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  • 4 Reasons Why The Insurance Industry Needs IT Asset Management

Most organizations want and need to be fully aware of all the software and hardware they own. That’s even more true for the insurance industry, as technology is vital to their business systems, supporting nationwide and sometimes even international business operations.

Moreover, many insurance companies use technology to gain an edge over the competition, especially in terms of efficiently communicating with insurance shoppers. This drive to bring innovation to the insurance sector is why the word “Insurtech” was born.

As it is, large insurance providers already have thousands of employees using thousands of computers in multiple locations across the country, which makes managing hardware and software assets difficult. In addition, with many organizations embracing Insurtech to introduce new technologies to their companies, this could only mean that more IT assets will eventually get added to the inventory, making asset management even more difficult.

This article will dive into the challenges the insurance industry faces regarding their IT assets and how an IT asset management system can solve them.

The Big Challenge

The manual process of managing assets may have worked in the past and could also work with companies with fewer assets. Still, even in that case, inventories will inevitably grow along with the company. As a result, more high-value IT assets will come in, and at some point, the manual process wouldn’t be able to handle a mammoth task such as tracking thousands of assets simultaneously in real-time.

As the number of IT inventory items increases, the time required to track them increases as well. And we’re not just talking about desktop computers. In addition, IT staff will have to track high-value portable assets such as laptops, smartphones, tablets, and the like, as they move throughout the building or outside the workplace.

More often, IT staff have struggled to consolidate information from separate systems, often extracting data from Active Directory, a system management software, and even endpoint protection platforms. Unfortunately, this method was time-consuming, and the accuracy of the data that came out of it doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.

The Solution And How It Works

With the context of the problem in mind, it is now easy to see why investing in smart asset management makes perfect sense for insurance companies. An asset tracking system built on a cloud platform like Teqtivity instantly increases the visibility of all tagged assets throughout the building and even across multiple branches. Each IT asset will be tagged with a unique ID number associated with a department, custodian, and location zone. A cloud-based smart asset management system tracks all of the IT assets, allowing asset managers to search for items more quickly and obtain accurate real-time data about each asset.

With this system in place, insurance companies can reap several benefits aside from efficient asset tracking. Check them out below.

1. Fewer Lost Items

When an employee checks out an item, that asset’s unique tag chip automatically gets associated with the person. The smart asset vending system can then track the asset’s movement throughout the building, and each asset movement is collected and presented in real-time, making it easy for anyone to find out if any company IT property leaves the building without permission. By investing in an IT asset tracking solution, you can drastically reduce the risk of asset loss.

2. Time Savings

Without smart inventory management, IT staff need to scan items that enter or leave a room manually. That’s no longer the case when you use an asset tracking solution. The logs now automatically update with each change of the asset’s location. Instead of wasting time trying to locate assets, managers will now have the time to analyze the collected data to spot trends and behaviors related to asset movement, which also results in faster audits.

3. Better Compliance

Insurance providers understand the importance of managing liability. Smart asset and inventory management can also serve as an organization’s protection from potential liability by helping the company stay updated on all compliance regulations regarding computers and other technology assets. Utilizing the best IT asset management solutions ensures best practices that adhere to all regulatory requirements – from environmental concerns to data privacy and reporting and software licensing.

4. Easier Deployment And Updates

IT asset management solutions can drastically improve technology deployment and management because they can easily target machines that need to be replaced or updated. Having visibility on the asset status means that IT staff can easily track the rollout of new applications like newer versions of Microsoft Office or migrating to Windows 10. In addition, because of IT Asset Management (ITAM)’s ability to understand locations and users, organizations can plan upgrades and migrations around their priorities and the working practices of their staff so they can avoid disruption to business operations as much as possible.

Conclusion

With asset lifecycle management, insurance companies can reap several benefits aside from efficient asset tracking, which includes more significant savings in terms of cost and time, especially for the IT department.

This system is also scalable in line with the growth of an organization’s IT inventory, allowing them to discover and inventory devices within their complex technology environment, whether in a single location or across multiple branches in the country.