As the owner of a small business or someone who has to manage and care for the contents of an office, you probably already know the importance of protecting a company’s equipment. This equipment includes but isn’t limited to printers, fax machines (yes, people still use them), computers, hard disks, laptops, and so on. They’re all things that cost a tremendous amount of money and can cost even more when they’re damaged, stolen, or lost. The equipment - no matter how small - is an essential investment for the company, one which should be protected.
The following are a few tips on how to properly manage and care for the company’s equipment and protect the important investment.
Hold Onto Precious Resources
Tossing out those seemingly annoying equipment manuals or any other important piece that comes in the box with the equipment is a big mistake. The first rule of thumb is to save what you can since these are resources that can help you later on. You should also hold onto important phone numbers like your IT guy to help fix things quickly. If machines are tampered with incorrectly, they can be irrevocably damaged, thus costing the company perhaps thousands of dollars. Proper troubleshooting and regular maintenance is a key aspect of caring for any piece of equipment.
Software Management and Technological Solutions
You should keep the office equipment and any software used updated and secure. There are different sorts of safeguards in which you can invest to help protect from various IT disasters, such as an app for tracking fixed assets, or simply getting your digital archive backed up both on hard disks and at a remote location. This helps you to protect everything from human error or any sort of malicious activity. It’s important to take care of all your business operations and transactions, whether you save tons of hard copies, or keep things in the cloud. Data management solutions will help protect your financial assets and investments, while also keeping them secure from different gerrymandering activities.
Maintain Proper Circulation
You should ensure that there is adequate ventilation in the office since that can cause equipment to overheat, thus shortening its lifecycle. This also means that you and the employees should try to avoid using space heaters as much as possible since that can create a similar problem, or even worse: some plastic on different pieces of equipment can melt, or even result in a fire. So it is important to always exercise caution.
General Maintenance
Other than that, general maintenance and tidying up is key. Make sure that office spaces are cleaned often so that dust doesn’t accumulate since that can ruin machinery or equipment over time. Keep unused equipment covered, and use a light hand with things. Don’t pull plugs or handle outlets aggressively since that can cause cables to fray or even lead to electrocution. Also, make sure that all digital work is backed up properly and accounted for at all times.
Properly managing and taking care of company equipment shouldn’t be too difficult, but it does require diligence and someone who is detail-oriented. Remember not to throw out important manuals and phone numbers, and also don’t do anything that you would be wary to do in your own home.
