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Its amazing to consider just how much our dependence on IT has increased since a decade ago.You can’t find a single department in an organization these days that doesn’t depend on computers to work. In fact, computer usage has been at the centre of the success of many businesses and organizations, large and small.

Along with this symbiotic relationship with computing comes a strong dependence on the IT infrastructure supporting it. By this I mean computers, peripherals, screens, software and specialised electronic equipment. The value of this runs into trillions of dollars in the US alone.

But IT assets are notoriously tricky to keep track of and manage, particularly in large, sprawling organisations. If you lack the proper control and strategic overview on when and how to replace and renew outdated equipment it often has rather chaotic ramifications. Information on exactly what IT equipment and software is being used is unavailable. Noone has an handle on software usage and whether that software is properly licensed. The guys at the IT support line can’t deal with many of their queries efficiently due to lack of info on the specs of the caller’s machine. Upgrading equoment or moving to different sofware packages can descend into a slow, inefficient chaos.Does this have a familiar ring to it? Well it’s surprisingly common in today’s organizations. Futhermore the expense associated with these issues can take a significant chunk out of your annual profits. Especially when you factor in the accounting side of things, where knowing exactly what IT assets you have and their depreciation value can mean significant tax savings.

The bottom line is that without managing your IT assets you could be haemorrhaging unknonwn amounts of cash through related costs. The key to resolving this is fixed asset management. As far as managing IT assets is concerned, there’s really two areas to be aware of

Management of Physical Assets. Essentially this is all about keeping a record of the IT equipment, hardware and software existing in the company or organization. That includes what you have, where it is, and how it is being used. A robust system of asset tracking provides you with invaluable information on which you can act and introduce greater levels of efficiency.

Financial Asset Management. This is where a business can plug some serious leaks in costs.  Once you know exactly what equipment your organization is using, you can then calculate the level of capital depreciation. This information is music to your accounting deparment’s ears, as cutting costs on fixed assets can sometimes be the difference between profit and loss in a financial year.

A lot of businesses are aware of these issues relating to their IT equipment. The problem lies with inefficient techniques in trying to solve them. The most common way of recording assets has been using a basic spreadsheet – yet these become a nightmare to keep track of and update as they grow bigger. However there are now highly sophisticated asset management software solutions on the market that are designed to tackle all aspects of asset tracking, accounting and management. It might be time for your business to think about investing in fixed asset management – it could be key to survival in the recession.