Hardcat ROI – Solutions Deliver Value

Hardcat ROI – Throughout The Full Life Cycle Of Assets

Once seen as a finance function, asset management has evolved to become a critical part of how companies operate. The changing business environment has meant that companies no longer work out of one location and assets are scattered. With an ever-changing workforce of contractors and employees, businesses are under obligation to ensure they provide safe equipment for its employees and customers.

Tracking simple asset information such as receipts and serial numbers are no longer sufficient when asked to produce information with regard to an asset’s service history, in the event of an insurance or workplace claim.

Lawyers want evidence of when the asset was last serviced, by whom, and evidence of their certification standards. Insurance assessors want evidence of the asset’s last operating location, its purchase history and written down value, as well as who was in charge of the equipment if it was involved in an incident.

Companies also have limited resources – financial, labour and time. An effective asset management system gives consideration to these constraints, and ROI is often achieved in more than one of these areas.

Hardcat help you manage any type of asset whether fixed assets, tools and equipment or documents. Consider the following of how Hardcat software solutions reduce costs, improves productivity, enables better asset utilisation and extends the lifespan of operational assets, thereby creating a considerable return on software investment.

Asset tracking with RFID and Barcodes

Fast and accurate asset tagging and asset tracking technologies such as fixed reader asset tracking using RFID, automatically tracking the movement of your assets and updating your system. Or cost effective barcodes, which are also perfect for asset audits using your smartphone.

When it comes to asset management, certainty depends on a single source of truth. The reliability of your data lives or dies on the quality and integrity of your asset register. It also houses all the fundamental activity of every asset in your business. That’s why we centralise this critical asset information to help you make informed decisions and to take complete control of your assets.

Manage regulatory compliance, report efficiently and trust the data

If assets are not maintained and tracked through their entire life cycle with information such as asset value, condition, utilisation and location, data can rapidly degrade or be lost entirely. An asset management system prerequisite is the recording of asset audit trails, that can protect your business from liability during legal battles, assist in monitoring data for security breaches, ensure proper protocols are followed and demonstrate compliance.

When companies are undergoing internal audits to validate the accuracy of their financial statements, managing consolidation, securing a bank loan, or under a taxation or state audit, keeping a comprehensive audit trail is critical to a successful outcome.

Insurance, depreciation and other financials

An accurate asset register can ensure you are only paying insurance premiums on assets that you physcially have, and can present evidence of where your true risk profile sits. Our customers report premium savings of up to 30 per cent by having accurate asset data. Hardcat software can also track all financial reporting on assets to ensure that you are getting full value from depreciation allowances.

Prevention of expensive unpredicted maintenance

Further savings are also realised in the reduction in reactive maintenance, through better preventative asset management. Reactive maintenance associated with equipment breakdown is conservatively estimated to be four times the total cost of preventive maintenance.

Tracking all repairs and maintenance, while proactively generating work orders (that can be accessed via a mobile device such as a smartphone) keeps assets in prime condition, improves utilisation and extends the lifespan of critical equipment.

This, in turn, reduces the risks of asset failure having an impact on business continuity and accelerates recovery in disaster management. Hardcat software users can forecast maintenance, produce work orders for engineers, meet compliance obligations and track incremental maintenance costs for true and accurate reporting.

Integration of business tools and processes

Integrating Hardcat’s stock/inventory, maintenance, service desk/help desk, purchasing and depreciation modules, allows organisations to keep the right level of parts and inventory for likely maintenance requirements and reduce the productivity losses of equipment failure.

We also recognise that an integrated solution is often comprised of lots of different systems and we are dedicated to ensuring that your user experience is seamless, regardless of the systems involved.

Small business solutions

SME and SMB owners have too much to do in too little time. Not surprisingly, a majority of them (72 per cent) feel overwhelmed by their roles and responsibilities. Managers face daily pressures to get “everything done” and while asset tracking may be way down the list it’s actually one way to support growth, save time, and more importantly, save money.

Asset tracking helps you when audits roll around, when assets go missing, or when you need to take account of your business. In fact, you’re probably familiar with many good options already. Often, small business leaders just need to reframe how they think about asset tracking and management strategies.

Small business asset tracking software is for businesses that don’t want to track thousands of assets but require insights into their assets to sustain them longer and get the most value from them. And at least once a year, an asset count or asset audit to check existing assets, tools and equipment are still locatable and in working order. Better asset control reduces the impact on productivity arising out of losses, missed repairs and maintenance events.

Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) solutions

EAM software is used to manage the maintenance of physical assets, their life cycle, scheduling and warranty management. An EAM system provides the means to have less unplanned downtime and extended asset longevity, which has clear business benefits.

In the past few years, available solutions for asset management have evolved significantly. Today cloud hosting, standardised web APIs, conducting maintenance and audits via phones and tablets are common features of modern asset management solutions.

As these technologies become standard, an increasing number of private sector businesses and government agencies are switching to sophisticated automated asset management solutions, and these organisations are eliminating inefficiencies.

Try to control assets using tools like spreadsheets and in-house-designed databases or simple asset tracking software and experience first-hand that going basic on asset management leads to lost assets, productivity downtime, and employee dissatisfaction.

Evaluating asset management software

When assessing the numerous asset management software solutions on the market today, firstly define and prioritise your specific asset management requirements. Start by analysing your current processing to establish requirements and if unsure get help as this is the most crucial part of the process.

Then evaluate how each software product measures against your requirements. And even though performing a test drive (with your own data) or pilot test (onsite) will be time-consuming, it will allow you to try out various features and functionality before you buy.

Companies concerned about data security

Companies concerned about security have been reluctant to create a single database, worried that the information might be accessed by the wrong level of employee. However, technology advances have ensured that effective asset management systems have security measures such as domain control, user rights and interoperability built-in.

What is Domain Control?

While traditional security determines what a user can do to data (read, amend, delete, etc.) domain control is a special mode of data partitioning which mandates the scope of data visible to a user. With domain control, administrators can define ‘domains’ of data to restrict or permit user access to information.

Similarly, domains can be constructed around cost centres or organisational units to restrict access to equipment relevant to a department.

Domain control is a powerful tool to help maintain the accuracy and validity of data while arming people with the information they need to get the job done to deliver value.

Measuring the ROI of your asset management system

Hardcat solutions deliver Return On Investment (ROI) benefits that not only generate immediate bottom-line advantage, but facilitate better processes and governance that provide payback throughout the full life cycle of assets.

Any organisation could easily achieve savings of 22 per cent if reactive maintenance is reduced by just 30 per cent.

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