manage a business, you know how important asset management is. If it’s not done right, you’re potentially costing yourself time and money and ultimately preventing company growth. 

IT asset management doesn’t have to be difficult. By implementing asset management policies and best practices, and using CMMS software and its automated tools, your company can easily follow asset management guidelines.

Discover our top asset management best practices and learn how your company can benefit from implementing them using trusted CMMS software for support.

What Is IT Asset Management?

IT Asset Management (ITAM) is the series of steps and processes that a business uses to manage all of the IT assets within the organization. Typically, IT assets include all hardware and software. 

In addition to IT asset management, there is regular asset management. This covers the buying, selling, and managing of investments that help increase wealth over time while also mitigating risks. 

What Are Asset Management Practices?

A business's assets are any of the resources they use to create their product or service. Asset management refers to the way these resources are maintained to optimize their value. They can be physical, such as equipment, raw materials, or buildings. They can also be intangible objects, like funds or people. 

The best asset management practices involve creating a strategy to handle resources most advantageously. This includes asset:

• Development

• Operation

• Maintenance

• Upgrades; and 

• Disposal 

Asset management practices require deliberate processes for their construction, which includes the creation of an asset management policy.

What Should You Have an Asset Management Policy?

An asset management policy is a formal document that outlines an organization’s approach to managing its assets, both tangible (hardware, equipment, etc.) and intangible (software, licenses, intellectual property, etc.).

These policies give companies a template for decision-making, allowing them to optimize outcomes while meeting goals and working efficiently. 

The best management policies:

• Are broad

• Identify roles and responsibilities

• Focus on policy implementation

• Outline integration of asset management

• Establish standards for service, inventory, and maintenance

Understanding the ISO 55001 Standard

Many companies refer to ISO 55001 as their standard framework for asset management policy. ISO 55001 focuses on the strategic management of company assets throughout their life cycle, from acquisition to disposal. 

Key components of the ISO 55001 include:

• Setting clear policies and objectives

• Maintaining a comprehensive asset inventory

• Implementing risk management strategies

• Continuously monitoring and improving asset management best practices

With this framework, organizations can enhance their ability to make informed decisions while reducing costs, maintaining compliance, and maximizing the value of their assets. 

This is especially valuable for industries with complex and high-value assets, like transportation, manufacturing, and utilities. 

Why You Should Have an Asset Management Policy 

Having an asset management policy in place is essential for many reasons:

• It provides a structured framework with clear expectations for managing assets. 

• It helps maintain compliance.

• It supports strategic decision-making. 

Perhaps most importantly of all, an asset management policy can help save you time and money. Consider the following statistics:

• 43% of small businesses don’t track assets and inventory effectively. 

• 80% of employees waste at least 30 minutes a day searching for information.

• 80% of equipment maintenance is reactive rather than proactive. 

Unfortunately, you can’t effectively run an organization without a plan in place to help address these issues. Attempting to do so will likely lead to a loss of money. UpKeep’s CMMS software can help you take control of these types of situations. 

When you use our software, asset management policies and procedures are easier to track and improve. Request a demo today.

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15 IT Asset Management Best Practices Guidelines

#1: Asset Inventory and Classification

Your asset type might vary depending on the type of business you run. They could consist of machinery, vehicles, computer equipment, software, and more. 

Utilizing asset management software can help you automate asset discovery and tracking, no matter what your inventory consists of. 

When you’re able to categorize assets based on factors like relevance, value, and how critical they are to the organization, you can then prioritize your asset management efforts and allocate resources more efficiently. 

#2: Lifecycle Management

UpKeep’s mobile asset management tool gives powerful insights to help you manage your full lifecycle, from procurement to retirement. You can track everything — downtime, depreciation, costs, and more — all in one easy-to-access asset management solution while regularly updating records to reflect status changes along the way.

#3: Asset Tracking and Documentation

Using unique asset identifiers, such as serial numbers or asset tags, to track individual items allows precise asset identification. It also simplifies tracking throughout the life cycle of the asset. 

With this asset management best practice, you can easily maintain detailed records for all of your assets, including:

• Specifications

• Purchase history

• Warranty information

• Maintenance and repair history

• And more

If your assets include software, you can also add document licensing agreements to this category.

#4: Software License Management

For companies whose assets include software licenses, keeping up with what is being used and where it’s being used is key. Using asset management best practices allows your business to ensure compliance with license usage by tracking how many you have alone with your installations and usage. These should be regularly reconciled to avoid overages.

A highlight feature of UpKeep is that it's easily integrated with other software. Check out our integration app marketplace here.

#5: Security and Access Control

One of the most important components of asset management is implementing security measures to guard against theft or unauthorized access, including both actual physical security for tangible assets and controls for intangibles.

Equipment theft is big business with theft rings racking up millions of dollars worth of machinery and other assets from unsuspecting companies. Following best practices means doing what you can to prevent this from happening.

#6: Regular Audits

Performing regular audits helps:

• Verify the accuracy of records

• Identify discrepancies

• Ensure compliance with licensing agreements

Companies that don’t regularly schedule thorough audits may be unaware when assets go missing or are out of date. Audits can help eliminate both ghost assets — resources that are in your books but aren’t physically available — and zombie assets — resources that are present but not mentioned in the books. 

#7: Vendor Management

Developing relationships with vendors is helpful for understanding their models and negotiating contracts that align with your needs. 

Some vendor management best practices include:

• Choosing the right vendors for your business

• Reviewing them regularly

• Consolidating when necessary

• Enforcing clear vendor management policies

#8: Asset Disposal

For some companies, asset disposal is no easy task. Figuring out what to do with large equipment that has reached the end of its life cycle can pose a challenge. 

Best practices in asset disposal require following secure and environmentally responsible procedures. Consider removing data from retired hardware and recycling or donating equipment when appropriate.

#9: Documentation and Training

All staff members involved in asset management should be provided with proper documentation and thorough training. This can be a complex operation, so you must ensure they understand the asset management policies and procedures. 

In reviews of UpKeeps’ CMMS software, customers mention time and time again how simple it is to use. Having this tool at your employees’ disposal can help a great deal with documentation and training.

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#10: Automation

An asset management software like Upkeep can be used to automate data tracking, collection, and reporting. 

Where is the asset? How is it functioning? 

Automation lets you know with the touch of a button. 

Automation in asset management also:

• Allows for adjustments in goal-setting

• Boosts accuracy

• Reduces manual employee errors

Asset management processes can be streamlined to be more secure, useful, and reliable.

#11: Regular Reporting

CMMS software promotes best practices in asset management by allowing you to easily generate reports on usage, costs, and maintenance. You might then use those reports to make informed decisions about your assets, whether it be optimization, procurement, or retirement.

#12: Cost Optimization

No matter what business you are in, assets are a big line item on your budget. Using a CMMS will allow you to easily assess and optimize asset costs at regular intervals. You might find opportunities to reduce expenses by eliminating underused assets, consolidating licenses, or finding more cost-effective solutions.

#13: Compliance Monitoring

Using a CMMS helps take the guesswork out of ensuring that you’re always compliant with industry regulations, licensing agreements, and more.

If you’re an organization that is audited by the government and you can’t find documentation that you’re compliant, you may face fines or work stoppage, costing you valuable time and money. 

UpKeep’s Enterprise Asset Operations Management helps employees create a system to guard against audit failure.

#14: Data Backup and Recovery

If your resources include IT assets, develop a backup and recovery strategy to protect critical information that’s stored there. Don’t wait until you’ve been hacked to try to figure out what to do — have a plan in place that your team is familiar with and can quickly and easily implement.

#15: Change Management

A process should be implemented to track and document changes to assets. If there are any modifications, they should be properly authorized and recorded — plus the records on these changes should be easily accessible to all stakeholders and involved parties.

5 Benefits of Implementing IT Asset Management

When you allocate time and resources to a dedicated asset management protocol, you can get those investments back exponentially by improving asset performance and extending life cycles. 

Moreover, implementing IT asset management also has additional benefits.

#1: Increased Organization

With UpKeep’s inventory management, companies can keep track of all IT assets and easily oversee them in one designated, easy-to-organize location.

#2: Increased Security

With more control over your assets, companies can minimize security risks. With extra visibility over assets, you can track their health and status and ensure they are as secure as possible.

#3: Cost Savings

Most assets are costly and without tracking them, it can quickly lead to many lost dollars. If you’re not keeping close track of assets, expenses for hardware, software licenses, and maintenance costs can quickly add up.

With well-thought IT asset management best practices in place, you can manage asset health and status to better maintain them and reduce costs associated with poor tracking.

#4: Reduced Waste

When assets are appropriately managed, you can reduce waste associated with the disposal of these assets. Although devices don’t last forever, proper maintenance may help extend their lifetime.

#5: Heightened Efficiency

IT asset management supports device uptime which supports workflows. By monitoring your assets and where they are in their lifecycle, you can stay on top of caring for your environment and the efficiency of your overall business.

Asset Management Policies: FAQs

What is the IT Asset Management Approach?

The IT asset management approach is implementing a strategy to help plan and control acquisitions, operations, maintenance, renewal, and disposal of all organizational assets. Without this systematic approach, assets could quickly become costly, unorganized, and at risk. 

What Are Three Main Deliverables of IT Asset Management?

While there are many best practices associated with IT asset management, three main deliverables include:

• Asset inventory – A comprehensive inventory of all assets, both tangible and intangible

• Cost savings – Optimized asset utilization to maximize cost-effectiveness

• Compliance – Ensuring all assets comply with relevant laws, licenses, standards, and policies, and maintaining proper records and documents

What Is the Difference Between IT Asset Management and IT Service Management?

IT asset management refers to both hardware and software that an organization uses to support its business, whereas IT service management is about software tools, but also processes, people, and technology.

How To Implement IT Asset Management Best Practices With CMMS Software from UpKeep

UpKeep takes all of the guesswork out of implementing asset management best practices. Our CMMS software is the #1 tool for maintenance and reliability teams, giving them all of the tools necessary to run operations effectively and efficiently. 

Users of UpKeep have reported:

• A 315% return on investment

• $638,000 in savings from avoiding production downtime; and

• A 90% reduction in technician time spent filing work orders and locating asset information

UpKeep can help update and implement your asset management guidelines. Contact us today to request a demo.

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