Jul 07, 2004RFID cargo-tracking solutions provider Savi Technology has announced a new version of its Asset Management System (AMS) software. The latest version, AMS 4.3, includes new features that can enable companies to collect and manage more data on their tagged assets by improving the level of tracking detail integrated into the application.
AMS is used by companies to help track assets such as shipping containers and unit load devices (ULDs are large containers that are loaded onto a plane). The software brings additional specific functionality to Savi’s core SmartChain RFID network management platform, which provides the basic connectivity and communications between tag readers and the enterprise network.
“This is a very mature product. Over the past three years we have built in a lot of what we have learned from our customers into AMS,” says Ravi Rajapakse, chief technology officer at Savi, which is based in Sunnyvale, Calif.
Savi has provided AMS 4.3 with new tools to enhance the real-time visibility of containers and items, whether in transit or on-site. For example, one of the software’s new features is the built-in ability to track and trace nested items–tagged items inside a tagged container. Savi has also added the ability to record other details about the use and location of tagged containers, such as how long an asset has been in one area and how long it was in transit over any given route. Previously such details were available only by means of applications that had to be custom built to work with AMS, according to the company.
Savi says it has made a range of other improvements, including a new and enhanced Key Performance Indicators feature that provides general performance reports by showing things such as asset inventory and cycle time (the time an asset is used on a single job) from a range of perspectives, including by checkpoint, route or zone. There is also a new management console to enable system-wide configuration and testing from a single screen.
In addition, Savi says it has optimized the way the software operates, streamlining its software objects and libraries to ensure that AMS 4.3 can operate more swiftly. “The new version has more than a 200 percent increase in performance,” says Rajapakse.
That increased performance reduces the amount of time it takes for a tag to be read at a checkpoint portal, for AMS to then check all the details regarding whether that tagged item should be at that portal, and finally for AMS to return any resulting decision to the the SmartChain application managing the RFID reader network.
“We haven’t had issues with not being able to process actions quick enough in the past, but we wanted to keep ahead of performance demands by enabling more than what is needed,” says Rajapakse.
Savi says because it cut the number of application programming interfaces (APIs) within its program in half, the company expects AMS 4.3 to be easier to integrate software with existing enterprise applications.
That reduction could mean, however, that enterprise applications connecting with previous versions of AMS may have to be altered to work with version 4.3. According to Savi, a company’s IT staff working together with Savi technicians should be able to upgrade an earlier versions of AMS to 4.3 in just a few days.
Pricing for the new software is dependent on configuration and deployment size. According to Savi, some customers are entitled to an upgrade of their AMS software free of charge and others are not, depending on their individual contract.
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