Asset management

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Asset management, broadly defined,

refers to any system that monitors and
maintains things of value to an entity or
group. It may apply to both tangible assets
(such as buildings) and to intangible
assets (such as human capital, intellectual
property, goodwill and/or financial assets).
Asset management is a systematic
process of developing, operating,
maintaining, upgrading, and disposing of
assets cost-effectively.

The term is most commonly used in the

financial sector to describe people and
companies who manage investments on
behalf of others. Those include, for
example, investment managers that
manage the assets of a pension fund.

Alternative views of asset management in

the engineering environment are: the
practice of managing assets to achieve
the greatest return (particularly useful for
productive assets such as plant and
equipment), and the process of monitoring
and maintaining facilities systems, with
the objective of providing the best
possible service to users in all dimensions
(appropriate for public infrastructure
assets).

By Industry
Financial asset management

The most common usage of the term

"asset manager" refers to investment
management, the sector of the financial
services industry that manages
investment funds and segregated client
accounts. Asset management is part of a
financial company which employs experts
who manage money and handle the
investments of clients. From studying the
client's assets to planning and looking
after the investments, all things are looked
after by the asset managers and
recommendations are provided based on
the financial health of each client.

Infrastructure asset
management

Infrastructure asset management is the

combination of management, financial,
economic, engineering, and other
practices applied to physical assets with
the objective of providing the required level
of service in the most cost-effective
manner. It includes the management of
the entire lifecycle—including design,
construction, commissioning, operating,
maintaining, repairing, modifying, replacing
and decommissioning/disposal—of
physical and infrastructure assets.[1]
Operation and maintenance of assets in a
constrained budget environment require a
prioritization scheme. As a way of
illustration, the recent development of
renewable energy has seen the rise of
effective asset managers involved in the
management of solar systems (solar park,
rooftops and windmills). These teams
often collaborate with financial asset
managers in order to offer turnkey
solutions to investors. Infrastructure asset
management became very important in
most of the developed countries in the
21st century, since their infrastructure
network was almost completed in the 20th
century and they have to manage to
operate and maintain them cost-
effectively.[2] Software asset management
is one kind of infrastructure asset
management.

Enterprise asset management

Enterprise asset management is the
business of processing and enabling
information systems that support
management of an organization's assets,
both physical assets, called "tangible", and
non-physical, "intangible" assets. The
International Organization for
Standardization published its
management system standard for asset
management in 2014.[3]. The ISO 55000
series provides terminology, requirements
and guidance for implementing,
maintaining and improving an effective
asset management system.
Physical asset management: the
practice of managing the entire lifecycle
(design, construction, commissioning,
operating, maintaining, repairing,
modifying, replacing and
decommissioning/disposal) of physical
and infrastructure assets such as
structures, production and service plant,
power, water and waste treatment
facilities, distribution networks,
transport systems, buildings and other
physical assets. The increasing
availability of data from asset systems
is allowing the principles of Total Cost
of Ownership to be applied to facility
management of an individual system, a
building, or across a campus. Physical
asset management is related to asset
health management.
Infrastructure asset management
expands on this theme in relation
primarily to public sector, utilities,
property and transport systems.
Additionally, Asset Management can
refer to shaping the future interfaces
amongst the human, built, and natural
environments through collaborative and
evidence-based decision processes
Fixed assets management: an
accounting process that seeks to track
 fixed assets for the purposes of
financial accounting
IT asset management: the set of
business practices that join financial,
contractual and inventory functions to
support life cycle management and
strategic decision making for the IT
environment. This is also one of the
processes defined within IT service
management
Digital asset management: a form of
electronic media content management
that includes digital assets

Public asset management

Public asset management, also called
corporate asset management, expands the
definition of enterprise asset management
(EAM) by incorporating the management
of all things of value to a municipal
jurisdiction and its citizens' expectations.
An example in which public asset
management is used is land-use
development and planning.

An EAM requires an asset registry

(inventory of assets and their attributes)
combined with a computerized
maintenance management system
(CMMS). All public assets are
interconnected and share proximity,
possible through the use of geographic
information systems (GIS).

A GIS-centric public asset management

standardizes data and allows
interoperability, providing users the
capability to reuse, coordinate, and share
information in an efficient and effective
manner by making the GIS geo-database
the asset registry. A GIS platform
combined with information of both the
"hard" and "soft" assets helps to remove
the traditional silos of structured
municipal functions. While the hard assets
are the typical physical assets or
infrastructure assets, the soft assets of a
municipality includes permits, license,
code enforcement, right-of-ways and other
land-focused work activities.

The GIS platform is only an assisting tool;

asset managers need to make informed
decisions about their assets in order to
fulfill their organizational goals. While
geospatially displayed information can
assist in decision-making, the deep
understanding of markets, engineering
systems, and human interaction enabled
by analysis and synthesis of information
not found in GIS systems is also present.

Intellectual and non-physical

asset management
Increasingly both consumers and
organizations use assets, e.g. software,
music, books, etc. where the user's rights
are constrained by a license agreement.
An asset management system would
identify the constraints upon such
licenses, e.g. a time period. If, for example,
one licenses software, often the license is
for a given period of time. Adobe and
Microsoft both offer time based software
licenses. In both the corporate and
consumer worlds, there is a distinction
between software ownership and the
updating of software. One may own a
version of software, but not newer
versions of the software. Cellular phones
are often not updated by vendors, in an
attempt to force purchase of newer
hardware. Large companies such as
Oracle, that license software to clients
distinguish between the right to use and
the right to received
maintenance/support.[4]

See also
Asset management firm
IT asset management
List of asset management firms
P2P Asset Management
 Robo-advisor
Software asset management
ISO 55000

References
1. Local Government & Municipal
Knowledge Base
2. Vanier, D. (2001) Why Industry Needs
Asset Management Tools. ASCE Journal of
Computing in Civil Engineering. Vol 15(1)
3.
https://www.iso.org/news/2014/01/Ref181
3.htm
4.
https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,24
91993,00.asp

Further reading
Baird, G. "Defining Public Asset
Management for Municipal Water
Utilities". Journal American Water Works
Association May 2011, 103:5:30,
www.awwa.org

External links
ISO/TC 251 - ISO Asset Management
Information
ISO page for ISO 55000
IAM page for introduction to Asset
Management
Retrieved from
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Last edited 25 days ago by AquilaXIII

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