The history of asset and equipment management systems is marked by significant technological advancements and shifts in methodologies. What were the key developments? What do we expect for the future of the asset management industry? I’ll go over some history and some predictions below.
Origins of Asset Management Systems
The history of asset management systems, particularly concerning fixed assets, traces back to ancient civilizations where systematic methods were developed to keep track of valuable items. Fixed assets refer to long-term tangible property like buildings, land, machinery, and equipment. The technologies that changed how we keep records of fixed assets involved the evolution of writing systems, from cuneiform and hieroglyphics on clay, to the Roman alphabet on papyrus, and Chinese writing on paper. There is even new evidence that quipu, the Incan knotted ropes, were used for record keeping of belongings.
Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt: The earliest examples of asset management can be found in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. These civilizations used early forms of writing, such as cuneiform and hieroglyphics, to record the ownership and status of belongings, land and buildings, and important objects. The Code of Hammurabi, dating back to around 1754 BC, includes laws about property rights and management, reflecting an early form of asset registration and regulation [1], [2], [3].
Roman Empire: The Roman Empire also had sophisticated methods for managing fixed assets. They maintained detailed records of their vast holdings, including physical objects as well as land, buildings, and infrastructure like roads and aqueducts. The Romans used a census and other administrative tools to manage and tax these assets effectively.
Medieval Europe: In Medieval Europe, the feudal system required detailed records of lands and their associated rights and duties. Manorial rolls and the Domesday Book (commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086) are examples of asset management, detailing land, livestock, and resources.[4], [5], [6]
Paper for Record-keeping: Paper was invented in China by Cai Lun in 105 AD during the Han Dynasty. This invention marked a significant advancement in the history of writing materials. As trade routes expanded, paper-making techniques spread from China to other parts of Asia, and eventually to the Islamic world by the 8th century, and to Europe by the 12th century. This helped make record keeping all the more efficient and inexpensive.
Asset Management Systems in the Industrial Revolution and the 20th Century:
Tremendous advancements in asset management techniques and tools developed from the Industrial Revolution through the end of the 20th Century. Nevertheless, formalized asset management systems were more likely seen in large companies and governments through most of the period. The biggest enabler of asset management change in this period was the rise of the computer in the latter half of the 20th century.
Industrial Revolution: The Industrial Revolution brought dramatic changes in asset management. The increase in factories and machinery necessitated more systematic approaches to track and manage these assets. This period saw the development of more formal accounting practices, including the concept of depreciation.[7] During the late 18th century in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States, steam power began to replace human labor. Machinery was basic and reliable, and factories adopted a "use it until it breaks" approach, focusing on corrective maintenance. It was only later in the mid-to-late 19th century that maintenance evolved to include basic time-based (TBM) strategies, replacing parts at set intervals.
The Great Depression as a Catalyst: Due to lack of money, finding ways to stretch out the life of machines and fixed assets gained a special importance. Machine operators were urged to push equipment to its limits. Innovating ways to perform maintenance and extend machine life became all the more important.
War Production and World War II: With the onset of World War II, U.S. factories shifted to war material production. Women and minorities joined the formal workforce, including in maintenance roles. The role of maintenance of military equipment became seen as a path to victory. This importance has been made dramatically clear with the recent failings of the Russian military’s incursion into Ukraine where poorly maintained equipment have commonly been seen strewn abandoned on the sides of roads.
Post-World War II: After the war, the focus returned to domestic goods production. The concept of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) emerged in Japan, encouraging workers to perform routine maintenance. The Federal Aviation Administration and United Airlines investigated preventive maintenance in the 1960s, leading to the development of reliability-centered maintenance (RCM), which prioritized understanding and managing asset failures.
Second Half of 20th Century: By the latter half of the 20th Century, maintenance had to ensure employee safety and manage risks associated with high-performing equipment. This only contributed to the need to manage assets. Fortunately, the advent of computers provided a breakthrough. Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) originated in the 1960s with punch cards and mainframe computers, evolving into paper forms and mini computers in the 70s and 80s [8]. The rise of personal computers in the 80s led to more user-friendly CMMS solutions, often custom-built on PCs using development tools such as dBase and then Microsoft Access in the 1990s. Personal computing and their tools thus made CMMS solutions more accessible to medium-sized companies. However, for the most part, even through the 1990s, dedicated asset management software was more likely to be used for larger businesses. Small businesses were more likely to use spreadsheets and custom-built solutions for managing their assets.
Asset Management Systems in the first two decades of the 21st Century
By the early 2000s, dedicated asset management systems finally made their way widely to the hands of medium and small businesses. This was made possible by the advent of Software as a Service (SaaS). One of the earliest examples of a SaaS application was Salesforce.com, founded in 1999, which delivered an enterprise sales application through a web browser. SaaS began to gain widespread acceptance in the mid-2000s. This was largely driven by the increasing availability of high-speed Internet and the growing comfort with web-based services. The 2010s saw an exponential growth in the SaaS industry. Virtually every software category, from customer relationship management (CRM) to human resources to CMMS/Asset Management systems, started seeing prominent SaaS solutions by this time.
Some prominent early Enterprise Asset Management systems from this era include Fiix (founded in 2008), EZOfficeInventory (founded in 2011), Asset Panda (founded in 2012) and Cheqroom (founded in 2013). A commonality of these systems is that they are very web-centric. They contain a very robust web system and a light mobile component.
Such SaaS products led to asset management system use not only within large companies, but medium and small organizations as well.
What the Future Holds for Asset Management Systems in the 2020s
I believe that several new technology trends will usher in a new form of asset management system in the 2020s. These trends include new software techniques and increasing mobile support of QR codes.
2010s-era SaaS designs will become dated
SaaS-based CMMS systems originating from the 2010s are designed around web browser use on a PC. The mobile phone UI is auxiliary. This creates inefficiencies when adding and managing assets. Assets are typically entered first via the PC, perhaps by loading from a spreadsheet, and then referenced in a mobile app with lighter capabilities. Asset tags are then placed onto items and scanned by the mobile device to link the tag to the item. Then the work returns to the PC and web browser where most of the data manipulation and system management occurs. This awkward process is a byproduct of such systems because the technologies at the time drove the designs to be PC browser-based with mobile and QR as afterthoughts.
Mobile and QR-centric Approaches will Proliferate in the 2020s
I predict that in the 2020s, new software development tools coupled with wider QR adoption, will allow reshaping asset management to be much more efficient. The process will start with the QR on the item and be centered on mobile but just as accessible on PC web.The below describes why software development will improve and the role of QR. It follows with a new design that will be a new approach that replaces the old SaaS designs from the 2010s.
Faster and Cross-platform Software Development
The earlier 2010s SaaS systems have been hampered by the software development technologies available to them at the time they were designed. They were developed for PC web first and mobile secondarily probably because different programming languages and codesets had to be used for each platform. However, through the 2010s and early 2020s, newer approaches to development have evolved, including Cross-platform frameworks, No-code and AI-assisted:
Cross-platform Development Frameworks and Languages
The advent of truly multiplatform software development frameworks in the latter 2010s allow creating SaaS applications with one set of code that runs on iOS and Android as well as web. The most widely used of these tools are React Native (developed by Facebook), Flutter (developed by Google) and Xamarin (developed by Microsoft).
No-code Development Platforms
Another significant recent advancement is the wider adoption of No-code approaches. Bubble, introduced in 2012, is the early big no-code success but other better approaches have followed. Bubble web apps can be wrapped as a mobile app using services like PhoneGap or Cordova to create mobile apps. However, newer No-code solutions such as Flutterflow allow true No-code cross-platform development. This becomes especially powerful when coupled with solutions such as Supabase.
AI-assisted
Artificial Intelligence is rapidly changing software development, enabling ever faster, less expensive and more efficient coding. This opens the door for newcomers to challenge the entrenched SaaS CMMS solutions.
Use of QR Codes in Mobile
The widespread adoption of QR codes by consumers using mobile devices started in the early 2010s. By the mid-2010s, QR codes were commonly used for a wide variety of purposes. Improved cameras on mobile devices by the late 2010s allowed quick scanning and retrieval of even very small QR labels. The SaaS CMMS systems designed in the early 2010s quickly added QRs to their systems, but as an add-on feature. They are accessible but not central to the UI flow.
Scanlily: A New Mobile and QR-centric Approach to Enterprise Asset Management
Scanlily is the first enterprise asset management system designed as multiplatform and QR-centric from the ground up. Its approach is possible because of the recent technology advances described above.
Centrality of Mobile
With Scanlily, the asset management process typically starts on mobile. The basic process is the following:
Besides scanning Scanlily QRs, it’s possible to scan UPC and EAN numbers to auto-load information from a database of over 500m products, saving entry time.
It’s also possible to start by importing CSV files and spreadsheets of existing inventory data and scan to connect with the QR afterwards.
Centrality of the QR
A QR scan button appears prominently at the top of every page of the app.
Unlike old-school SaaS asset management systems, the Asset ID is a URL rather than an
alphanumeric string. This has a big benefit. As a result, even users who do not have the app can scan with the phone’s browser to open up a web page to see the item elements. Old-school SaaS asset management systems weren’t designed with URL-based IDs from the ground up because at the time iPhone and Android devices didn’t have embedded QR scanning in their cameras.
Fully Multi-platform
Unlike in traditional SaaS systems, the detailed administrative features for Scanlily are on mobile as well as web. The web view has additional features that are best on a wide screen (like a spreadsheet, wide reports and a wide dashboard); however, most everything else is on mobile and web alike. This allows administration of the system fully on mobile and prevents the constant platform shifting and additional training complexity required by Old-SaaS.
Designed for Simplicity
Scanlily has many other simplifying innovations not yet seen in other SaaS systems. An example is the Attachments feature. The overall simplicity is made possible by the unified multi-platform design. This obviates the need for separate training for mobile and web. The system is simple enough to function as a consumer product but has the power to be used as a truly enterprise asset management system for the largest of corporations.
Summarizing the History of Asset Management
In summary, the history of asset management has seen shifts that each time were driven by some kind of technological advancement. In ancient times, the movement from clay to papyrus to paper enabled better and cheaper record taking. During the industrial revolution, the needs of maintaining machinery and equipment drove process improvements such as time-based (TBM) strategies, Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) and reliability-centered maintenance (RCM). Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) became a thing with the advent of computers. The introduction of PCs (1980s) and then the widespread adoption of SaaS (early 2010s), created entirely new systems that became even more accessible to medium and smaller businesses. Now in the 2020s, advancements in software platforms and mobile QR adoption are driving a complete CMMS rework that should result in even greater efficiencies and simplicity to the point of adoption by front-line workers and even consumers. It will be exciting to see how this develops.