If you’re struggling to keep your business's physical assets safe and secure you’re not alone. In 2020,  $7.4 billion was lost to vehicle theft in the United States, and businesses aren’t immune to these risks.  Lost, stolen, and broken assets can bring your operations to a screeching halt and cost your business millions in lost revenue. 

The key to keeping your physical assets safe and secure is a holistic approach to asset tracking, management, and protection. With the right combination of solutions, you can avoid costly losses and even lower insurance costs. 

A Step-by-Step Guide to Physical Asset Tracking and Management 

Follow this simple,  4-step process to learn how you can best protect your business’s physical assets and use them to run your business effectively.

Step 1: Assess the Risks

Step 2: Train your Employees

Step 3: Use a GPS Asset Tracking System 

Step 4: Install Security Alarms and Cameras

Step  1: Assess the Risks

Start by deciding on the goals of your physical asset tracking and management. What are you planning to accomplish? Take a look at the risks your business is  most likely to face. What are you most concerned about?

Typically, these business concerns fall into these categories:

• Theft: loss of valuable assets, which may be removed from your company without your consent.
• Misuse: Are your company assets being used incorrectly? Is someone inside the company using them for personal purposes or ignoring the restrictions put in place by the business?
• Efficiency: Are your business’s physical assets being used too much or too little by your employees? Find out how your business assets can be better placed and used to enhance revenue generation.

When you clearly lay out your asset management goals, you can ensure that you have the right tools to accomplish those goals and protect your business. 

Take the time to think through the aspects of asset management and protection that are most critical to your business. Your goals may vary depending on your industry and what type of assets you need to protect. 

For example, if you have a large fleet of vehicles, you may be highly concerned with misuse, while if you have expensive equipment that your employees have to use on different sites on a regular basis, you may worry about theft or loss of those essential assets.

Step 2: Train Your Employees

Once you have laid out your asset management goals, ensure managers and key employees are aware of relevant risk factors and trained on how to use your asset tracking system to its full advantage. Include key strategies you want them to use when optimizing and protecting your business’s assets. 

Step 3: Use a GPS Asset Tracking System

GPS asset tracking systems can offer a lot of advantages, especially if you find yourself managing a large number of assets. 

First, you'll get insight into both historical and real-time locations about your assets. What equipment is currently being used? Where is it being used, and for how long? Do you have equipment that rarely leaves the warehouse, or that isn't being utilized effectively? 

With GPS asset tracking systems, you can have access to all these key pieces of information at your fingertips. Often, physical asset tracking and management over time can provide you with more information about the assets that are most vital for your business, including when you may need to update them.

Next, your asset tracking systems will send out security alerts if, for any reason, your assets aren't where they're supposed to be. If your assets go missing or are stolen, you'll receive an automatic update. As a result, you'll be able to easily track missing assets in real-time and alert authorities quickly.

Finally, GPS tracking systems can provide you with critical insights into where your assets are when you need them. Your employees might forget to sign assets in and out. Your asset tracking system, however, will always know where they are. 

Step 4: Install Security Alarms and Cameras

In addition to GPS asset tracking, you may want to install cameras to gain real-time visibility into your property and assets. Specifically, you can see where your assets are and who is using them.

Cameras provide vital evidence if someone does successfully enter your property and leave with one of your assets. Place your cameras so that they cover key locations throughout your business such as doors, windows, and around your assets. Make sure to keep further backups of vital recordings so that you can refer back to instances of misuse, theft or operational inefficiencies you may want to correct. . 

Are You Ready to Improve Your Asset Tracking, Management, and Protection?

Effective physical asset tracking and management are critical to keeping your business operations moving smoothly. Without an effective physical asset tracking system in place, you may find yourself losing time and money and struggling to keep up with where your assets are. Not only that, you may open the door to theft or misuse. 

For small businesses, using Spytec GPS asset tracking can help you keep better track of where your assets are and who has used them. Request a demo today to learn more about our physical asset tracking solutions and how they can help your business.