Q&A: Asset Tracking & Management

Every enterprise has assets. It's a pretty obvious statement. What's not so obvious, however, is how companies can manage all of their assets. From laptops and servers to pallets and plastic totes, companies struggle to locate, identify, and ultimately manage the assets that exist throughout their enterprises. For some companies, a spotlight has been thrown on this problem due to Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance. For others, lack of asset visibility stands in the way of increased efficiency and production. In any event, technologies and applications have evolved that allow companies to get control of assets. The solutions almost always include complementary data collection technologies and software that converts this identification data into relevant information. Companies are now starting to wrestle this asset management issue to the ground. For insight on how the industry is evolving, we turned to Andrew Nathanson, director, AIDC (automatic identification and data collection) and RFID (radio frequency identification) practice, at Venture Development Corp. (VDC). Used with permission from Integrated Solutions magazine