Companies must have the right tools to run a successful construction business. To operate, construction companies will own hundreds if not hundreds of thousands of tools that are vital to complete a job. With assets such as heavy equipment or machinery, technology equipment, all the way down to small handheld tools—spread around several locations—companies need to be able to track and manage every item they own. By adding one more device to a toolbelt, a digital asset tracking and management technology, construction companies can gain real-time and deep insight into the complete picture of their business operations by integrating innovative asset tracking and management technology into everyday systems and processes. Businesses are given new insights into how their tools and assets are being utilized and how those assets can be managed to maximize their return.

Why Adding Asset Management to Day-To-Day Operations is Crucial

Tools may be forgotten on a jobsite and larger machinery may need preventative maintenance or complete repairs. When a company's assets need to be managed, who is aware of the correct next steps in getting those tools back in the right hands? What systems are in place to ensure that assets are tracked and visible for a company that focuses on completing the job at the highest standard at the most efficient pace?

The physical tools and tracking of these assets are vital to the construction industry. More often than not, construction companies spend more manual time dealing with asset management—physical and digital—than realized. This means the control of every last asset is not given the priority it should.

A vast majority of companies across the globe in all industries are dealing with old, outdated databases like a simple Excel sheet that is just insufficient for properly tracking assets. This is often attributed to a hesitancy to change and remain in the status quo—or just not understanding the importance and best practices in keeping track of what may seem like a minor detail when it is not just a little detail.

As we push further into the digital age, there is no excuse for not capitalizing on technology that manages every last asset a contractor has. Unfortunately, most businesses aren't treating asset management as their own asset. Even the best-managed companies question inefficiencies and sunk costs in day-to-day operations due to inadequate asset management capabilities.

Flexibility Enables Working Smarter, Not Harder

Reliable and successful asset management programs are powerful and flexible cloud-based platforms designed to help the world work smarter. These programs give users a powerfully simple way to track the entire life cycle from acquisition to retirement out of the field in the warehouse. By integrating these technologies and software, users can configure the technologies to work the way a company needs.

By integrating flexible technology into everyday workflow, companies can shape it to fit specific asset management needs. Each company is unique, and so are its assets. Asset management software can track anything and is highly configurable to how you currently manage your equipment. It's proven that better asset tracking leads to better business performance—keeping assets in excellent condition and knowing where they should be—and prevents losses and damage.

Benefiting from the Big Picture

Any company has the whole business landscape at its fingertips by integrating asset tracking software. Users will notice the following benefits.

• Staying on track: Schedule maintenance for equipment and accelerate replacement and repair workflows.
• Tracking tools: Detailed records and custom fields tell contractors what they need to know about tools and equipment.
• Asset kitting: Bundle equipment together to rapidly check it out to crews for each job.
• Tracking maintenance: Extend the life of equipment and keep it under warranty with scheduled maintenance notifications.
• Custom reports: Detailed asset history and job costing reports to stay on top of reorders and avoid duplicate purchases.
• Custom user roles: Provide an uncluttered view of what's essential and limit access based on responsibilities.
• Manage assets from anywhere: Add mobile apps to the Android or iOS devices already in use every day.
• Workflows supported: Enhance workflows with custom actions for faster and easier asset updates and management.
• Consolidate asset history: Full audit trails provide enhanced accountability and forecasting for every asset.
• Enable role-based access: Get enhanced data security and simple onboarding for every job function in the organization.
• Show record-level attachments: Get faster asset identification, more access to vital asset data, and better employee self-service.

Integrating technologies and being able to see the whole picture, down to every tiny detail, will pay in saved time. In turn, giving enhanced accountability with real-time updates directly to teams in the field to know what they have, where it's supposed to be, how it's being used and whether it made it back.