IT Asset Management: Saving thousands of work hours yearly in compliance and audit costs

How an integrated and technology-enabled IT Asset Management Solution streamlined and eliminated thousands of hours of work per year in compliance and audit costs

Overview

A large enterprise company was spending thousands of hours on daily, weekly, and monthly inventory checks and audit compliance. Lost or misplaced IT equipment, sometimes with sensitive information, was a frequent issue. Finding necessary assets on a timely basis was also tough; testing equipment was frequently hoarded by employees, creating an unnecessary shortage of assets.

To combat this, frequent physical checks of IT assets on each floor, and in each server room, were conducted. This process was inefficient, inaccurate, and created discrepancies between reported and physical inventory. Manual inventory was taken yearly on fixed assets, semi-annually on mobile assets, and weekly on assets in storage and staging areas, including testing labs, remote access labs, A/V rooms, server rooms, stock rooms, and all offices. The yearly cost of internal inventory exceeded $300,000. Maintaining this inventory on spreadsheets (requiring manual updates) was difficult, riddled with errors, and put the company at risk from an audit/compliance standpoint.

Solution
The goal of the project was to monitor and maintain inventory, protect data, and reduce theft and loss. Using its Global Asset Management for Enterprise (G.A.M.E.) platform, TrackX used passive RFID tags on each asset within the enterprise, a network of RFID readers and antennas throughout the facility, and handheld readers for targeted location identification.

TrackX collaborated with the company to set up advanced workflows and exception alert notifications to gain visibility into processes and asset movements. Proactive notification of IT asset movement reduced the risk of lost assets and sensitive information. Real-time asset monitoring at exits, along with security alarms and alerts for unauthorized asset moves, reduced theft. A full asset history, including movements and ownership, was also maintained and compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley and other audit requirements was achieved with a simple click.

With the G.A.M.E. platform, TrackX transformed the company’s business processes by reducing theft and loss, decreasing labor costs, and increasing efficiency.

Impact

A major indicator of success is shown by the reduction of labor costs associated with on-demand and real-time inventory visibility. The chart below outlines the labor time associated with inventory checks prior to the implementation and post implementation.

Labor Time

Not only were resources freed up, but costs directly related to compliance were decreased significantly.  Assets previously “lost” were now automatically found as employee association was embedded into the asset movement and unauthorized movements triggered automatic alert notifications.

Conclusion

An enterprise wide, cloud-based asset management solution using data capture technology with advanced workflow processing and alert notification reduced inventory costs by over 75% and provided invaluable savings with the reduction of lost assets and sensitive data. The company was also able to satisfy all of the auditing requirements pertaining to Sarbanes-Oxley.

Written by Aaron Lamkin, Director, Sales & Marketing, TrackX

Learn more about G.A.M.E.

Please fill out this form to learn more and help us better assess how our Global Asset Management for Enterprise platform can transform your organization.