The growing importance of enterprise asset management in the cloud era

Traditionally, IT asset management (ITAM) has been perceived as a reactive and maintenance-focused approach to manage IT assets within an organization. In the recent past, the lines that differentiated IT from business are blurring, and this change is also reflected in how asset management is viewed in the organization. Enterprise asset management (EAM) focuses on managing and optimizing physical and virtual enterprise assets, and can be summarized as the set of processes, practices, and platforms to manage the lifecycle of all enterprise assets.

Cloud-powered EAM has accelerated discovery, management, and adoption of enterprise assets and associated practices uniquely for each industry segment. In a manufacturing company, it provides the tools to streamline maintenance processes, extend lifespan, lower downtime, hence maximizing the value of high dollar assets. In the healthcare industry, cloud-based EAM can enable proactive maintenance scheduling and reduce unplanned downtime, while ensuring equipment availability for critical procedures. Additionally, EAM can facilitate compliance with regulatory standards through accurate documentation of asset maintenance and calibration records.

Benefits of cloud-based EAM

Cost-effectiveness
Centralized asset management optimizes costs by maximizing the utilization of software licenses, enterprise assets, applications, and hardware, eliminating wastage of unused resources. Bulk procurement of software licenses often leads to over-provisioning, and managing multiple remote work locations adds further complexity. Effectively managing assets can lead to substantial cost savings, while poor management can result in revenue leakage.

Accessibility
Cloud-based EAM is a game-changer in asset management, enabling secure access to software and data from remote sites. This real-time accessibility fosters seamless collaboration, reporting, and efficient asset management. Particularly advantageous for geographically dispersed enterprises, cloud-based EAM consolidates multiple locations into a single platform, ensuring maximum accessibility and streamlined operations.

Data privacy, compliance, and regulatory adherence
Data privacy has become a paramount concern for CxOs in today’s digital landscape. Cloud-based EAM providers place a strong emphasis on data security, employing rigorous security measures and reliable data backup strategies to protect asset-related information. For example, when companies engage in software contracts with solution partners, any inadequate software management can lead to noncompliance problems, resulting in avoidable costs as organizations may unknowingly pay for additional/unused instances. By adopting cloud-based EAM solutions, businesses can effectively address these challenges, safeguard data privacy, ensure compliance, and optimize costs.

Scalability
Cloud based EAM solutions are typically backed by large enterprise technologies, necessary capacities are already baked in to scale up capabilities almost instantly. As an enterprise expands, a scalable enterprise asset management system can help add more assets, asset types, and integrate sophisticated machines into its operations, managing increased data size and complexities.

Enhanced asset performance, seamless updates, and maintenance
Cloud-based EAM systems often receive automatic updates and maintenance from the provider, reducing the burden on the organization’s IT staff. These systems are monitored for threat and vulnerabilities and any potential issue is proactively addressed before they become critical problems. Coupled with predictive analysis, artificial intelligence, pattern recognition they are now much more predictive and productive.

Best practices for cloud-based EAM

• Identify what is to be achieved from an EAM project and clearly define the scope of EAM, i.e., only IT assets, software assets, or enterprise assets need to be defined.
• List short-term and long-term objectives, such as audit compliance or asset visibility.
• Establish a well-defined and integrated process framework for adequate controls and governance.
• Define data models, reference architecture, and asset nomenclature to manage end-to-end lifecycle of assets.
• Ensure consistent processes are institutionalized across all business departments to take advantage of best practices aligned frameworks.
• Invest in enterprise assets’ discovery and management platforms to drive automation.
• Plan for platforms that can manage a variety of enterprise assets and provide scalability.
• Build a realistic roadmap as maturing EAM programs take time. A clearly defined roadmap with milestones is important for a successful cloud-based EAM program.

In conclusion, cloud-based enterprise asset management (EAM) has revolutionized the way organizations manage and maintain their assets. By harnessing the power of the cloud, businesses can enjoy the benefits of enhanced asset performance, streamlined maintenance workflows, and real-time visibility. A cloud-based EAM enables organizations to optimize asset utilization, minimize downtime, and effectively plan maintenance activities. As businesses continue to evolve in the digital era, embracing cloud-based EAM becomes essential for staying competitive and maximizing the value of their assets.