The life of your business is measured in its productivity and profitability. But certain things could adversely affect your business’s life as well. Some are common knowledge and can be easily solved. Others are unknown and require special attention, resources, and tools.
One of the most unsuspecting suckers that can suck at your business’s precious life is zombie and ghost assets. Before delving into these funny yet dangerous terms. It’s important to reiterate that your assets, when not properly managed, can cause your business to (quite literally) die.
Ghost And Zombie Assets
So, what are ghost and zombie assets? These terms are not something out of fiction, no matter how ludicrous they sound. Ghost and zombie assets are assets that are not well accounted for in a business’s ledger or stock sheet. Sounds trivial, right? It’s not. This is one of the most overlooked yet dangerous phenomena in businesses.
Both concepts represent different aspects of improper asset representation. Ghost assets are assets assumed to be real by the company but (in actuality) are not physically in the company’s possession. A good example is when a company writes down four communication devices in its stock sheet, but in reality, some or all of this equipment has either been lost, misplaced, or stolen.
Zombie assets, on the other hand, are a reverse of ghost assets, meaning the asset is present in the company but not recorded on the stock sheet – still equally dangerous.
Impact of Ghost and Zombie Assets on Your Business
Both concepts sound like trivial things, nothing to worry about, but, in the long run, an undocumented asset here and a missing asset there, and you have your business losing funds, value, and productivity.
It doesn’t just stop there. In the long run, inaccurate representation and documentation of assets (be it parts of the asset or the whole) can impact a company’s expenses. Especially in areas like insurance coverage, where the company in question pays inflated amounts in insurance for assets that are either not working or missing.
Other areas can include; causing delays and costing customer satisfaction due to last-minute knowledge of missing assets, not knowing the working condition of assets, increased tax liability, exposure to theft, and security concerns. The list can go on and on.
So how do you as a business mitigate or prevent these business life blood suckers from harming your business?
1. Track Your Assets
Sounds simple right? It can be, and at the same time, it’s not for many businesses, and this is because of the poor asset-tracking strategies they use. Strategies like spreadsheets, pen and paper, in-person reporting, and other manual methods are a sure way of breeding zombie and ghost assets in a business.
Thankfully, today, simplifying asset tracking is a thing of the past. Through efficient asset-tracking software, companies can digitally monitor their assets.
How does this stop ghost and zombie assets from plaguing your business? Easy! You can know where each asset is at every given time. Assets are tagged and tracked by this efficient and automated tracking software. You don’t have to fear assigning assets to employees or leasing them out. Wherever the asset is, on or off-site, it is tracked and monitored.
2. Acquire Efficient Asset Management
Efficient asset tracking is compulsorily paired with asset management if you want to scare the ghosts away and burn the zombies out. Both asset tracking and asset management are synonymous with each other. Some asset software companies, like Rayda, offer fully integrated asset management software with everything from tracking to monitoring and management.
Acquiring efficient asset management systems will ensure you don’t only keep track of your assets but control all aspects of every asset’s life cycle from a centralised system. This eliminates long operating processes and the number of people needed to manage the assets. It also ensures all assets are visible and data is accurate and up to date.
Also read 5 Importance of Asset Management for Workplace Productivity
3. Get Accurate Reports and Insights
One effective way to eliminate ghost and zombie assets is via accurate and detailed reports and insights. Aside from tracking and management, if whatever system you employ does not provide detailed data analytics and reports on all your assets it remains at risk.
With comprehensive data and insights, you can stay one step ahead by knowing where each asset is, who it is with, its working condition, when to schedule maintenance or repairs, and even asset leasing and re-sales.
4. Automate Your Operation Processes
When you use manual processes to manage and track your assets, you open doors to ghost and zombie assets. Your priority in eliminating them is to go automatic. This is achieved via automatic reminders. Messages, notifications, and seamless employee communication.
AI is accurate. AI is efficient and effective, and nothing chases the ghosts and zombies away than automating every aspect from acquisition to documentation, asset assignment, auditing, and expiration.
5. Perform Regular Audits with The Right Tools
Asset management systems can only do so much. If you as a business owner or executive do not properly utilise these resources and put them to efficient use, then you can (as well) put out the welcome mat for zombie and ghost assets to walk right in.
To ensure your business isn’t paying for or suffering the lack of any asset it should not, ensure you conduct regular assessments, checks, and verifications on the assets you have with the help of your asset management system. With this practice, you can efficiently identify and rid your business of ghost zombie assets.
Ghost and zombie assets are the plagues of many businesses today, but with the combination of the right systems and practices, you can be sure to chase those ghost assets away and burn those zombie assets out.
To ensure you’re always a step ahead of every inaccurate representation in your business asset documentation, get your business an asset management solution like Rayda. This software eliminates ghost and zombie assets and puts you in control of all asset operations. If your assets are no longer serving your business, you can put them on Rayda’s marketplace to sell or lease them for some cashback based on the value of your assets.
