A Guide to Asset Management Compliance

Any organisation that is subject to rules, regulations and policy standards – whether internally or externally – must be aware of and comply with them. The situation is no different with regard to how the given organisation manages its assets.    

What is asset management compliance?

If asset management can be understood to be the process of keeping and maintaining assets in optimal condition throughout the course of the assets lifecycle, asset management compliance can be defined as the management of assets in line with the required standards of the given business sector.

Governments and regulatory bodies set out laws and regulations that businesses in a particular industry are expected to follow. This is in addition to any policies the organisation may introduce for its own internal operations.

There are various potential consequences of an organisation failing to adhere to responsible asset management compliance.

There can be financial consequences, for instance, as a result of fines handed down if wrongdoing is discovered, such as during an asset audit undertaken by an external entity. Moreover, poor compliance efforts with regard to asset management may give rise to safety and security concerns that could cause existing employees to leave the organisation.

Then, there is the matter of the organisation’s reputation. If it becomes publicly known that a government or regulatory body has intervened in a business due to poor asset management compliance, the business’s brand image could be greatly harmed, with negative implications for both staff and customer retention.

What are the various types of compliance?

There are two broad categories of asset management compliance:

Internal compliance

When an organisation designs, sets and adheres to its own rules and regulations for the responsible management of its assets, this can be considered to be internal compliance.

It is in the interests of businesses to introduce effective means of internal asset management compliance, to ensure employees suitably track and maintain the company’s assets in the best possible condition. This, in turn, helps ensure the utmost quality of the organisation’s product or service.

An example of internal asset management compliance may be all departments within a company being required to maintain all relevant papers and documents, to help prevent any issues arising during an audit.

External compliance

External compliance is sometimes referred to as regulatory compliance. It relates to the rules and policies that governments and other external authorities devise and set for not just one organisation, but all organisations in a particular business sector.

The aim of external asset management compliance is to ensure the organisation in question is operating in accordance with the rules and protocol required of firms in their industry.

This is an important procedure for various reasons. These include making sure the right measures are in place for employee safety, as well as ensuring the organisation has a formal system in place for asset management, encompassing the relevant documentation.

What are the challenges faced with asset management compliance?

It is far from straightforward for a business to ensure it is practising the highest standard of asset management compliance. Indeed, it is necessary for the organisation to set and comply with strict policies, while continually monitoring its performance.

What, then, are some of the challenges your organisation is likely to face with its asset management compliance efforts?

1. Keeping up to date. It isn’t always easy for a business to keep itself aware about the latest policies, rules and regulations relevant to its industry. Unfortunately, not doing so runs the risk of the organisation inadvertently violating rules and being hit with associated fines and penalties.
2. Meeting compliance standards. Is your organisation still satisfying the current quality standards? As new market trends emerge, it’s easy for many businesses to allow their standards of compliance to drift. Constant re-evaluation of this aspect of your company’s operations will therefore be required.
3. Data security. With recent years having seen cybersecurity hit the headlines due to a series of breaches affecting high-profile names, it’s clear that no organisation can be complacent about its data security practices. It’s practically a given that any major organisation will be routinely required to process and safeguard sensitive data, including that of clients and customers. Unsurprisingly, then, this is an aspect of your businesses operations that is likely to attract plenty of interest from relevant regulatory bodies.
4. Inconsistency of processes. If your business doesn’t have consistent baseline processes in place, it will be a lot more difficult for you to determine the degree of improvement in these areas over time – or whether certain processes may have deteriorated. This is something that can consume significant amounts of time and money for larger businesses, so it’s best to introduce those consistent processes at an early stage of your organisation’s growth. 

Using asset management compliance software

With all of these regulatory and compliance challenges to account for, you are likely to appreciate having systems in place for your business that will help take the stress out of asset management compliance. We can provide this here at Assets & Compliance Managed Services UK, in the form of our highly rated Vision software.

Any good asset management software package will be instrumental in minimising your organisation’s day-to-day compliance headaches. It will achieve this by boosting the efficiency of your operations, tracking your assets, and providing information to guide better decision-making. It can also help streamline any laborious processes giving you savings in time, resources and, of course, ongoing costs.

The Asset Management Platform of our Vision software accomplishes precisely this. It allows you to keep track of such matters as your assets’ location, status and value, with a system for the tagging and logging of every item. It even gives you the ability to upload and store documentation, certificates, guides, images, drawings and plans as well as video footage in relation to each and every one of your listed assets.

You can also use this platform within Vision to assign expiry dates to assets for which routine maintenance is required. This way, your organisation should never end up with outmoded assets that are at high risk of sudden failure, with the downtime this can bring.

Final thoughts

As your organisation grows, the task of achieving effective asset management compliance is likely to become ever-more complex. Catering to all of the above compliance priorities within your organisation will therefore be easier when you act quickly, with the help of a suitably comprehensive asset management compliance platform.

Call Assets & Compliance Managed Services UK today and we will be able to advise you on your compliance management requirements, and give you the opportunity to try our secure, cloud-based solution.