Category: ItemAware

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Compliance Features Inventory Management ItemAware

ItemAware – Inventory Management Made Easy

inventory management made easy

You may have heard us talk about ItemAware but do you know how our intuitive, modern software can help you keep track of your “things” while allowing you the freedom to focus on your job at hand? Let our cutting-edge software take the headache out of inventory management.

Better yet, ItemAware doesn’t just stop at asset tracking and item management. Our innovative technology takes the stress out of compliance, prioritizes worker safety, and eliminates time spent searching for your most important equipment. Read more below about the features ItemAware can offer you including keeping detailed compliance records, real-time tool tracking, and more.

Compliance

Preserve worker safety and remain OSHA compliant with calibration, maintenance, and inspection due dates tracked conveniently within our software.

Keeping track of maintenance records coupled with inspection dates can be a job all of its own. Setup alert reminders in ItemAware to ensure that you never miss a compliance deadline again.

Worker compensation settlements are both costly and time consuming. According to the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, “approximately 15 percent of the Ohio workers’ compensation claims among workers in the utilities industry result in losing eight days or more from work and cost an average of $46,000”. Your cost of doing business should not include a costly settlement. Keep your workers safe and protect your bottom line by using our software to stay up to date on all important maintenance needs.

ItemAware offers more than just maintenance tracking. Review the graphic below to learn more about the additional compliance benefits of ItemAware.

Failure to remain OSHA compliant can result in significant financial penalties as well as unwanted legal issues for your company. Prevent these fines while simultaneously prioritizing worker safety by allowing ItemAware to keep detailed inspection records for you.

Map View

With ItemAware, you will have a map view of all assets and their exact location. This feature allows you to drill down into each individual truck to see your equipment. At the touch of a finger, our software gives you the confidence to know right where your tools are exactly when you need them whenever, wherever you are.

The graphic below shows you how easy it is to view the location of your tools and trucks. Additionally, users can quickly glance at their mobile device and know if they have all items (green thumbs up), if an item is in the wrong location (orange thumbs up), or if any items are missing (red thumbs down).

ItemAware also makes your tools fully traceable and visible to you around the clock. Did you know the utility industry estimates a 30% annual loss rate of tools: i.e., upwards of $900,000,000 “lost” items annually? Cut down on theft and lost inventory by keeping a history of your item’s current and last known locations.

Our customers say it best. “In the time that we’ve had ItemAware running, we’ve never had to buy another tool… if we reduce our tool loss by 20%, we could save millions.”” – Current Customer, Anonymity Requested

Need to know where your trucks are located at all times? No problem. ItemAware gives you the flexibility to check the precise location of your trucks whether they are stationed in neighborhoods, driving across the country on highways, or anywhere in between. Tracking your trucks and equipment has never been so easy!

ItemAware was built with you in mind. We know that you don’t have time to waste learning how to use complicated software. Our intuitive design and clear prompts reduce the learning curve. You and your team will be up and running in no time.

Always Scanning

ItemAware is always working for you! Our system is always on, reading tools continually. This means you know the current status of each item and you do not have to rely on workers to keep inventories current. This real-time data, made available by the use of geo location in the field, is an invaluable advantage that our competitor’s software cannot offer you.

Inventory Management Simplified

Our cutting-edge software is automatic – meaning no user involvement is needed. Manual tracking and updating item information is both time-consuming and prone to human error, resulting in lost time, effort and money. ItemAware changes that story by automating the inventory process.

Time is money. Decrease your money spent and stay on track with your budget by lowering the amount of effort needed to track your inventory. Manual scanning significantly increases the number of employees you need as well as the amount of hours required to get the job done. Eliminate the burdensome task of scanning barcodes by letting ItemAware automatically – and accurately – do the job for you.

Did we mention that ItemAware is mobile-friendly? We know that you can’t be stuck behind your desk all day – with ItemAware you don’t have to be.  You can easily swipe and view all item information on your mobile device without the hassle of being tied to the office.

ItemAware – The Inventory Management Solution You’ve Been Looking For

ItemAware is the exact technology you have been looking for to save wasted effort, time, and money spent on outdated processes. Let our software take the headache out of inventory management while allowing you the chance to focus on your most profitable goals.

We are here to help you. Get started today by requesting a free 30-minute demo with one of our knowledgeable representatives.

About the Author

Jessica Frye is an expert content writer with 7+ years of professional writing experience. She earned her B.A. in Communication Studies from Wright State University and has worked alongside companies in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors. Jessica is passionate about community and enjoys using the power of words to not only cause people to react but to take initiative.

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Inventory Management ItemAware RFID Software

Utility Industry Uses ItemAware for Tool Tracking

The utility industry estimates a 30% annual loss rate of tools, i.e., upwards of $900,000,000 “lost” items annually. 

Aware Innovations is excited to introduce ItemAware software to the utility industry to help eliminate the cost of lost items.

What is ItemAware?

ItemAware tracks tools, equipment and more, giving users full visibility of assets as well as all designated locations (trucks, sheds, jobsites, etc.). This allows users to know when an item is missing or has been put in the wrong location.

Tracking systems allow companies to stay nimble, react quickly and devote time and money toward actual business goals. Our software is a mobile, intuitive software that easily integrates with multiple technologies.

It can be used on your enterprise system, or we can host it for you. Designed to be flexible, ItemAware is customizable to your situation, your environment, your goals.

How it Works

  • Tag Items with right-size, durable RFID tags
  • Designate locations and assign tools to each location (truck, shed, jobsite, etc.)
  • Use the ItemAware app to see each item’s status and last-seen location
  • Click on items to see item-level details (such as history, manufacturer, and more)

Intuitive & Mobile Color-Coded Icons

ItemAware uses color-coded icons so that users can quickly glance at their mobile device and know if they have all items (green thumbs up), if an item is in the wrong location (orange thumbs up) or if any items are missing (red thumbs down).

First-Hand Experience in the Utility Industry

Concurrent Group, a customer of RingPower Utility Equipment, uses our tool tracking software and gives feedback on this cutting-edge solution on our ItemAware website. To learn more about ItemAware’s application in the Utility Industry or to request a free 30-minute demo, click here.

About the Author

Elyse Cheatwood is our Marketing Manager. With ten years in marketing and ever-increasing knowledge of the Automated Identification Data Collection (AIDC) industry, she creates research-driven content based on market trends, industry updates and tech insights from reputable sources (including the professionals she works alongside).

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Compliance ItemAware RFID

Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance and RFID

RFID can help businesses pass audits and fulfill requirements imposed by the Sarbanes-Oxley act (SOX) – a law that has had drastic operational and financial impacts on U.S. companies.  

Background

Nearly twenty years ago, in 2002, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was created to hold publicly traded companies accountable for their financial reporting.

This came after some of the U.S.’s largest companies were exposed for financial scandal. Unethical business practices and falsified financial statements landed these companies in bankruptcy – evaporating employee’s retirement plans and crumbling investor trust in corporations.1

What is Sarbanes-Oxley?

SOX implemented rigorous controls for financial reporting and auditing. This was done to ensure the accuracy of corporate disclosures, with a hefty criminal charge for non-compliance.

With the creation of SOX, companies quickly made investments in controls that would help them pass audits. However, many continue to underestimate the massive undertaking of accounting for assets and rely on a large workforce and static spreadsheets for reporting.

RFID can revolutionize this process – eliminating human error, showing asset status in real-time and being a reliable source for data.

RFID’s Role in Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance

RFID is an efficient, accessible technology that collects data from items (think medical supplies, tools, IT assets and anything in between) and provides real-time reports with item status, history, and location.

RFID can play a critical role in SOX compliance by:

  • Increasing Reporting Accuracy:
    • SOX Requirement: A company’s financial statements must be accurate to the best of the executive officer’s and chief financial officer’s knowledge.2
    • RFID Benefit: Assets play a role on a company’s financial statement – and an inaccurate count can lead to errors in reporting. Manual asset tracking is prone to human error and risks this accuracy. Automating this process with RFID diminishes that possibility as readers collect, organize, and report the data. This ensures that everything is accounted for – which can reduce loss rates by as much as 99%.
  • Disclosing in Real-Time:
    • SOX Requirement: Section 409 of the Sarbanes-Oxley act requires that material changes in a company’s financial condition or operations are required to disclose the information on an almost real-time basis (within 48 hours).3
    • RFID Benefit: Automatic data can capture supplies’ real-time information as readers read the RFID tags. This can be done with continual updates or by passive readers that scan an item any time it passes by (such as entering a new location). Software receives this information and organizes it, then feeds it to the user. Users can even get automated alerts when an item’s information changes.
  • Providing Traceable Source Data:
    • SOX Requirement: any source data in financial reports must be traceable and any changes documented.4
    • RFID: Data pulled from RFID readers is easily viewed. All changes to any assets are recorded and kept with the pertaining asset. This allows users to trace all information and keep it updated as changes occur.

Other Benefits of RFID

RFID’s features directly correlate to the SOX requirements mentioned above – but it has other ways it supports this as well:

  • Simple Reporting: RFID makes running reports incredibly easy as data is continuously updated and ready to be pulled at any time. Users can enter the parameters and get up-to-date information within minutes, rather than waiting for a manual count or referencing a previous report.
  • ERP Integration: ERP systems are often employed to help with SOX compliance. RFID software, such as ItemAware, can easily integrate with these systems making it easier to share and pull information.

Conclusion

Ensuring that your company is meeting all requirements to Sarbanes-Oxley is crucial, and RFID can make that process easier.

Index

  1. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sarbanesoxleyact.asp
  2. https://isgovern.com/blog/sox-compliance-act-and-public-funding-financial-reporting/
  3. https://www.sec.gov/news/press/2003-6.htm
  4. https://learnidentityandaccessmanagement.com/sox-compliance/

About the Author

Elyse Cheatwood is our Marketing Manager. With ten years in marketing and ever-increasing knowledge of the Automated Identification Data Collection (AIDC) industry, she creates research-driven content based on market trends, industry updates and tech insights from reputable sources (including the professionals she works alongside).

Categories
ItemAware News RFID Traceability

Track IT Assets Using RFID and ItemAware

The US Patent and Trademark Office needed a new way to track IT assets. The process by which this was currently being done was taking too much time and was vulnerable to error. Read on to find out how implementing ItemAware and the use of passive UHF RFID helped them save $1.2M each year. 

Tom King, PMP, and the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) won RFID Journal’s ‘Best Implementation of RFID in Other Industries’ Award in 2020. The USPTO wanted to reduce the cost of a manual process of tracking IT assets. This labor-intensive tracking process was subject to error due to the almost 1,000 people involved in tracking IT assets worth over $159,000,000. 

A New Way to Track IT Assets: Project Details 

To achieve the desired results of this project, the USPTO implemented ItemAware and the use of passive UHF RFID (RAIN) to track over 130,000 IT assets. Below are details of the project as outlined in the interview recorded by RFID Journal’s Mark Roberti. 

The United States Patent and Trademark Office has:

  • 15,000 employees
  • 8 buildings
  • Approximately 2.5 million square feet of office space
  • One main campus: Alexandria, VA
  • Four regional offices: Detroit, Denver, Dallas, San Jose

The goals of this project were as follows:

  • Reduce the number of employees tracking IT assets
  • Reduce inventory cycle time
  • Increase accuracy
  • Increase asset visibility
  • Reduce asset loss

Requirements of the project included: 

  • Minimally invasive
  • Cost effective
  • Integrate with current asset system of record

Results of using RFID and ItemAware to track IT assets:

  • $1.2M annual savings
  • Reduced Property Custodians from 804 to 275 (employees were able to get back to their real job, increasing satisfaction)
  • Reduced inventory cycle time from 10 to 5 business days each month
  • Accuracy increased 100% due to data from RFID
  • Increased asset visibility and better monitoring of contractor performance
  • Reduced asset loss to near zero

Conclusion – Track IT Assets Using RFID to Save Time and Money

Watch the video below as RFID Journal’s Mark Roberti interviews Tom King from the USPTO office about how they save over $1,000,000 every year using RFID to track IT assets. 

Read the use case on this project to get more in-depth details on how the USPTO uses ItemAware to track IT assets.

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