Vital.org’s shared asset management service nets system savings for public agencies of over $227,000.

• Growing portfolio of 10 diverse public agencies with total assets and inventory worth over $1.8 billion. 
• A full service, one-stop asset management service

Whenever the specialist asset management team from Vital.org moves out on an assignment, which is a daily affair, it is a ‘big’ deal and heavy one too, literally, armed with 15kg of paraphernalia in tow, complete with camera, mobile barcode printer, laminator, laptop, luggage, mirrors and stickers, PDA barcode scanner, spray lacquer, torchlight and a suite of other tools

During “sighting” (a technical asset management term used for asset inspection), the team functions like a “CSI” on call.  Besides locating and tagging the assets, they calculate the shelf-lives of assets and inventory listed, reconcile the list with available asset movement schedules, and calculate the depreciation value for the agency’s balance sheet. For hard-to-reach nooks and corners, they use mirrors to do the tagging and inspection. At the customer account level, the Vital.org team takes care of proper book-keeping, performs annual stock-takes, prepares management reports of assets, takes charge of the disposal of physical assets and monitors assets movement. 

The team is led by Eugene Lim, Assistant Head of Vital.org’s Asset Management. He remembers “his team’s fair share of hazards and thrills when they have to navigate different types of government facilities, sometimes having to be cloistered within an enclosed space over time, six feet under or sometimes, four metres above.  It is little wonder why the team has only two female officers. Eugene who leads the 6-member Asset Management team recalled the time when one of his colleagues was hauled onto a zig-zag lifter to inspect a projector mounted on a high wall. Like crimebusters, the team takes photographs and uploads them onto Vital.org’s customized off-the-shelf asset management system.  “Most financial systems concentrate on general financial accounting and not purpose-built with fields for serial numbers, models and labels,” explained Eugene.    

Using an off-the-shelf system, Vital.org further enhanced the asset management system with needs-specific customizations.  The end result - a complete full service, one-stop system which is re-engineered and pre-configured to meet most local legal and statutory accounting and reporting requirements. The off-the-shelf web-based asset management system, worth about $222,000, helps the team manage assets which come in all shapes and forms, including but not limited to walkie-talkies, handphones, computers, furniture, fittings, chalets, galleries and omnitheatres.

Vital.org’s asset management team currently handles a growing portfolio of 10 diverse public agencies (including parts of the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Finance, the Public Service Division, the Science Centre Board, the Supreme Court and Republic Polytechnic) with total assets and inventory worth over $1.8 billion.  There are about 48,000 items including physical buildings.  The buzzwords for the team are standardization, cost effectiveness and resource optimization. Economy of scale is achieved through the sharing of a common asset management system. If each of the ten agencies were to individually commission their own asset management systems, they could easily have spent $500,000 collectively. A shared system, with more features, sophistication and robustness was built with less than half the cost.

Another noteworthy outcome from the team’s work is connecting government agencies with environmentally-friendly ROH certified (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) or WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive) vendors who will dispose the assets responsibly without leaving any harmful aftereffects to the environment.  The Vital.org team also conducts circulation and recycling of redundant assets to other agencies within the public sector or to charities, as a result of a relocation, retrofitting, renovation or space- rationalization exercise.   

Ms Kavitha Subash, Vital.org’s Head of Finance Services added, “Asset management is a vital part of financial reporting. Tracking and accounting for asset and inventory are essential for all businesses and organizations to ensure accountability for all organizations and to ensure accountability for all items purchased with taxpayers’ money.  Therefore, to help our system to be more robust and for Vital.org to be better at what we do, we are continuously tracking customer response and feedback in order to generate more value for money for them.  We are also learning from the best practices of the private sector.”  Vital.org is now looking to expand its resources and expertise by leveraging on more mobile and high-tech gadgets which can help them conduct onsite work with greater efficiency.  One such tool is replacing barcoding with radio frequency identification (RFID). Mr George Lee, a deputy director of finance at the Supreme Court said, “The team from Vital.org is very dedicated and professional and they demonstrate the benefit of having a centrally-managed asset management service, to reap not only economy of scale but also relieve finance teams of transaction process, so that the latter can focus on supporting policy matters.”

Issued by:

Vital.org

19 May 2010

About Vital.org

Vital.org, a department under Ministry of Finance, was formally launched in July 2006, as part of the Singapore Public Sector’s effort to aggregate common administrative services to drive economies of scale.  It currently serves 95 Ministries, Departments, Organs of State and Statutory Boards in Singapore.  The suite of services includes financial services, human resource services, payroll and claims services, learning and development services and travel management services. Visit www.vital.gov.sg for more information.

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