Asset Management Case Studies

Hardcat Chosen as ‘Best Fit’

Organisation:	1st National Bank of Arizona
Industry:	Banking
Location:	Arizona, USA

1st National Bank of Arizona

The 1st National Bank of Arizona was a privately held institution operating as a holding company for six different financial entities. The 1st National Bank of Arizona was acquired by Mutual of Omaha bank in 2008, which operates 44 locations in Nebraska, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, California, Texas and Iowa with assets totaling approximately $4 billion.

The Issue

The 1st National Bank of Arizona had accumulated a wide variety of assets over the years, none of which were being managed from a control point of view. Not only did the 1st National Bank of Arizona need asset control for business and management reporting, they were subject to a number of statutory regulations that they were required to comply with.

As with many privately held businesses, no one had really taken control of the growing number of assets - those in charge were more concerned with dealing with the business side of the organisation, leaving the actual day-to-day management of assets somewhat neglected.

The Solution

When the lack of asset control became apparent, the 1st National Bank of Arizona investigated solutions to best fit their asset tracking requirements. As Cathy Darlington, VP, Inventory Control Coordinator, said - Hardcat offered the "best fit for our needs" and was the "most user friendly and within our price range".

The 1st National Bank of Arizona invested in the Hardcat Barcode and Purchasing modules, including custom-designed purchase order documentation, along with 10 PDA's to provide the data capture and audit capability around the entire organisation.

The 1st National Bank of Arizona also established a purchasing department and whilst the majority of their purchases do not need purchase orders, those that do all went through Hardcat.

The Benefits

The asset register was used successfully by the 1st National Bank of Arizona, and in particular the reporting functions are used on a daily basis by the asset control team.

The major benefit that the bank experienced was the ability to manage assets in one core application, with information disseminated to other departments to help them with their own purchasing decisions.

In addition, the ability to report on assets by location and department at the touch of a button overcame the need to perform frequent manual audits. Indeed, the asset control team could even send out their PDA's to various locations when an audit or data capture is required, leading to inevitable cost benefits and compliance with regulatory control.

The Hardcat solution allowed 1st National Bank of Arizona to consolidate all fixed asset data into a single database. It presented the bank with user-friendly reporting capabilities and PDA-based asset tracking capability for efficiency and accuracy in fixed asset management practices.