Tracking Assets from Prairie to Peak
Within months of deploying RFID to keep tabs on its IT equipment, Colorado's vast El Paso County expects to soon recoup its investment.
By Bob Violino
Jan. 3, 2005—El Paso is one of the largest counties in the United States. Located in the east central part of Colorado, it encompasses more than 2,100 square miles—slightly more than twice the area of the entire state of Rhode Island, according to the county's Web site. The western portion of the county, which includes the famous Pikes Peak and the city of Colorado Springs, is extremely mountainous, while the eastern section consists of wide-open prairie.
Tracking capital and noncapital assets ranging from IT equipment to heavy machinery across this vast expanse is a major challenge for the county government. A bar code system that's been in place for two years has been helpful for monitoring inventory. But that system is not always an ideal solution because a bar code scanner needs a clear line of sight with bar code labels in order to read them. To help improve its ability to accurately locate items and track how they're being used by county workers, El Paso is investing in RFID technology.
The county is using an enterprise asset-tracking system that consists of RFID tags and readers from Intermec Technologies, bar code/RFID data collection software from Data Systems International and the EnterpriseOne enterprise resource planning (ERP) system from PeopleSoft.
The RFID portion of the system, which began operating in September, enables the county to keep track of its assets as they move from place to place within the county. El Paso is using handheld RFID readers to track information on assets in office cubicles, warehouses and other facilities, says Buffy Dorpinghaus, El Paso's lead systems project manager.
Jan. 3, 2005—El Paso is one of the largest counties in the United States. Located in the east central part of Colorado, it encompasses more than 2,100 square miles—slightly more than twice the area of the entire state of Rhode Island, according to the county's Web site. The western portion of the county, which includes the famous Pikes Peak and the city of Colorado Springs, is extremely mountainous, while the eastern section consists of wide-open prairie.
Tracking capital and noncapital assets ranging from IT equipment to heavy machinery across this vast expanse is a major challenge for the county government. A bar code system that's been in place for two years has been helpful for monitoring inventory. But that system is not always an ideal solution because a bar code scanner needs a clear line of sight with bar code labels in order to read them. To help improve its ability to accurately locate items and track how they're being used by county workers, El Paso is investing in RFID technology.
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| El Paso will use UHF RFID tags to track computers and other assets |
The county is using an enterprise asset-tracking system that consists of RFID tags and readers from Intermec Technologies, bar code/RFID data collection software from Data Systems International and the EnterpriseOne enterprise resource planning (ERP) system from PeopleSoft.
The RFID portion of the system, which began operating in September, enables the county to keep track of its assets as they move from place to place within the county. El Paso is using handheld RFID readers to track information on assets in office cubicles, warehouses and other facilities, says Buffy Dorpinghaus, El Paso's lead systems project manager.
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