In today's world, companies are faced with the dual challenge of not only keeping pace with the competition but also determining which innovative approaches to adopt to stand out. Improving efficiency and reducing costs is one way to do that, but asset tracking is proving to be a profitable solution that helps businesses manage their expensive inventory more efficiently. By saving time and reducing costs, asset tracking grants businesses of all sizes the opportunity for increased profitability through reduced risk and improved efficiency.
Asset tracking has become a necessity as companies – motivated to act by internal and external regulations (and common sense) – keep tabs on their expensive investments. With asset tracking an ever-evolving process, businesses need to be abreast of the changes and developments to ensure they are not left behind. Companies employing outdated asset tracking measures, such as bar code scanners, clipboards, and spreadsheets routinely report an annual average of 15% inventory inaccuracy. This results in decreased asset utilization, lost revenue, and regulatory compliance concerns.
Asset tracking and asset management software solutions are proving to be essential in keeping an accurate equipment record while simultaneously tracking the service and maintenance record of these assets to ensure they are not over or under-serviced. Tracking platforms also eliminate ghost assets from the asset register and minimizes inaccurate data entries.
Businesses rely heavily on assets to drive their growth and, as such, real-time tracking of these assets is crucial. Asset tracking is an ever-evolving process and business owners need to stay on top of the changes and developments to maximize the benefits for their organizations.
Increased Real-Time Asset Security
Asset acquisition represents a significant investment for any organization, and today’s data centers must implement rigorous asset tracking policies to provide the IT asset manager with real-time insights about the location and condition of their expensive equipment that allows them to provide a detailed account of the assets at any stage.
Any asset is purchased with a set of risks to be mitigated. While most servers and networked storage devices, for example, spend most of their lives securely stored in server rooms, there is still a risk. Critical IT assets travel throughout the facility on a daily basis: Incoming assets sitting on loading docks or placed in storage, devices being taken offline for maintenance, and equipment being deployed and de-provisioned as dictated by service requirements.
This could potentially result in highly valuable IT assets that store sensitive information being misplaced by the IT asset manager due to inaccurate physical asset management practices. With research indicating that the greatest risk to assets occurring during the service and maintenance times when these assets are moved, this risk can be mitigated through the implementation of a completely updated inventory detailing authorized and unauthorized movements.
With RFID asset tracking, each piece of hardware has a radio transmitter tag that transmits real-time location information via radio waves into reader hardware so you always know where your assets are located and if they are secure. This means finding the location of any asset is a simple matter of pulling it up on a platform, such as RF Code’s CenterScape system.
RFID asset tracking makes it almost impossible for someone to access equipment without the necessary clearance levels. If assets are moved from the data floor or if the RFID tags themselves are removed, our CenterScape platform will trigger instant alerts to both data center asset tracking systems and to the managers themselves. Installing RFID asset tracking tags on cabinet doors means notifications can be sent any time a cabinet is opened, further enhancing security and maintenance efficiency.
RFID asset tracking sensors can also transmit a variety of other data such as temperature or humidity levels so an organization knows what needs closer monitoring in order to maintain optimum conditions for its expensive systems.
Asset tracking combined with additional security measures like biometric scanners and two-factor authentication provides a formidable layer of physical protection for colocation customers. This peace of mind is guaranteed by data centers that are enabled to track assets from the point they deployed all the way through till retirement.
CIO’s constantly tussle with the decision of keeping their servers in-house or making the move to a colocation data center. While the utilization of data centers is growing in popularity, there are still massive management implications for the organization to which the servers belong. It should never be a case of handing the reigns to a data cater and expecting them to effectively manage your asset. You need to ensure you stay actively involved in the management of your assets, regardless of their location.
Extend the Life of the Assets
No business wants to find itself in the position where it is engaged in extended maintenance on assets no longer in use, yet this is something that has been known to happen. The result is the business continues to pay for its upkeep despite it being out of service. These challenges can be virtually eliminated through the use of an automated asset tracking system granting IT asset managers instant access to a continuous stream of real-time data to assist them in tracking and monitoring assets from the day they are provisioned to the day they are retired.
Good business practices always aim to extract maximum benefit from assets to yield handsome ROI. Effectively integrating asset tracking software grants business owners the ability to do just this. Asset tracking software provides the capability to assess the asset, ensures it remains in optimal condition, and allows for timeous service and maintenance to extend its lifespan.
Asset tracking and preventative maintenance go hand-in-hand and a company’s ability to effectively plan the use and maintenance of an asset is crucial. Asset tracking can ultimately help prevent costly downtime due to breakdowns, maximize equipment productivity, and enhance overall efficiency.
Save Time and Costs on Asset Inventory
RF Code’s continuous, real-time asset tracking solution enables IT asset managers to drastically improve their asset management processes, delivering 99+% asset location accuracy across the entire lifecycle of each and every IT asset.
The RF Code CentreScape platform can easily be integrated with existing IT, facilities, and business systems, and our system equipped with patented wire-free active RFID sensors, open APIs, and real-time reporting capabilities will yield the following benefits:
- Proactive monitoring of critical assets
- Improved work-in-process tracking
- Simplified audits
- Better compliance
- Reduced downtime
- Happy and loyal customers
- Optimized value in data center investments
- Reduction in maintenance service calls
- Increased organizational accountability
- Measurable inputs for business budgeting and planning
- Financial transparency, and
- Reduction in compliance risks and improved audit efficiency
By providing information on the location of your IT assets in real-time, RF Code solutions ensure inventory accuracy and deliver continuous savings by eliminating costly, time-consuming, inaccurate IT audit processes.
A key aspect that is often overlooked is the cost invested in the resources required to run asset audits through a year. According to industry estimates, assets can change as much as 20-30% each year, and rigorous control is required to keep track. With RF Code software, IT personnel can continue their work uninterrupted and free from data collection duties that are usually reserved for highly paid employees with specialized skillsets.
How Asset Tracking Software Lets you Access Granular Information in One Place
For company management, it is essential to stay involved throughout the asset management process. This can be challenging when assets are housed off-site at remote locations and need to be integrated into the overall company strategy. With automated software tracking your assets, you'll know what's going on in all aspects of your business at any time and from anywhere.
With RFID asset tracking, where each piece of equipment is tagged with a radio transmitter that delivers important and pre-defined data in real-time, managers can track detailed asset behavior. This could even include drilled-down data such as an asset’s performance history.
Equipped with this data, managers can compare the performance history of hardware to its location history. This type of information could assist in assessing the best environment for specific hardware in line with its cooling needs, for example, thereby increasing asset productivity.
Centralizing your asset data source leads to better management of your assets and provides the manager with a bird’s eye view of assets in various geographical locations. This high-level view provides insight into how divisions are utilizing their assets, giving the manager the ability to see which assets could potentially be sold, downscaled, while determining whether they are performing at their peak. By integrating this analysis into their asset management strategy, managers can directly enhance the productivity within their organization.
How Asset Tracking Software Easily Recovers Lost Assets
Lost assets can cost an organization millions of dollars each year, a problem that can, and should be resolved before it even happens. A business owner today needs to weigh up the huge costs of misplaced or stolen assets against the minimal costs involved in integrating effective asset tracking software from the start.
With asset tracking software, the IT manager is able to allocate a customized bar code to each inventory item, creating an online presence for that asset. Assigning a dedicated bar code to an asset minimizes the potential risk of loss, theft, or simply misplacing an asset. Once tagged, an asset is easily referenced on the corresponding software.
This asset location software even integrates with GPS positioning devices allowing you to easily identify the last location of the asset. The GPS positioning devices show the last known locations of assets enabling staff to locate possibly stolen, misplaced, or lost items instantly.
Keeping Track of What Really Matters
Asset tracking provides valuable insight into the performance of your business’s assets and the behavior of your assets in various spaces. It gives you the power to actively control and manage your assets from any location, extending their lifespan and maximizing their productivity.
The benefit of this high-level view and smart management of assets enables you to streamline your business operations and anticipate any potential issues, with the assurance that you always know exactly where your assets are and how they’re performing.
RF Code’s asset tracking software provides continuous and real-time asset location data across the entire lifecycle of your valuable data center assets, ensuring maximum operational efficiency from deployment to retirement. It empowers your staff to seamlessly manage company assets while still ensuring they have the time to focus on their core functions.
From increased productivity to allocating resources and assets for maximum benefit, get in touch with RF Code today and learn how integrating our asset tracking software becomes as easy as navigating the software itself.
