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Table of Contents

• What is Asset Tracking Software?
• What are the common features of Asset Tracking Software?
• What are the benefits of Asset Tracking Software?
• How much does Asset Tracking Software cost?
• How to choose the right Asset Tracking Software?
• What are the common questions to ask Asset Tracking Software vendors?

What is Asset Tracking Software?

Asset Tracking Software enables logistics or supply chain managers to label equipment, manage the lifecycle of assets, track asset locations, and create accurate usage reports with performance analytics.

Using asset tracking software, you can monitor and maintain your owned and leased assets. The assets include machinery, IT devices, and vehicles. The tool captures and stores details such as user logs, operations, location, history, contracts, warranty, maintenance, and repair schedules.

What are the common features of Asset Tracking Software?

• Inventory management: Track and manage the number of physical assets on hand to maintain proper supply.
• Activity tracking: Monitor assets (i.e. equipment, tools, software, hardware, etc.) lifecycle and service history from acquisition to retirement.
• Barcode/RFID: Identify and track assets using barcode tags or RFID (radio-frequency identification) tags that contain electronically-stored data.
• Location tracking: Identify an asset's location at any given point in time using the tracking IDs.
• Reporting and analytics: Track asset activity on projects to monitor performance and create reports for audits.
• Maintenance management: Assess and plan maintenance operations and updates based on the asset condition to ensure longevity.

What are the benefits of Asset Tracking Software?

• Increase equipment lifecycle: An asset tracking solution keeps track of when your equipment needs repair and maintenance. The tool sends automated alerts about the maintenance or repair due dates. This prevents breakdowns and ensures consistent service. You can also identify issues with the equipment and eliminate them before they become a major disruption.
• Reduce maintenance expenses: Using asset tracking software ensures all your equipment works smoothly. You can access the productive work cycle of every equipment to identify potential problems or breakdowns. This asset data assists with scheduling timely maintenance and repair to avoid cost overruns due to sudden or repetitive breakdowns.
• Monitor asset utilization: You can use asset tracking software to capture and track the equipment activity. The metrics to capture include the number of tasks assigned, successful completion, on-time delivery, delays, rerouted tasks, and other factors influencing performance. This data helps analyze the usage of available equipment throughout the production cycle and identify the need to reduce or increase the inventory.
• Ensure compliance with business regulations: The monitoring of assets using asset tracking software assists with preventing mistakes that could lead to audit failures. For example, your employees are using laptops to access business data and the employees fall prey to a cyber attack. You can immediately block that employee's data access and take preventive measures to regain control of the equipment.
• Track asset location: Asset tracking software uses GPS (global positioning system) or telematics to track assets. The assets range from IT devices and heavy machinery to transportation. Tracking asset locations prevents theft and enhances data security. Additionally, some businesses such as freight and transportation management use it to keep track of the shipment in transit. This helps identify and resolve issues causing delays in delivery to offer consistent customer service.
• Simplify audits: You can use asset tracking software to maintain a record of asset utilization from the day of purchase. The records also include the number of maintenance and repairs, breakdowns, task delays, and all other factors affecting performance. The records are converted into reports including metrics that align with the business goals to present during the audit. Additionally, the tool acts as a document management system to store all the data from the audit, asset performance reports, maintenance schedules, and warranty cards to access whenever required during the audit process.

How much does Asset Tracking Software cost?

Most asset tracking software products on the market are priced on a “per user, per month” basis, and their entry-level pricing plan ranges from $19 to $279+* per month. An enterprise product that’s priced higher may include additional features such as inventory management, depreciation tracking, and a mobile application.

*The pricing included is for the entry-level/lowest-priced offerings found on vendor websites as of April 24, 2023.

How to choose the right Asset Tracking Software?

• Identify the type of assets managed: There are multiple types of assets a business owns such as IT devices, heavy machinery, equipment, and vehicles. However, not all asset tracking software is designed to track each of these types. Therefore, you need to identify the types of assets owned by your business and then find the right tool. You can also select two or more software solutions and integrate them for a comprehensive solution.
• Look for work order management capabilities: Asset tracking software with work order management capabilities gives greater visibility into the utilization of assets. You can prioritize tasks based on their urgency, align resources based on their availability, and update all the stakeholders about the work progress. You can also use the tool to stay updated with the maintenance and repair schedules and follow up on their status with the service providers.
• Opt for a service health monitor for machinery and vehicles: With a service health monitor, you can flag assets that are nearing their maintenance and repair schedules. Such assets may not be able to take the workload and need to be flagged to avoid being aligned with critical tasks. The service health monitor uses IoT (internet of things) sensors to track an asset’s condition and performance to see whether it is working properly. This process helps reduce equipment downtime and extend the life of an asset.
• Consider IP range restrictions for IT assets: IP (internet protocol) range restrictions allow device users to log in only from a range of IP addresses. This rule protects the device and the business data from theft or leak. You can track user activity, such as website visits, downloads, and flag items that are a potential threat. Using an asset tracking system with IP range restrictions ensures that the users and devices comply with business rules and regulations.
• Explore alerts and notifications: Alerts and notifications are essential to let you know when equipment failed to complete a task. The feature lets you stay updated on the nearing asset maintenance and repair schedules. Asset tracking software uses different modes, such as email, text messages, or in-app notifications in cases of a mobile app, to alert or notify stakeholders.
• Check for purchase order management: Purchase order management or procurement management is essential for asset tracking systems to maintain consistency in stock levels. Additionally, the feature ensures that only the required assets are ordered, reducing purchase and storage costs. You can use the order history to filter out consistent vendors and maintain relationships for future purchases.

What are the common questions to ask asset tracking software vendors?

• Does the tool allow flagging assets based on their health?

Identifying every asset’s health is a challenge with automated task allocation. You need to look for a tool that lets you flag assets based on their health. Asset health is defined based on the scope of work at hand and the capacity to take up more. This process increases the productivity and efficiency of work.

• What are the analytics abilities of the tool?

An ideal asset tracking software tracks the performance metrics of every asset. You need to make sure that the tracked metrics align with your business goals and the types of assets owned. Some common metrics to track include total working time, failures, overall equipment effectiveness, unplanned maintenance, and maintenance cost (actual and preventive maintenance). The tool should offer an analytics dashboard to keep track of the performance metrics and create reports with specific data points for audits.

• How are the assets tracked?

There are multiple ways to track assets such as barcodes, QR (quick response) codes, RFID (radio frequency identification), GPS (global positioning system), and NFC (near field communication). However, most asset tracking software uses one or two of these methods to track assets. All these methods are different in terms of the technology used, response time, and metrics tracked. You need to learn about the process used by your selected software and check if it aligns with your business needs.

• Can the tool generate codes for tracking assets?

Some tracking software comes with a code generator to tag and track assets. The codes can be printed and pasted on the assets for quick scanning using a mobile device. However, this is a limited feature, and the number and types of asset tags (RFIDs, barcodes, etc.) generated vary for different software subscription plans.