Asset Management
As SMBs integrate technology systems more and more into the core functions of their businesses, they realize many advantages. There is one disadvantage, however, to the proliferation of technology systems throughout a business – asset tracking.

Asset tracking is not only a sound accounting practice, it is critical to business planning, accurate financial statements, and compliance. While not all SMBs have to deal with SOX, HIPAA, and other forms of federally enforced legislation, software compliance is ubiquitous to all firms.

Asset management is an issue for nearly every organization. Technology systems need to be monitored for their physical whereabouts, their hardware assets, and their software versions and approved applications. However, tracking down all of this information can be a real nightmare and drain on administrator’s productivity. How so?

Modern computing systems have taken on a level of complexity that makes asset tracking extremely time consuming. First, computer systems are made up of many components, some of which can be very expensive. These components, such as hard disks, memory modules, and mother-boards sometimes fail and have to be replaced. This creates a financial event that many organizations would like to track over time. Even if systems do not fail, it would be nearly impossible for administrators to deliver a complete picture of component-level assets without taking systems apart – which is not desirable. Second, with the rise of mobile-computing, such as notebooks, tracking down assets and getting access to them can be very challenging for administrators. Road warriors do not easily part with their notebooks. Third, with most users being on the internet now, non-approved software is often download and can lead to complications that administrators only discover after they access the machine. Fourth, few SMBs can afford enterprise-level software deployment systems that push approved applications to all systems at once. This can often lead to systems having different versions of the same applications. This makes it difficult to plan upgrade paths with financial accuracy. These issues make it very difficult for businesses to understand what they have, what they should buy, and how much it will cost.

Fortunately, SyAM Software’s Server Monitor Central and Desktop Monitor Central virtually eliminate the need for manual asset tracking. Our software agents gather asset information dynamically and report it to the central management console. Administrators can then run reports at both a summary level, which includes basic hardware and software information, and at a detailed level, which includes highly detailed information such as the serial numbers on disks, memory modules and other components. This information can be output to CSV, HTML, or XML for inclusion in reports.

Our dynamic asset management features can save hundreds of hours of manual labor annually for administrators. Best of all, it can help organizations create accurate financial statements and business plans that truly reflect the firm’s needs.