For organizations that depend on various types of assets (digital and physical assets) to conduct business, asset management is a critical function. Companies invest significantly in maintaining data accuracy and ensuring all assets are well-maintained and optimized. If not monitored adequately, assets can become overstrained, underused, and expensive at the same time due to their lifecycles. By utilizing appropriate systems and practices, businesses may alleviate this by allowing them to maximize the benefit from an asset while minimizing the cost and time. 

Advanced software is a vital tool for asset management in the digital setting. Automated asset management systems allow organizations to upgrade from traditional manual tracking to digital tracking of their assets. Among the most commonly used tool is an asset management platform that allows users to fully document and keep goods, create regular maintenance database, monitor wellness and application levels, enhance performance, and check the asset consumption. Asset management software gives dynamically processed data and intelligence that allow businesses to make better choices bridging asset availability, usage, and whole life-cycle cost. 

In recent years, the asset management software market has rapidly grown, offering systems for small, medium, and large enterprise needs. Now, with so many offerings available, businesses may feel lost when looking for that perfect system. This guide explores the main reasons companies need an asset management system, the evaluation features, the top systems, and best practices. With the knowledge and preparation under their belt, businesses can easily select and implement asset management technology for the valuable asset lifetime. 

What is Asset Management Software? 

Specialized tools and systems aimed to help organizations manage and optimize their assets are known as asset management software. In this context, assets refer to tangible and intangible items, legally owned by an organization, which retain usability and value for a long time. Such assets may include: 

– Customer data, as well as other information; 

– Computer software and associated licenses; 

– Intellectual property; 

– Production and manufacturing equipment; 

– Vehicles and transport fleets; 

– Buildings and facilities; 

– IT hardware and other technologies; 

– Heavy machinery and construction equipment; 

Therefore, to extract maximum lifetime value from the listed and other items, organizations require solutions to thoroughly track and analyze every asset throughout its lifecycle, from acquisition to disposal. An asset management system enables an integrated set of functionalities to provide such capabilities: 

Centralized Asset Register 

Asset management platform provides a centralized database to store complete details on every asset. This asset register acts as a single source of truth for attributes like asset name, ID, category, manufacturer, model specifications, location, department ownership, purchase date, warranty and service details, etc. 

Maintenance Management 

Robust tools are provided to schedule, assign, track, and record all preventive, recurring, and corrective maintenance. Pre-defined maintenance templates can be configured by asset type. Maintenance management ensures assets undergo servicing at optimal intervals to minimize downtime. 

Utilization Monitoring 

These tools enable the user to see utilization rates across assets allowing them to optimize the allocation of an asset based on what it spends on them. The usage meter can be the track of runtime hours, production output, or any other metric. Any asset with low utilization can be reallocated where it needs to be. 

Resource Management 

These tools store spare parts, warranties, supplier contracts, operating manuals, and other asset-related documents digitally. Some tools also integrate with inventory control systems. 

Integration 

Leading solutions can integrate the asset data and sync it bi-directional with corporate systems, including the ERP, accounting, IWMS, building automation, HR, etc. It prevents siloed data across systems. 

These tools enable organizations to maximize asset availability, utilization, productivity – and minimize downtime, repairs, and total cost of ownership.

Enterprise Asset Management Software 

A key subset of asset management solutions is enterprise asset management (EAM) software. Enterprise asset management (EAM) software is tailored for large, asset-intensive organizations. EAM platforms offer advanced capabilities for maintenance, inventory, procurement, capital planning, and analytics across distributed assets and locations. EAM solutions provide enterprise-level scalability, security, and data integration. For global or regulated businesses managing thousands of asset types, EAM software delivers the sophisticated tools needed for optimized asset productivity and compliance. 

Why Do Businesses Need Asset Management Software? 

There are several reasons that make businesses invest in asset management software as they improve the trading and business aspects in ways manual tracking or basic spreadsheets cannot, and few of those include the following: 

1. Enhanced Visibility and Control 

Asset management software helps organizations obtain real-time status, positioning, and asset state. Centralized systems provide simple access to data, and generation reports and gaining informative decision-making perspectives. They also allow users to define alerts, workflows, and rules that improve asset optimization and control. 

2. Improved Asset Utilization 

It is crucial to utilize assets sufficiently to achieve the desired return on investment. Asset management system software provides insights on usage and scheduling to allow for better asset allocation throughout the business. The assets can also be reallocated whenever required. 

3. Lower Costs 

Comprehensive maintenance workflows and preventative scheduling end this downtime, resulting in expensive repairs. The software also informs on unproductive assets that should be retired from productive use or replaced. 

4. Reduced Risk 

Performance and conditioning monitoring facilitate early problem detection before failure. Additionally, the software assists in staying on top of regulatory compliance involving acquiring other assets such as facilities and fleets. 

5. Capital Planning Changes 

Given better visibility into their assets and their total cost of ownership, managing their capital exposure becomes more, well, manageable. That means knowing when to maintain, when to replace, and when to buy new.  

6. Scalability 

Choosing asset management software that scales up to support your business as your asset portfolio and your needs grow. That way, as growing pains kick in, you won’t have to reinvent everyone’s tracking process. 

Transitioning to dedicated asset management software enables firms to turn a fragmented and highly reactive approach to asset management into a disciplined, controlled, and proactive one optimized to business goals. The right technology creates the enabling base for optimizing assets across their whole lifecycle. 

Key Features to Look for in Asset Management Software 

There is a virtually limitless range of asset management solutions on the market these days, so organizations have to evaluate software not based on the total number of features offered but on the functionality that brings the most value in the client’s context. Here is a list of features and capabilities that should be considered as must-haves and a brief description of how they can be the place where an organization’s invested dollars achieve the highest return. 

Flexible Asset Organization – High-quality software should allow you to organize and group your assets in a flexible and structured way. Assets can be grouped into a hierarchy based on site, department, facility, production line, and other factors. Access subsets of assets quickly through robust filtering, sorting, and search. Custom fields should be customizable to include specialized attributes. 

Automated Maintenance Scheduling – Maintenance schedules can be maintained based on elapsed time, meter readings, or other triggers. Easily automate the generation of routine maintenance work orders to prevent missed PM activities that can lead to unexpected downtime 

Asset Lifecycle Tracking – Even as assets change locations, get parts replacements, or are usually upgraded, keep full history on asset records. Tracking of the cost basis and depreciation are useful for accounting as well. Track retirement/disposal dates to complete the lifecycle of your asset. 

Advanced Reporting and Analytics – Dynamic charts, graphs, and custom reports into asset and maintenance KPIs. Failure code analysis, maintenance cost forecasting, and custom visualizations can help make informed decisions.  

Lease and Warranty Tracking – Alerts and notifications on warranty expiry for repairs to be covered; key lease events like renewals, returns. 

Spare Parts and Inventory Integration – the linkage of asset records with spare parts or inventory items suggested for maintenance. Reserves are used to enhance parts stocking as automation should enable reordering. 

The listed capabilities are not exhaustive, and while selecting the software, you should be ready to look for the solution that can flexibly fit into your key asset management activities. Most likely, with the purchase procedures description and transfer many to manual. 

Choose the Right Asset Management Software 

Given the numerous solutions available, here are some high-level considerations when it comes to selecting an asset management solution:  

• Intended asset types: Some solutions focus on IT, facilities, fleet, or manufacturing assets.  
• The needs for scale: Cloud-based for SMBs or enterprise-grade.  
• Ease of use: If extensive training is required, the platform suffers from low adoption.  
• Integration: APIs and connectors to sync with your corporate systems, including an LMS. 
• Analytics: Allow reporting capabilities and dashboards to drive action.  
• Company’s size and longevity: To evaluate if they will be around for support. 

Organizations must balance factors like upfront and ongoing costs, ease of use, integration needs, and scalability when selecting the right software. Trying free demos to experience the interface and workflow is advisable before purchasing. Current user reviews provide valuable unbiased insights. Allocating time for proper selection results in software that maximizes value and aligns to your asset processes over the long term. 

Revnue offers an end-to-end solution covering asset management, maintenance, inventory, procurement, analytics, and more. Key strengths include flexible asset hierarchy construction, custom fields, integration capabilities and scalability from SMB to large enterprises – making it the best asset management software available in the market. 

The Future of Asset Management Software 

As new technologies come to light and businesses are looking to obtain even greater value, the nature of asset management software is changing progressively. The established trends influencing the future of asset management technology are the following: 

1. Intelligence and Insights  

Thanks to the growing skills on artificial intelligence and advanced analytics, asset management solutions become more predictive. Machine Learning, applied to asset performance data, can recognize patterns, classify failures, and anticipate events to recommend how accidents can be stopped.  

2. IoT Integration  

The IoT systems transmit operational data, sensor data, meter data, and data on connected properties in real-time to the asset management solution. It can keep track of properties health, capacity, efficiency, and position. Preventive maintenance programs, among other things, are also becoming more dependent on live telemetry. 

3. Broader Integration 

API connectivity enables asset management data to sync with an expanding range of corporate systems – from ERP and billing to HR, inventory, facilities management and more. This breaks down silos and expands data use cases. 

Blockchain integration also shows potential for shared yet trusted asset tracking across partner networks. Compliance-focused capabilities will continue expanding as regulations evolve. As technology advances, the strategic value delivered by asset management software to enterprises will only increase through capabilities that would not be possible with manual tracking. 

Key Takeaway 

In most cases, as this guide shows, every organization requires a dedicated software solution to manage its physical assets effectively. Manual tracking and spreadsheets are no longer sufficient for contemporary asset-intensive activities. The use of asset management software offers visibility to some of the physical assets by creating a centralized register. Users can use analytics and reports to turn asset data into useful insights. As the market has continued to mature, more scalable, and configurable software options have become available. Different selection criteria such as ease of use, analytics, and integration capabilities can be used to identify a suitable solution. 

The future software development is still more deterministic. The integrated future system is the future of IoT, AI, and more mobility. The maximization of assets has been essential for a long time, but AM software appears as a digital tool capable of taking over some of those aspects. Asset management technology has become a strategic investment area, and it is now a critical category of software for all asset-intensive companies.