Several management systems, notably for pavements, bridges and maintenance, have preceded asset management by several decades. However, there is substantial interest in asset management as an overriding concept which draws on the principles of business, technology, economics and other disciplines in a systematic, integrated manner. Accordingly, a generic framework for asset management, which incorporates three basic levels, strategic, network or system wide and project or site specific, and which is applicable to any component system, is put forward in this paper. Pavement management, as a component system, has a long record of success and operational reality behind it which can and has been beneficial to the development of asset management. These benefits derive from the pavement management process itself and from implementation experience. If asset management and its component systems are to function in a coordinated and effective way, an integration platform is required. This paper suggests that three key elements need to be included in such a platform and they are locational referencing, asset valuation and level of service. Finally, the paper identifies a number of opportunities for innovations and advancements in asset management and the component systems at the technical, economic/technical and institution and user levels.