From Classrooms to Control Rooms: Mastering Asset Visibility for Success

September 10, 2024

Adam Schreiner

The start of the school year can be a time of uncertainty for students. New classmates, teachers, environments and lessons to learn can bring both anxiety and excitement. For seasoned educators, it is a time to clarify goals and expectations for their incoming students and parents while sharing the materials that will be used to help achieve those goals. Before the school year starts, teachers take inventory of both the materials they have and need so they can use the first few weeks to determine the various levels of knowledge among their students. Taking all this information into account enables them to maximize their students’ experience throughout the year.

Asset Visibility Planning

While businesses don’t have a set “school year” start, they do typically have a planning period where they take into account assets and their maturity levels. The company also has to assess the maturity levels of operational technology (OT) environments and its personnel to maximize its outcomes (i.e., reduce the risk of faults, failures and equipment downtime by studying the assets they have and applying plans to mitigate these scenarios in the environment). During each planning period, the need for asset visibility becomes paramount to success.

While financial management may be the first thing that comes to mind when recognizing the need for asset visibility planning, there are several other benefits of having clear asset visibility including:

Financial Management: Knowing what you own helps in making informed financial decisions. It allows you to track the value of your assets and assess your overall financial health.

Insurance Purposes: In the event of damage, theft or loss, having a detailed inventory simplifies the process of filing insurance claims. It ensures that you are adequately compensated for your assets.

Legal Protection: An inventory helps in legal situations, such as acquisitions and divestment proceedings. It provides clear documentation of what assets exist and their value.

Maintenance and Upkeep: Regularly updated inventories help in tracking the condition and maintenance needs of your assets, ensuring they remain in good working order and retain their value.

Risk Management: By knowing what assets you have and where they are located, you can better manage risks, such as natural disaster equipment losses or a cybersecurity attack, by implementing appropriate security or protective measures.

Business Operations: An asset inventory is crucial for businesses to track equipment, manage resources efficiently and ensure compliance with regulations or audits.

Companies and personnel have the ability to leverage asset visibility into a competitive advantage in both their professional and business life, but we normally use different tools to manage these items. Personal ways to do this are email, apps (such as Microsoft Excel files) and digital calendars, to name just a few. Yet, these tools do not offer enough flexibility and security to maintain accurate inventory in an automated method. They require manual processes which are subject to inaccuracies.

Having a good OT inventory is crucial for several reasons:

Security: A comprehensive OT inventory helps to identify all devices and systems within your network. This visibility is essential for managing and securing your operational environment, as it allows you to spot vulnerabilities and ensures that all components are up to date with the latest security patches.

Risk Management: Maintaining an accurate inventory can help you better assess and manage risks. Knowing the exact components in your OT environment helps you understand potential failure points and assess their impact on your operations.

Compliance: Many industries have regulatory requirements related to OT systems. Keeping an up-to-date inventory helps ensure compliance with these regulations and facilitates audits by providing a clear record of all devices and their configurations.

Operational Efficiency: An organized inventory helps streamline maintenance and support activities. It allows you to quickly locate and address issues, plan upgrades and manage spare parts, leading to reduced downtime and improved efficiency.

Incident Response: In the event of a security incident or system failure, a detailed OT inventory can significantly speed up the response process. It provides the necessary information to quickly identify affected components and understand their role in the overall system.

Asset Management: Proper inventory management helps track the lifecycle of each asset, from procurement to decommissioning. This helps with budgeting, planning for replacements and ensuring that all equipment is properly accounted for.

Change Management: When implementing changes or updates to your OT systems, a good inventory ensures that all components are considered and that changes are carefully planned and documented, reducing the risk of unintended consequences.

Overall, maintaining a good visibility of assets and resources is fundamental for effective management, security, and efficiency. Hexagon’s PAS Cyber Integrity® is one solution to consider to enhance the visibility of your assets at an enterprise level.