ANZ Bank is one of the largest companies in Australia and it ranks amongst the leading financial institutions of the world. It has been established in the UK for more than 50 years, where it employs around 500 people. ANZ in London operates as a division of the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited and, organisationally, its business is concentrated in Investment Banking, Private Banking and International network services.

Although the bank has only two offices in Britain, an audit of fixed assets revealed an inventory of more than 11,000 items. This included furniture, IT equipment and non-IT assets such as binders, shredders and air conditioners. Auditing and asset control were traditionally undertaken using a paper-based hard copy system but this was time consuming, and inevitably prone to inaccuracies, with the risk that not all assets were being recorded. This meant that depreciation calculations were imprecise and, in the event of disaster like a fire, flood or theft, difficult to ensure that accurate insurance claims could be made.

"In reality, the hard copy system meant that it was impossible to keep track of our assets with real accuracy," said Ron Condron, Head of Operations Support at ANZ Bank. With more and more IT equipment going into the offices, the bank decided that proper control was required.

ANZ looked at several tracking and management packages without being convinced they were entirely right, until a recommendation from their headquarters in Melbourne, Australia pointed the British offices towards Hardcat Systems (UK) Ltd.

ANZ selected the Hardcat Core System, together with the Barcoding, Purchasing, Depreciation, Preventative Maintenance and Helpdesk modules, ensuring that they had a comprehensive asset management system that tracked their assets from ‘cradle to retirement’.

Despite the large number of assets to be collected, recorded and entered on the system, barcoding and actual data capture took only 11 days – this represented an average capture of more than 1000 items per day. The whole process took less time than previous audits and provided much more accurate and reliable information. This information was downloaded into Hardcat based on the Technology Planning Department System, giving instant access to full asset information.

As well as delivering a complete fixed asset management system to the bank, Hardcat also assisted in the review, design and implementation of a new asset management policies and procedures process. Ron Condron commented "with Hardcat’s expert advice, we were able to put together a water tight system that left no area open to error".

With the Hardcat Asset Management system up and running, ANZ’s asset management was transformed: they now know the precise type, location and current value of any and all assets in their offices and depreciation charges applied to cost centres are now accurate and defensible.

"The Hardcat system is very easy to access", commented Ron Condron. "We can now quickly produce a complete history of an item’s current location, where it has been and its current value. We use Hardcat both as a fixed asset register and as an inventory tool". As Ron Condron points out, "keeping the register current is vital to maintaining control and Hardcat does this very well".

"Tracking purchases and disposals, is essential for ongoing accuracy", he explains. "Hardcat has the facility for these functions to be carried out quickly and easily". Ron actually values the accuracy of Hardcat records ahead of the savings on time and resources the system makes possible. Not that he underestimates the importance of ease of access: "Hardcat is very easy to use – you don’t need to be an ‘IT whiz’ to use it. It’s very ‘user friendly’.

‘User friendliness’ extends to Hardcat Systems’ customer support strategy as well – in practice as well as in theory.

When I first took control of this area", explains Ron, "Hardcat’s people spent as much time with me as I needed. I get efficient help with any problems I encounter with asset management".

ANZ can now be confident that their Hardcat system is now accurate and being administered in an easy and manageable way. There is no better promotion for a company than that of a customer’s own opinion - Ron Condron comments: "Hardcat are one of the good guys. The support is always there and I have no hesitation in recommending them to anyone looking for a way of bringing their fixed asset management under control".