Managing a company is hard enough without the constant worry of what might happen to expensive mobile assets. Equipment tracking allows you to keep tabs on your assets remotely, so you don’t have to worry as much. The technology to do so has been around for a while now and is constantly improving. If you are looking into this service for the first time, or looking to upgrade an existing system, it’s helpful to know the basics.
Tracking Technology
Software asset management (SAM) involves using software and GPS technology to track moving objects. It involves buying, installing and using this technology to protect the assets of your organization. For example, it can be placed on mobile fleets of cars, or assets being transported across long distances such as expensive equipment and tools.
How it Works
First, you put a GPS tracking device on the equipment you want to track. Equipment tracking works with object as small as phones and computers to those as large as cars and trucks. Thanks for advances in technology, smaller devices hold longer battery power to buy you more time to track down and recover missing equipment. This is a great way to hold employees more accountable for operating and transporting assets that are vital to the health of your business.
In a warehouse, assets can be tracking by scanning barcode labels placed on them. That doesn’t work if you are trying to track a moving target. Mobile equipment tracking uses signals broadcast by a tracking device to communicate its location (via GPS, BLE or FRID technology). In the virtual world, this amount to a system that tracks an object’s location in reference to that of the observer. Graphic interfaces render this just like standard mapping technology available on most cell phones. There are markers for various positions and some indication of the direction and distance between the observer and the tracked object.
How Assets are Tagged
Equipment tracking helps you manage the availability of key assets. It is used to document when equipment is moved, stored or in use. This allows business operators to protect and control inventory or loads in the transportation service sector. Asset tags in traditional warehouse settings simply involved a barcode with an eye-catching barcode sticker. GPS trackers can be attached just as easily since miniaturization has revolutionized this industry since its inception in the 1990s.
GPS Tracking
GPS tracking equipment records and reports location data at regular intervals, or whenever the equipment moves. You can also trigger equipment tracking manually or remotely via a computer with access to the tracking software. Modern systems put you in the driver’s seat, with GPS equipment tracking that can call upon satellites, GPS receivers and transmitters and even cellular networks to tell you what you where your assets are at any given time.
Source
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_tracking
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracking_system
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_tracking_unit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_asset_management
