4 REASONS SMALL AND MEDIUM BUSINESSES SHOULD INVEST IN ASSET TRACKING
4 REASONS SMALL AND MEDIUM BUSINESSES SHOULD INVEST IN ASSET TRACKING
Every successful small and medium business keeps its eye on the bottom line. Your company's assets are a valuable and critical part of ongoing operations, no matter what business you're in. As your company grows and more assets are needed, it's not easy to keep track of them without a system designed for this task. One of the best methods for keeping track of inventory is asset-tracking.
An asset tracking system consists of four parts: desktop software, a smart phone with an app, a barcode reader and barcode labels. The right mobile app will allow the system to work at optimal levels for your company.
1. Accurate Inventory Management Keeps Down Company Costs
With the use of bar-code tracking, a company can know at a glance where a particular computer, phone, file or any other movable asset has been stationed. Every time it is moved, it can be scanned and relocated on a map.
Unfortunately, theft and loss are serious concerns these days even in small and medium businesses. Theft/loss of company assets would be greatly reduced if employees and customers are aware that every items has been tracked as to its last location. Furthermore, real-time reports of their locations can be generated at any time a theft or a loss has been suspected. Quickly noticing that something is missing will increase the chances of recovery.
These are just some of the things that can be tracked with this system:
- Furniture
- Computers
- Printers
- Phones
- Machinery
- Tools
- Rented or Borrowed Equipment
- Inventory
- Important Folders with Documents and Records
- Vehicles and Parts
- Project Time
- Development Progress
- Critical Employees, such as Security Guards and Maintenance Crews
Check with your business' insurance company. They may give a discount to companies that use this type of responsible asset tracking.
2. Knowing the Location of Key Personnel Can Save an Employee and Your Company
The whereabouts of security guards, quality control managers, and maintenance personnel can be critically important when something goes wrong in a company. Badges can be scanned when trouble-shooting personnel move from one location to another. If they are needed quickly, a glance at the map will show the location of the nearest employee.
Having just this one critical piece of information at your fingertips at the moment of an emergency can result in a faster response time and less harm to life and property.
3. If Your Company Deals With Sensitive Materials
Knowing the flow of materials may be critical to your business. If you deal with perishable or consumable items, such as food, this is particularly important. You'll want to know the time the items arrive, where they were stored and when they were used or shipped out. The task of keeping track of moving inventory can be difficult, and even more so if your company has more than one location or out-building storage.
If you deal with medical drugs, managing your inventory could be a life and death matter and it would be in your best interest to invest in asset tracking. Not only could you fulfill governmental requirements for reporting the drugs, you could monitor their movement from the time they are delivered to your facility to the time and location they are administered.
Capturing and storing this type of data with an asset tracking system may protect you from legal problems down the road.
4. Asset Tracking Improves Customer Service
If your company is involved in receiving, packing and shipping, then asset tracking will improve accuracy and customer's reviews of your company and products.
These uses above are only a sampling of the ways that asset tracking can benefit small and medium businesses. The versatility of this system is limited only by the imagination of those who have access to it. On many levels, it's a wise business move to invest in asset tracking.