In previous posts, I have addressed concepts of asset management for corporate hardware and software portfolios. This is because an asset management program is fundamental to modern businesses.
In short, it establishes the controls and processes needed for cost, compliance, and security. And without it, users run the risk of costly downtime, compliance penalties, and security threats.
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) involves managing the lifecycle of physical assets to optimize asset performance, increase productivity, and reduce overall costs to the business throughout the asset lifespan. The EAM discipline covers a wide range of corporate assets, ranging across facility assets, power lines, pipelines, retail point of sale systems, vehicles, major industrial machinery, and medical imaging devices.
Even though the actual assets tracked vary greatly in terms of what they are, their value, quantity, and their purpose to the business, ServiceNow EAM is similar to other asset management disciplines in that it seeks to make the effective use of assets, which in turn lowers operational costs, ensures regulatory compliance, and reduces security risks.
The True Cost of Assets
By tracking the planning and deployment of an asset through to its disposal, you gain a picture of the total cost of ownership of that specific asset and provide insights into potential cost savings. EAM supports capital planning and large project initiatives, including new deployments, upgrades, and replacements.
This is done to streamline processes to drive implementation efficiency and leverage vendor management operations to control costs and improve quality. Onboarding new equipment involves assessing and documenting the useful life of the model and the risk score.
Most companies perform preventative maintenance and planned work management for enterprise assets. These KPIs inform technicians how to structure the maintenance plan throughout the life of the assets. Doing so minimizes the impacts of risk and resolves issues more quickly.
Companies are able to prevent long outages due to broken and non-functional assets, thus increasing productivity, improving services, and positively impacting overall revenue for the business.
EAM’s Hidden Value: Finance, Risk, and Sustainability
Beyond asset lifecycle management and maintenance, EAM delivers measurable impact in finance and operations. It provides a clear line of sight into asset-driven costs, helping CFOs and operations leaders allocate budgets more effectively. At the same time, EAM strengthens risk management by ensuring compliance with industry regulations and reducing the likelihood of costly failures.
Effective risk management in EAM hinges on securing assets against both internal threats and external breaches. This includes:
- Implementing robust access controls and encryption methods to prevent unauthorized access,
- Addressing outdated or unsupported legacy software through regular upgrades and patches
- Resolving unstable configurations by conducting frequent internal audits.
By gaining full visibility into asset architecture and relationships and identifying vulnerabilities early, organizations can significantly reduce the risk of costly security incidents and maintain operational resilience.
EAM also plays a critical role in strengthening supply chain reliability. With integrated vendor management and service-level tracking, organizations gain full visibility into supplier performance, from delivery timelines to quality benchmarks.
For instance, if a supplier routinely delivers substandard parts leading to equipment downtime, EAM data makes it easy to document the impact, enforce accountability, and inform future vendor negotiations. This level of transparency enables companies to make more informed sourcing decisions and build a more resilient supply chain.
EAM in ServiceNow: Automation That Delivers
Companies predominantly operated manually, relying on machine operators and technicians to provide insight into assets, manually maintaining records, and other stakeholder groups working in disparate systems.
It was difficult to capture data in real-time and work collaboratively across all groups and processes, leaving gaps in efficiency, missed communications, and inaccurate data. Companies were reacting to feedback. To mature asset management programs, companies are taking a deliberate approach to building a holistic solution in ServiceNow EAM.
ServiceNow EAM includes standard workflows for various processes, including requests, new asset onboarding, asset refreshes, recalls, return merchandise authorization (RMA), asset reclamations, and disposal.
Standardizing and automating processes that are executed in EAM flows improves completion time and reduces human error and redundancies. For example, you are able to leverage prescriptive workflows to remediate recalls, whether that involves a repair process or swapping with a new asset, promptly to minimize downtime and compliance risk.
ServiceNow EAM capabilities allow you to monitor and identify assets under warranty to take advantage of an RMA flow. This involves the collaboration with your service vendor to repair, replace, or return assets that are faulty.
Another critical component of ServiceNow EAM is Work Management. Replacing broken assets while experiencing significant downtime is rather costly to the business. EAM Work Management includes planned maintenance activities, such as routine inspections, diagnostics, and parts replacements. It is also a central hub for corrective maintenance and predictive maintenance work orders.
Having plans implemented helps align work dependencies and drives task completion, along with proactive efforts to prevent catastrophic failure of assets.
EAM as a Driver of Growth and Security
EAM has always been a relevant topic in managing operations. Still, companies are starting to see the necessity of enterprise asset management, and there’s a sense of more urgency around the discipline.
It’s emerging on the market as a necessary discipline to engage in because it ties directly to company financials. It helps improve strategic planning through understanding where corporate and operating costs come from.
Beyond the financial value of EAM, there’s a benefit for security. Using the ServiceNow platform with an integrated approach to identifying and managing assets and the operational processes around those assets places companies at an advantage for preventing and quickly mitigating security risks.
EAM has become a strategic necessity, directly influencing company financials, operational resilience, and long-term sustainability. On the ServiceNow platform, EAM integrates asset data with workflows across the enterprise, providing a single source of truth that strengthens decision-making and reduces risk.
For business leaders, the takeaway is clear: organizations increasingly recognize EAM as essential for operational resilience, financial control, and security in a rapidly evolving business landscape.
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[Ed. note: Today’s post on enterprise asset management (EAM) is part three in a series. Don’t miss part one on hardware asset management (HAM) and part two featuring software asset management (SAM).]
