PAS 55 Information Sheet
PAS 55 is the first British Standards Institution (BSI) Publicly Available Specification (PAS) for the optimized management of physical assets. It was produced in 2004 and revised in 2008 (PAS 55:2008), under the sponsorship and leadership of the Institute of Asset Management (IAM).
The Specification consists of 2 parts. The first part provides a 28 point checklist of requirements to enable an organisation to implement a best-practice approach to asset management, whilst Part 2 provides more detailed guidance on how to achieve these targets.
PAS 55 has become widely accepted as the standard for organisations to manage assets throughout their life, from acquisition to disposal, defining and meeting the demands from the strategic level to day-to-day operations. Whilst software is not specifically defined in PAS 55, some of the requirements will require consideration when selecting a supplier. As an example, PAS 55 states that organisations should have a system that supports data consistency and accuracy by allowing all staff, both internal and external, to access the data to their activities. Therefore, when selecting a product, consider whether it can be made available, securely, both within your organisation and to relevant third parties.
For more information about PAS 55, see their website at www.theiam.org.