This is Part Two of our presentation on asset tags, titled How to Design an Effective Asset Tag. Part one covered asset tag trends, asset tag bar codes, RFID. Part three will cover asset tag materials and some installation hints from some experts. This part is really about how to make your asset tag design as effective as possible. My first recommendation for making an effective asset tag is to add your logo. It's not just about extending your brand. We're talking IT here, not Madison Avenue. But it's a quick way to show who owns the asset.
Asset tags with logos, frankly, look more professional. And they're taken more seriously. The other advantages to having your logo on an asset tag are that these tags are harder to copy. And it makes it easier when you’re doing your periodic inventory of your assets to find the right tag. You'll quickly find in practice that there'll be, given a piece of equipment, there’ll be tons of tags. Which one's the right one? The one with your logo is obviously the one you want to scan. Most asset tags use a single color for their logo. It could be knocked out, sort of like the silver and the green tag in the upper right hand corner of this illustration.
We do see some color in logos, but it's less common. Of course, there are some examples, as shown here. Color is great. It makes your asset tag stand out against the background. To make it easy to spot your asset tag, you'll want to avoid using a white or silver background or tag color. The tag will blend in. But color has many other uses, too, such as each department could have their own color. Or use one of the 12 common color combinations to show the month or even the year that you acquired that asset. Or use color to show the type of asset. Is it for a fixture? Is it an electronic asset that has a rapid depreciation schedule? This is actually fairly common. Or for a non-profit or a school, use color to define the asset's funding source.
Was it Title I? Was it state funds? Was it from the endowment or from a particular grant? Colors allow you to spot at a glance the type of asset. Many reinforce the color code with a suffix or prefix code, such as we have here, P or M that ties, in fact, to the color coding. Here's an example of color being used to track purchased equipment. Title I federal funds, how are they used?
Other schools add a year. E.g., these are from federal Title I funds for 2011. In this example, you see color being used to code by month. Yearly, annual, or fiscal based colors are also common.
Now, what's an asset? The definition has certainly changed. It is something that you bought, and takes at least two strong people or a forklift to move someplace.
That's the old definition.
Is an asset something that is valuable, even if it has no book or accounting value? Is it something that you don't want to lose to theft or just to the department down the hall?
Does an asset have many moving parts to it? Is it something that you want or need to track?
The answer is increasingly yes to all of these questions.
The implications of a broader definition for assets are important for asset tags themselves. Many new asset tag designs and materials have been spawned just as the definition of an asset has changed.
Here is one. We call these repeater tags.
The main tag perhaps goes on the front of the main asset.
Other parts can be put on to other places on the asset for easier tracking, for theft tracking, or just because you want to make it easier to find the asset tracking ID on your audit. A copy can even be put onto a file for your office. Many IT departments use these for assets that have multiple parts. Think of a remotely controlled motor.
You track the motor as well as the electronic remote controller. For repeater asset tags, each set has their own unique number, often consecutive. But within each set, the numbers are the same.
Here, 0464. Planes, trains, and automobiles-- actually, I really mean golf carts.
In the past, as asset that moved around was not worthy of being tracked. Well, with more portable and smart tracking devices, it's now easy to track anything. Register your community's golf carts or your bikes or your own ski club's skis. Here are the K2s.
Can a simple tag get your asset back? Yes.
Tamper proof labels help thwart vandals that try to remove a label. Conscientious people return other assets. We have countless examples of a good Samaritan making that important call to the distressed owner. A certain percentage of assets are actually misplaced or borrowed, if I can use that latter term loosely, opportunistically.
An asset tag with a return to sender message can help you get it back. It's one thing to misplace an asset. It's another to not have a way for our kind soul to find you to return it. Asset tags can be so much more than just a static representation of that equipment's ID.
Here are some asset tags that are being used to track test batches and hand tools and fire extinguishers, too. Fire extinguisher asset tags here are part of a system that inspectors use to validate that that fire extinguisher is in a position, that it has been recharged, tested, and is ready to go in case of an emergency.
Asset tags, in other words, can have an active use-- maintenance, inspections, service documentation, and security routes. This is the end of the second video on asset tags.
There are two other related videos. The first, of course, was the Introduction to Asset Tags. And then the third, which follows this, discusses asset tag materials and installation hints. Please listen to those, as well.
