Resource Management
What is a Resource?
A resource is something that can be sold for profit or used as a raw material to create something that can be sold for profit. For example, coffee beans are resources that can be sold whole for a profit or ground to become a different product to be sold, again for profit.
What is Resource Management?
Resource management is planning, organizing, and allocating the resources important to your business to ensure maximum efficiency. These resources include both tangible and intangible resources.
- What are tangible resources? Tangible resources are materials that you can touch and feel. Examples of tangible resources include tools and materials.
- What are intangible resources? On the other hand, an intangible resource is something that does not have a physical nature, like staffing, intellectual property, and time.
Types of Resource Management and Examples
Human Resource Management
Human resource management is looking after staffing levels to make sure that the goals of your business can be achieved with the right amount of staff. This type of management includes managing hiring of personnel, reassignment of employees, training of people, and firing of staff, to name but a few activities. Getting these things right is hugely important to an effective resource management process.
Project Resource Management
Projects can be complex and include a lot of moving parts. That is why resource management is important to ensure that projects have enough resources, and at the right times. Project managers need to sit down with different teams and plan out when resources will be needed to make sure that they are available at the times when they are needed in the project.
Digital Resource Management
Digital resources can quickly get out of hand, especially as teams sign up for different software and asset services. IT teams must keep on top of these digital resources to ensure that teams are not doubling up on billing instead of purchasing additional user licenses. Effective management of digital resources means that companies know what digital assets they possess and can quickly audit them when needed.
Why is Resource Management Important?
The main aim of this type of management is to optimize resources so they can be used efficiently. If done correctly resource management can be important to a business for many different reasons.
- Strategic Resource Management: Resource management can be strategic so that there is a process in place to maximize usage of resources, especially expensive and huge demand resources.
- Meeting Project Deadlines: Efficient resource management means that projects do not fall behind due to lack of resources. This is important as sprints are becoming more and more necessary in companies, and resource planning needs to be a priority to make sure these sprints are organized realistically.
- Future-Proofing Resources: Having a great resource management strategy means that you can identify when a resource needs to be upgraded or replaced. This will safeguard against using out-of-date resources or overuse of a resource.
Benefits of Resource Management
The benefits of resource management stretch the whole length of a company, it is not just limited to one department. Efficient management of resources means that projects finish on time and teams have everything they need to be successful. But here are three important benefits of resource management that we need to talk about. Efficient resource management:
- Avoids Resource Issues: By knowing what resources you have at your disposal you can identify gaps in availability and plan stop gaps when necessary.
- Prevents Resource Over-Allocation: If you manage a busy company that is constantly trying new things then over-allocation of resources is probably something you know a lot about. Efficient resource management results in resources being scheduled so teams do not need to wait to use them to come available — they know when resources are free to use.
- Creates Team Transparency: By identifying all resources at the disposal of your company you can be transparent and enable people to use these resources openly. As a direct result, all teams can be successful in their jobs as they have all the company tools at their fingertips.
Resource Management Solutions
As companies grow it may become impossible to keep track of resources without the use of resource management services or software.
- What are Resource Management Services? Specialized agencies can provide an audit to take stock of all resources that your company uses. These services are a great idea if you have just taken over another company and need to understand what resources you have quickly. The benefit of using a resource management service is that these agencies are specialists in their practice and can do a better job than someone inhouse who hasn’t taken on this responsibility before.
- What is Resource Management Software? Over the past ten years, the resource management software industry has taken off very successfully. Using this type of software you can streamline the process of acquiring new resources for teams, manage resources centrally, and provide different levels of access to members of your company. Resource management software can take your resource management skills to the next level leading to even better efficiency for your business.