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By Rajesh Batia, Partner Management Lead, inCode Telecom
Asset management has become a critical component in the day-to-day operations of several industries. Manufacturers, financial institutions, pharmaceutical services, law enforcement agencies and transportation services are just a few areas that require knowledge of where assets are as well as how to manage those assets in the most efficient ways possible. Knowing where your assets are located at any point during the day is imperative to improving customer satisfaction, meeting regulatory requirements, increasing efficiencies within your operation, and even eliminating theft or loss.
Advocate Networks is deploying our broad expertise in wireless services, in partnership with inCode Telecom, to assist clients with the evaluation, justification, selection and implementation of wireless asset management and tracking systems.
The enterprise business is increasingly challenged with managing critical assets both inside and outside the four walls. From containers, trailers and heavy equipment, to computer equipment, document bags, high-value finished goods, and even valuable resources such as people, asset tracking solutions can provide real-time location information that can confirm the location of just about anything imaginable.
Technologies in this industry have come a long way in the last few years, as Global Positioning Systems (GPS) becomes a part of our everyday lives. Outside the four walls, technology such as A-GPS, where the GPS network works in conjunction with cellular technology to provide a location report, and Advanced Forward Link Trilateration (AFLT), where the cell tower network is utilized on its own to triangulate a position of a device, have proven themselves in the asset tracking industry. Many of these solutions can provide location information inside a building as well; however, technologies such as passive and active RFID and Wi-Fi location tracking have also staked their claim for asset tracking inside the four walls.
Applications of this technology include managing a fleet of trailers for a trucking company, tracking a shipment and confirming delivery of high-value finished goods, knowing that a laptop has left a building or a specific location within a building, taking inventory of laptops and many other types of IT assets, locating a person or vehicle for use in dispatching a service, and sting operations in law enforcement. Whatever the industry need, there is typically an asset tracking solution that will fit the market segment.
Costs associated with these types of solutions include hardware, hosted mapping solutions, cellular network charges, custom software application on the devices, and any program management needs to assist in designing and deploying the solution. Hardware can range in price from $50 for a GPS-enabled cell phone, to $400 for a ruggedized tracking device. Mapping provider costs typically range from $9 to $20 per month, depending on the level of sophistication in the mapping engine. Network data or SMS charges are solely dependent on the volume of locations reports expected per month, and can range anywhere from $10 per month for a limited amount of locates, to $90 a month, which provides an unlimited amount of locates.
Over the last several years, inCode Telecom has provided a broad array of asset management and tracking solutions to its customers: the utilization of RFID tags on consumer-grade packing containers as well as commercial shipping containers, RFID solutions in managing pharmaceutical inventories and high-value IT assets, wireless asset tracking tags in financial document bags, ruggedized asset tracking devices with vibration sensors in shipping-sensitive materials, and many more. inCode has the skills and knowledge to design an asset management solution that meets your needs.
Advocate Networks and inCode Telecom offer a full suite of services beginning with a needs analysis and business case development through to final implementation.
For more information about asset management and tracking, please contact Jon Stroup at (678) 987-5922 or rob.stewart@advocatenetworks.com, or Rajesh Bhatia at (678) 516-6771 or rbhatia@incodetel.com.