Tip 8 of 10 on Best Practices for Asset Tracking

Minimize the amount of data sent to the handheld. When using a handheld scanner, the best practice is to only send to the handhelds the minimum of data needed for the user. The temptation is to try to put your entire ERP system on the handheld. You can set up location grouping or category grouping assignments to restrict which assets go to which user. You should also limit the models, locations, and employee dropdowns. The less data going to the handheld, the quicker the sync times.

Tip 6 of 10 on Best Practices for Asset Tracking

Use Location Barcodes. The assets must have correct locations in order to realize many of the benefits of asset tracking.  To make this simpler, many people find that making a location barcode helps a handheld technician select the proper location.  It is quicker and more accurate than selecting a location from dropdown lists.  Location barcodes can be located in a doorway or near a cubicle, etc. Do not barcode the actual name of the location, just barcode the unique location identifier.

Tip 9 of 10 on Best Practices for Asset Tracking

Do a Baseline Inventory First and a Verification Inventory Second. Once you have asset data in your asset tracking software, a great thing to do is to go through with a handheld and do nothing more than put all the assets in the correct locations. Just indicate the location and scan all the barcodes in that location. At the end of this effort, you will know which assets are missing. Those asset will take a while to track down. Then the next pass at your asset tracking should be to validate information about the asset when you scan it, such as serial number, assigned user, model, condition, etc. A periodic inventory and a solid set of asset movement procedures will help keep the database current.

Tip 7 of 10 on Best Practices for Asset Tracking

Effectively Populate the Database. Once you are ready to begin your asset tracking work, you need to have decided how you are going to populate the asset information into the central database. Some customers have their assets in another software application, on a spreadsheet, or on sheets of paper. If you have the data in an electronic form, it is usually best to import that into CG4 and then polish the data from there. If you do not have any electronic data, then adding all the assets manually using the web screens or the handheld scanners will be a good idea for you. Some people think that the quality of their existing data is poor and that they would like to enter everything from scratch. If you are able to start with some data and improve it, at the end of your initial asset tracking effort, it will usually be less effort than if you added them all from scratch.

Documentation

“They” say that you should write at a sixth grade level so that all easily understand what is being presented. To go along with that, we take the time to put a lot of pictures into our documentation. Our internal goal is to make the documentation pleasing enough that you can get installed without scratching your head and calling us to help clear up the confusion. Our documentation is not like a standard technical document which commonly has a lot of information that will bore you to death and make your eyes immediately gloss over. Our Beginner’s Guide is a good place for you to start evaluating our documentation. We welcome any feedback.

Hardware Independent

1. We support Microsoft and Palm operating systems. We support many hardware manufacturers using these operating systems. Our goal is to allow you to select the best handheld to fit your needs. We also strive to support older operating systems so that if you have handhelds you purchased a few years ago, you can use them with CG4s ATS.
2. Some handhelds do not have an integrated scanner. You can use those handhelds with ATS, but you will need to use the handheld screen to do your work. It is less efficient than scanning, but it is an option for you.
3. Plug in scanners are available for handhelds, but most customers end up purchasing integrated ruggedized scanners.
4. If you are using the CG4s stand-alone ATS, you may decide that you do not even want to buy any handhelds and just use the web interface. You could use the web interface with a wand attached to your workstation. It is all up to you.
5. You can have different models of handhelds (or different operating systems if needed) syncing to the server at the same time. This allows you to gradually migrate your handhelds from one model to another if you cannot upgrade all of your handhelds at once.

Location Location Location

The universal theme for buying or selling real estate is: location, location, location. It’s much the same way with asset tracking, too. But I’d also add details, details, details.

When entering information into your asset tracking software (ATS), the more the better. Make sure to supply a complete location, and sub-location, list to ATS even if the assets are currently not there. This will help your handheld users be more accurate with respect to location.

Also, when entering information into your ATS, make sure to add specific details to location. For instance, it will be much easier to find an asset in, say, “Room 203” than it would be if it was listed on the “Second Floor.” Our asset tracking software includes up to eight location nodes. You can nail locations down to the country, state, city, building, floor, sector, room, warehouse, stock room, etc. For more information, check out www.cg4.com.

Interface ATS to Other Systems

The good news about our Asset Tracking System (ATS) is, it can be used with other interfaces and systems. We don’t want you to reinvent the wheel.

Our ATS system is mostly used as a “pass-through” system, and lots of our customers interface our ATS with existing systems. In the “pass-through” mode, we offer automatic imports and exports. In stand-alone mode, we have similar capabilities, but they do not usually provide as much benefit.

We use standard interface tools and programming that’s provided by systems like Hewlett Packard’s AssetCenter and Oracles’ PeopleSoft Asset Manager. If you don’t have a tool or integration system in place, then we can help set on up. We have the ability to take data directly from our database and pull it into your system, and we can often integrate our system without any other customization work required of our software.

Handheld Modules to Fit your Needs

Convenience and versatility is key when conducting business. That’s why we have developed several handheld modules to fit your needs, whatever they may be.

Our asset tracking module is robust, and the one most customers use. Many customers use this handheld module to verify inventory, moves, additions, and changes.

It’s easy to set up, too. You preload assets, locations, models, employees, and other data for any dropdowns you want available on the handheld. You can usually accomplish all your tasks with this module, but there are some other modules that might be better for specific jobs. Our other modules include Receiving, Quickscan, QuicksanPlus, Retirement, and Work Orders.

The Receiving module is used if you have purchase order lines. You preload the open purchase order lines and the stock locations, and those are received onto the module. The QuickScan is good if you are tracking simple and quick baseline inventory. Everything you scan goes into the locations that you entered with the time and date inventoried. The QuickscanPlus has all the same benefits, but instead of scanning only the barcode, you will scan the barcode and serial number for each record. Retirement gathers the assets together as you are retiring or shipping the assets. With Work Order modules, you preload the open work orders and technician names to have the handheld technicians update everything with the convenience of handheld modules.

Configurable Data Fields

We try to make tracking assets simple and easy, so you can save time and money. That’s why we have all the basics set up for you so you can effectively track all your assets in a timely manner. But more than that, we offer the ability to control the naming and usage of the data fields. Because the administrato has the ability to rename and reuse all our fields, each customer’s specific business needs can be met. Administrators can pick and choose which fields are displayed and which ones are “read-only,” mandatory, or free text. The freedom of configurable data fields offers custom dropdown lists and the values for each dropdown.

With this type of flexibility, we hope each of our customers can implement their business without even needing to consider having us customize our software for you. With that said, however, we do not recommend customizing our software. That may slows things down in the future when you want a new release of the ATS software.