Many of you have probably heard the term "asset management"

Before, but you may not have an idea of what it really is.

Asset management is a broad term. It can be defined as a

process that guides the gaining of assets, along with their use

and disposal in order to make the most of the assets and their

potential throughout the life of the assets. While doing this,

it also manages and maintains any costs and risks associated

with the assets. It is not something you can buy, but rather a

discipline you must follow in order to maintain your assets.

Asset Management can be used for a variety of things. Most use

asset management to keep track of their cash or "liquid

assets." Banking institutions are considered a form of asset

management (savings accounts, CD's, mutual funds, money market

accounts, etc.) along with investments. Another example of

assets: businesses often have a product to sell. These products

are considered assets. The right asset management system can be

utilized to make the product more readily available, easier to

produce, cheaper to ship to customers, etc.

Asset Management Resource:

Tracking and insuring the product is also a way of asset

managagemant. The product is an asset to the business and

essential for its survival and for financial stability. So,

maintaining and managing this product is of the up most

importance.

There is another type of asset that many people do not think of

when they think of the term "asset management." This asset has

to do with public and shared assets such as: the building and

maintaining of streets, highways, water treatment facilities,

sewage, electricity, natural gas, clean air, etc. All of these

are assets that everyone on this earth needs. Usually, your

city or local government uses asset management to maintain the

cost of these assets.

They also use it to produce some of these assets more

effectively and in a more cost efficient manner. Natural

resources such as: water, electricity, and natural gas are

managed so that they can be renewed constantly and thus

available inexpensively.

Asset Management Resource:

There are many different means of asset management. It often

depends on what type of asset is involved. There are companies

and software products available to assist in asset management.

Whatever method you choose, there are many similar things that

your asset manager system should entail:

1. Optimize asset use and manage all maintenance efforts

involved by

making assets as accurate, reliable, and efficient as possible.

2. Reducing the demand for new assets and thus save money by

using demand management techniques and maintaining current

assets.

3. Uses a form of asset tracking: knowing where the asset is at

all times, how much the asset is worth, and how much the asset

cost you to begin with. It should also incorporate this

throughout the entire life of the asset.

4. Always tries to achieve greater value for money through

evaluating the asset options: the cost of maintaining,

producing, the use of it, etc.

5. Always provides a report on the value of the assets, along

with any costs involved in maintaining the assets.

Hopefully you now have a better understanding of the many forms

of asset management. There are so many different things that can

be defined as assets, thus there are so many different means of

asset management. Now that you understand it a bit, you can

decide what your assets are and how you can maintain them

better in order for them to be more advantageous for you!