Asset Tracking on the Android Smartphone

Aridhio Technologies Inc September 10, 2010 www.aridhio.com

Physical Asset Tracking on the Android Smartphone

Antonio Ransom

Aridhio Technologies


What is Asset Tracking?

• Asset tracking refers to the ability to locate, identify, and assign assets to a person or place.

• An asset tracking system allows an organization to determine status, utilization, depreciation and maintenance history of its physical assets

• Assets are different than inventory. Assets are the equipment, computers and tools used in the business and require unique identifiers. Inventory is based on quantity, is typically sold, and can usually be tracked by the non-unique UPC/EAN numbers on a retail box.


Why Bother With Asset Tracking?

• Track where your assets are and how long they've been there.

• Generate reports for managing the assets and the costs associated with them while reducing the occurrences of assets disappearing.

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• Track asset utilization.

• You’ll have a fast and easy means to assign assets to people and or places and manage the timely return of assets for use by other people.

• Details including cost, depreciation and scheduled maintenance, can be retrieved by scanning the asset barcode.


Barcode Labels

• Barcode labels are essential to tracking assets.

• Two choices are a barcode printing system or pre-printed sequential labels.

• Labeling systems such as the Brother QL and P-Touch Series have the ability to print barcodes with custom labels. An inexpensive system for under $100 will be suitable for many businesses.

• Alternatively, pre-printed barcode labels save a lot of time and cost about $100 for 1000 labels. Be sure to use Code 39 or Code 128 sequentially numbered barcodes. There are water-proof and chemical resistant options. Time-saving may make this a better choice.


Asset Tracking System• Barcode labels are an essential component of

asset tracking but the software, the scanner and its ease of use is the most important.

• Asset tracking systems costing thousands of dollars are available, or

• With an Android smartphone, you can setup a system utilizing the Android’s barcode scanning capability and the Android Physical Asset Tracking app.

• With the web-based application, data can be imported from an Excel spreadsheet.


Generate the List of Assets• After acquiring barcode labels,

the next step is to generate a list of the organization’s assets

• The Android Asset Tracking App supports capture of asset details directly on the device.

• Barcodes can be scanned with the click of a button.

• Note that asset tracking requires scanning and entering unique asset barcodes and not product lookups from retail box UPC codes.


Collect Various Asset Details

• Product Description• Manufacturer• Model• Location• Group By Category• Purchase Order Numbers• Supplier• Purchase Date• In Service Date• Warranty Expiration• Scheduled Maintenance


Add Personnel Details From App

• Personnel badges or other ID card can be barcode labeled as well.

• Details can be recorded then retrieved with a scan.

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• Checkout and check-in can be sped up with a quick scan of both the asset and the personnel ID.


Add Site Details From Android App

• Site or facility information can be recorded at two levels

• A coarse level where address information can be entered.

• And a fine level where rooms, storage areas, bins, palettes, or specific area at a construction site can also be tagged with barcode labels.


Import From Desktop

• Entering a large number of assets via the app can be tedious, so importing assets from a template is supported.

• Select “Import Data” after logging in to download the template

• Populate template with asset, personnel and site data that you want to manage

• You will probably timeout if you are entering data and will need to logout/login to upload the file.


Checkout/Check-in Assets

• Rapid checkout and check-in of assets

• Scan asset ID, personnel ID and / or location barcode using barcode scanning capability from the Android app

• Pick from known list of sites or add a new site


Depreciate Asset

• Depreciate assets

• Track purchase price, current value and depreciation history over time


Service Asset

• Record maintenance, and inspection dates and a short description.

• Set dates for next scheduled service

• Record repair and service cost.

• Track total cost of ownership over time


Generate Spreadsheet

• Generate spreadsheets with asset, personnel and site details as well as complete transaction history for checkouts, depreciation and maintenance.

• Email spreadsheet directly from the app.


Web-Assisted Asset Tracking

• The application can also be supported on the web. Securely track details from any web-browser

• Generate reports in PDF, MS Word, MS Excel and other formats


View Asset Transaction History

• View transaction history of any asset from the web app.

• Web-app requires that users also have the Android app.

• The Web-based app is subscription based per organization with a 30 day free trial.


Summary

• Track your portable and fixed assets with the Android Physical Asset Tracking App, sequentially numbered pre-printed barcodes or an inexpensive barcode labeling system (either less than $100)

• Always know where your assets are, what their value is, when the next scheduled service is due, and what the total cost of ownership is.

• Organizations can pair the web-based counterpart to the Android app and transactions can be monitored in real-time, reports generated from any web-browser.


Thank You!

Antonio Ransom

CEO

Aridhio Technologies Inc.

[email protected]

815-577-2024

Questions?

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Asset Tracking on the Android Smartphone