As an asset management solution provider, we’ve seen our fair share of poor asset management. Effective asset management is crucial for controlling costs, maximising efficiency, and maintaining security. Yet, many organisations unknowingly fall into common pitfalls that lead to wasted resources, lost assets, and unnecessary risks.
Whether you're managing IT equipment, office resources, or company vehicles, avoiding these 7 common asset mistakes can save you time, money, and stress.
Let’s dive in.
Mistake #1 - Not being proactive with dates warranty expirations and EOL dates
Most businesses store warranty and end-of-life (EOL) dates for their assets. But sadly, many are still being reactive to these dates. They either scramble at the last minute to implement a replacement plan or fail to notice altogether, leading to costly out-of-warranty repairs. At worst, not noticing an EOL date has passed can pose serious security or safety risks.
How to avoid
The vast majority of asset management solutions can proactively alert you to upcoming dates, whether that is for warranties or EOL dates. This then gives you enough notice to decide what to do. Maybe you upgrade your asset and extend its life. Or maybe you replace well within time.
If you are using a more DIY solution like a spreadsheet or a list tool, ensure you take time once a month to inspect the list and sort by warranty date.
Mistake #2 - Ignoring the history of assets
Understanding an asset’s history is critical to making informed decisions about what to do with an asset and spot patterns that can help you with your overall strategy. In our opinion this is the biggest issue with tracking assets in spreadsheets as viewing the history is very difficult and time consuming using general version control of the spreadsheet.
For example if you are deciding to extend an asset’s lifetime, having a history of all its maintenance can be really helpful for that decision.
It can also be helpful for purchasing decisions. If you can understand the history of your assets en masse you can make better choices. Perhaps you see a certain brand or model of a particular asset type is used far less frequently than others, and therefore, it might make sense to replace old stock with ones of the popular model instead.
How to avoid
Ensure you pay attention to your assets' histories if you have an asset management solution that can surface it. We also recommend integrating your asset database with your service management practices. So each request, incident, and change is logged against each asset along with any general updates such as owner or location. That way you build a comprehensive history and aren’t making choices blind.
Mistake #3 - Underutilising assets because data is not available
Every business wants to maximise the value of its assets, but without the right data, many remain underutilised. If you’ve spent good money on laptops or AV equipment, you want to ensure that it’s being used and not sitting in a cupboard somewhere. You don’t want to overspend on superfluous stock that eats into your precious budget.
But the only way to know if assets are being used is to ensure you can track and then report on usage. Not every business has this capability which often leads them to spending more.
How to avoid
Invest in an asset management solution that tracks asset history, allowing you to measure usage and identify inefficiencies. So you can view how long assets spend in a deployed or owned state vs not. And then quickly identify assets that spend too long unused and can further investigate why that is. Hopefully you can rectify the situation or ensure not to purchase more in the future.
Mistake #4 - Not performing regular asset audits
We agree, this one is a pain. Very few people enjoy asset audits. However, without them, it’s easy to overlook lost or stolen assets, creating serious security risks–especially for IT assets. You might also be spending too much on asset inventory because a set of assets hasn't made it into your asset database.
How to avoid
Implement a regular auditing process to check that all your logged assets are present and correct and check for any unaccounted assets. We recommend that you do this twice a year, but once at the very minimum.
Mistake #5 - Not paying attention to asset depreciation
Calculating depreciation is important for individual teams and businesses alike. For teams it helps them make better decisions when it comes to replacing or maintaining certain assets. For businesses, asset depreciation helps with financial reporting and often has tax implications in many regions.
How to avoid
Ensure you are calculating depreciation for your high-value assets with a lifetime of over one year. There are standard formulas for calculating asset depreciation. This can be done manually, with an increased risk of errors, or using a dedicated asset management solution with in-built calculations.
Mistake #6 - Not having an asset disposal process
Correctly disposing of your assets is important for many reasons. Firstly, when it comes to assets like laptops and servers, improper disposal can result in big data breaches which expose the business to fines and loss of reputation. For other assets, there can be environmental reasons to have a proper disposal strategy to ensure the organisation meets local laws or environmental pledges.
How to avoid
First, ensure mistake #1 is addressed and that you have a way of being alerted when the EOL of your assets are coming up. That helps you implement a proper plan to dispose of your assets. Establish clear guidelines for disposing of different asset types, taking security and environmental risks into account.
Mistake #7 - Using spreadsheets
By now, most organisations recognise that spreadsheets are not ideal for tracking assets.But we admit, they are very easy and convenient. That is, until they become too large, outdated, or limited to remain practical.
We have plenty more to say on the subject so we won’t repeat ourselves here.
How to avoid
Use a dedicated asset management solution that has built-in capabilities to solve the issues in this list and many more. They don’t have to cost a fortune and if they help you avoid a few out of warranty repairs or save you a fine, they easily pay for themselves.
Summary
Hopefully, this blog has given you an idea of how you can improve your asset management, whether you are managing IT assets, robots, manufacturing equipment or any other fixed asset. Or perhaps you are already doing everything, in which case great stuff! Asset management can be tedious and difficult without the right solution and processes in place.
If you take only one thing away from this blog, ensure you are using a dedicated database to track your assets, whether that is Starhive or another solution.
