Streamlined uploading

Nov 1, 2000 12:00 PM, ACCESS CONTROL & SECURITY SYSTEMS INTEGRATION STAFF

Western Resources simplifies data enrollment with asset tracking hardware

Western Resources (WR) is a consumer services company with interests in monitored services and energy. The company has diverse holdings, including utilities that provide electric service to approximately 634,000 customers in Kansas. It also owns Protection One, a monitoring company, and ONEOK Inc, a Tulsa-based natural gas company which is the ninth largest natural gas distribution company in the nation. With such diverse operations, WR places a premium on keeping track of its assets.

WR owns approximately 4,000 IBM desktops computers and has, until recently, managed its asset inventory manually. Since it replaces approximately a third of its desktop units each year, the company was looking for new asset management technology tools to capture information about new units, track technology, and account for the older units being replaced. When manually tracking assets, the company logged several hours per unit to access, store, retrieve and analyze WR's asset information. The receiving personnel simply recorded information about assets on paper, then manually keyed the data into the database.

"We wanted to increase speed and accuracy of the asset enrollment process," says Greg Kuhlman, senior associate in WR's IT asset management group. "Our newer IBM PC's were arriving at our receiving area with black-and-white bulls-eyes on them. We knew that these PCs were equipped with an embedded technology that would allow us to collect all of the information about each one and upload that information to a centralized database. But we needed to find the necessary hardware and software tools before we could get rid of our pencils and paper once and for all."

The search led WR to asset tracking software developer QueTel and asset tracking hardware supplier HID. HID has spearheaded the application of radio-frequency identification (RFID) and partnered with IBM to embed HID's RFID asset tracking technology, Asset ID, in more than 5 million IBM desktops, servers and portables. WR chose the asset tracking system ProxTrak, which includes QueTel's network database application and the handheld RFID readers from HID. It allows WR to scan each PC without opening a box or crouching under a desk.

The QueTel asset tracking database application was installed on WR's network with four clients, two located at the Topeka headquarters and two at the WR warehouses. Each client system has an HID hand-held reader attached to it. Any additions, deletions or changes to the centralized asset inventory, whether at headquarters or remote sites, are electronically captured and uploaded over the network to the QueTel database.

The ProxTrak system has streamlined WR's asset management procedures. At the loading dock, receiving personnel can leave computer boxes shrink-wrapped on a pallet and verify that the computer in the box is in fact the one indicated on the outside of the box. "It used to take about five hours to enroll a shipment of 200 PCs," explained Kuhlman. "With ProxTrak, that same project can be completed in about 30 minutes." Additionally, during their semiannual asset reinventory, WR can capture information about its PC and peripheral assets in a fraction of the time using the RFID-based ProxTrak system.

The rewritable Asset ID tags have enough memory capacity to store additional pertinent information about the PC. During the procurement process, user-specific information can be written to the embedded asset ID tag to speed deployment and configuration of the PC into the WR organization. The tags also contain leasing, warranty and other ownership data to help WR better support its information technology asset and reduce its total cost of ownership.

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© 2012 Penton Media Inc.

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