Mobile asset management is a comprehensive solution and practice to support business processes. Thanks to continued mobile technology and software technology developments, businesses can now more efficiently manage their assets with the help of mobile devices. As a result, mobile asset management has become the backbone of business operations for the oil & gas industry, the transport industry, and the utility industry.
Before discussing mobile asset management in more depth, let’s discuss why businesses need an asset management solution.
Asset Management And its Significance
Any company, enterprise, or business that does not have a system to manage assets runs the serious risk of compromising business processes. Let’s look at some of the risks a company might encounter if they have a lax asset management system or are not supported by software or mobile applications.
To Err Is Human
Humans are prone to making errors. Thus, manually inputting data into spreadsheets is fraught with potential mistakes when compiling an asset or inventory list. Should an error occur during this process, businesses will not be able to track their investments effectively.
Prevent Theft of Valuable Assets
Unfortunately, asset theft continues to be a significant concern for businesses. Should an organization not implement an asset tracking system (which provides the real-time location of an asset), the risk of asset theft increases.
Asset theft will have downstream consequences, too. Most notably, asset theft can disrupt a company’s production process due to missing parts; businesses will need to spend unnecessary money to recover their stolen assets.
Inventory Mismanagement
A lousy asset management solution will consistently mismanage the inventory required for business operations. In addition, inventory mismanagement will result in an organization having either too much or too little stock for production. Both scenarios are harmful to a company’s bottom line.
Inventory mismanagement can be prevented with asset management systems as a business will have access to historical data and current material requirements, which assist companies with determining the amount of inventory needed for production.
Diminished Efficiency
An essential component of any asset management solution is monitoring asset performance over time and implementing planned/scheduled maintenance checks. Should an enterprise not be monitoring asset performance and equipment performance, the number of operational issues will increase. These operational issues will delay production, increase downtime, and ultimately hurt an enterprise’s bottom line.
Monitoring health is crucial to business operations to mitigate against decreasing equipment and asset performance. In addition, managers can create maintenance schedules to extend the lifespan of their assets and equipment by having real-time knowledge of asset performance.
What is Mobile Asset Management?
The proliferation of mobile devices among employees at businesses (and improvements in software technology) has enabled a new form of asset management. As the name suggests, mobile asset management is the comprehensive practice of managing company assets using mobile devices and downloadable software.
Mobile asset management does not entail that mobile devices have entirely replaced the asset management process. Instead, mobile asset management supports overall asset management using mobile devices, such as tablets or cell phones.
Mobile asset management is an example of centralized asset management. Essentially, managers and employees have easy access to widely shared information on the same platform. This asset management method differs substantially from earlier manual forms of asset management, where sharing knowledge and updating the status of a work order was slow and cumbersome.
With mobile asset management, both employees and managers can access and update information on assets wherever they are. Managers and employees share information through mobile apps downloaded on Android devices, iPhones, and iPads. Additionally, with these mobile apps downloaded, employees can access various tools utilized during field operations.
Mobile asset management is a convenient solution as a company will not need to purchase expensive hardware or software. Instead, employees will only need to download the selected app onto their mobile devices. The only cost to the company is paying a monthly subscription fee. Your company will have no direct maintenance either, as the software supporting the mobile application is hosted on the service providers’ servers. Additionally, your data is secure on their servers as the service providers will constantly provide software updates to improve security.
The benefits of mobile asset management are immense! Let’s discuss each in turn.
How Mobile Asset Management Benefits Business?
An accurate asset register with real-time data
Any asset management solution must start with a business registering the assets it owns. Next, companies place asset tags on each investment. These assets include the company’s tools used for maintenance work and their vehicles. Also, asset data must consist of the assets’ location, value, and expected life cycle.
With a mobile device, any employee that has downloaded the appropriate app can access this data. Managers and employees having visibility of their assets represent a significant improvement over the manual method, whereby sharing data was slow due to the lack of centralized asset data. Moreover, businesses can save costs by eliminating ghost assets with an up-to-date asset list. Additionally, as a company can track assets on the go, incidents of theft will be reduced, thereby saving even more costs!
The data you collect will be secure, too! For example, management can send reports on your asset list and inventory to a selected individuals’ email account. To do this, you can automatically send information to people with a valid email address.
Access and manage data during field operations
With your asset data recorded, asset tracking can now begin! Companies implement asset tracking in a few ways. First, tools, equipment, and vehicles are assigned asset tags that provide their location in real-time. Real-time monitoring is convenient for asset security and essential during field operations. Additionally, companies can also track and monitor physical asset usage in real-time. We will discuss the importance of this further below!
Mobile asset management allows employees to update work orders during field operators, done from their mobile device. As managers, operators, and technicians can quickly access the same information in real-time, they can resolve problems. Coordination between different departments will also improve!
When selecting a mobile app to support your asset management operations, be sure that they feature a customizable dashboard. For example, with customizable dashboards, both managers and employees have access to every dimension of a work order. Additionally, a customizable dashboard enables businesses to track asset performance and usage over time.
Customers benefit, too.
Customers benefit enormously from mobile asset management! With the support of software and a mobile app, employees and managers can share information about assets quickly, which can help customers respond promptly to complaints and emergency maintenance requests. This can be completed quicker with mobile devices, meaning customer satisfaction increases.
Easy access to maintenance schedules
With the use of a mobile device, managing maintenance schedules to extend an assets’ life span has never been easier! When technicians service an asset, they can access records of previous maintenance operations and schedule future asset and equipment services via the mobile app. Additionally, alerts for future asset service dates can be automated to ensure you never miss a scheduled maintenance task.
Managers and customers can also generate work orders from any mobile device. This feature is convenient for routine asset services and is essential for dispatching maintenance teams and organizing tools, vehicles, and equipment needed for emergency maintenance.
Increase productivity and save costs
Field operators benefit enormously with the aid of a mobile device. Asset tracking has never been simpler as asset information is available on employees’ mobile devices. Field operators will not have to visit asset locations thanks to mobile asset tracking.
As previously mentioned, businesses can save costs by using asset tracking to prevent theft. Additionally, since many processes are automated within a mobile asset management framework, employees can profitably spend their time.
Mobile Asset Management Process
To manage multiple assets, businesses must follow the steps below.
Collect and analyze data
The first step businesses must take to manage mobile assets is data analysis. This data will include vital asset information, including its location, cost, and what it does. This data must then be stored in a central location accessible to managers and employees. With mobile devices, employees can analyze this data wherever and whenever needed.
Monitor Data Through Mobile Asset Management Software/Applications
As your business needs to manage constantly on the go assets, your employees require a solution that enables this. Software and mobile applications (accessible via a mobile device) allow employees to upload data wherever they are; managers can also dispatch and update work orders to employees no matter where they are. Mobile devices enable accessible communication between field technicians, managers, and customers.
Manage And Track Assets
The usage of any asset must be monitored and tracked to maintain maximum efficiency; with mobile devices, employees can track asset performance wherever they are. Importantly, to maintain and extend any assets’ life span, managers must organize regular maintenance & service checks. With these maintenance checks, which can also be managed via a mobile device, companies can save costs in the long term through reduced downtime and fewer breakdowns.
How To Choose A Mobile Asset Management Software/Application?
Selecting mobile asset management software to support business processes can be daunting! An excellent way to start is to use a software comparer tool. You can use this tool to evaluate the ability of each software solution to help your organization.
The NonStop Group:
Should your company be interested in installing mobile asset management software, you should contact the NonStop Group to help you with this. Some business case studies emphasize why you should contact the NonStop Group today!
Companies could easily track and locate their assets when the NonStop Group helped clients in the oil & gas industry implement a mobile asset management solution. Because of the improvements introduced by the NonStop Group, downtime was reduced by 22%, and operational incidents were reduced by 76%. Should you want these and more, contact the Non-Stop Group as soon as possible!
