We can hardly believe 2019 is coming to an end. What a year! And so we thought we’d take this time to reflect on what the itemit asset tracking software has in 2019 and give you some ideas on what we have planned for 2020.

The start of 2019

First things first, when we started 2019, we were in the middle of upgrading the backend of itemit to cope with the growth of itemit in 2018. As accounts had grown and vast amounts of new functionality were being designed to be added, itemit was in need of an upgrade to improve the speed and performance of the asset tracking software system.

We completely rebuilt the itemit web portal using more modern technologies, and this increased the speed of the portal dramatically. In addition, we reviewed the asset tracking apps in their entirety and selectively chose areas of the apps to enhance, rewrite and improve, which resulted in significant performance improvements.

Innovate UK Grant

Back in 2018, we were awarded an Innovate UK grant for an 18-month project that would transform itemit from being a simple, closed business application to become a powerful, shareable and scalable cross-business system instead. 

May 2019 saw the release of the system that this grant funded. Next, the new itemit asset tracking software was deployed across ten buildings at the University of Cambridge where the system’s new functionality allowed for public-facing assets to be tagged and tracked and for staff, students and visitors to interact with these assets using itemit’s novel pubic profiles feature.

Furthermore, itemit was launched across multiple housing association buildings to keep track of and monitor fire and compliance assets including fire doors, fire extinguishers and emergency lighting. In addition to the original scope of the project, we also deployed itemit at St John’s Innovation Centre to allow for issues to be reported against public-facing assets within the communal office building.

The project came to a close in September 2019, and the results showed a hugely successful project.

Features released in 2019

Further to stability and performance improvements, we had very ambitious plans for new itemit features in 2019. The itemit asset tracking software now includes all of these fantastic features

1. Bookings
2. Check out/check in
3. Collection and location hierarchy trees
4. Issues management
5. Public profiles
6. Workspaces
7. Sharing
8. AI-Bot for issue prioritisation

Check out these tutorial videos to find out more about each new feature.

2019 Growth

The team have worked very hard to drive forward itemit development this year. This new functionality, coupled with a real effort to try and spread the word of great work of itemit and how businesses across many industries can use it has led to an 80% increase in the number of itemit customers. This is almost double the number of clients compared to the start of the year.

Not only have we seen the asset tracking software and its clients grow, but we’ve also grown the itemit Team. 2019 saw three new permanent members of staff join the team as well as a partnership with a digital marketing agency. With all this extra help, we have huge ambitions for the next year.

What to expect in 2020

You’ll see the same great customer support and the next set of features and improvements we have lined up for you. Many of next year’s developments will be focused on fine-tuning areas of the asset tracking software to deliver efficiency savings for you. Furthermore, we will be exploring adding more tagging technologies tot he itemit repertoire, including BLE tags, GPS tags, and exploring integration with fixed RFID readers and sensors.

We love hearing from you and learning more about how you’re using itemit. So many of the improvements we make are from the feedback we receive from you – little changes that help to save you clicks and time. We hope to continue in the same way and deliver changes that add even more benefit to you.

Here’s to a happy, healthy and successful 2020!

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On the 6th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: Better facilities management systems with public profiles!

What are public profiles? With itemit’s impressive asset management software, you can now use public profiles to track and manage issues. The way it works is simple. Anybody can scan a public QR code asset tag to add an issue.

Uses of Public Profiles

Why did we develop public profiles? We developed our asset management software for industries such as construction or facilities management.

After the Grenfell disaster, we were shocked to learn about the lack of transparency and visibility over asset condition and the lack of action taken against reported problems. We knew our asset management software could help. If tenants could report issues directly to facilities managers and directly onto the asset itself, the communication between tenant and manager could improve health and safety drastically.

Then, we discovered that facilities managers could get upwards of a thousand emails a week requesting fixes for a variety of assets. The admin alone could create problems for health and safety. We knew we had a system that could help.

This was the beginning of the birth of public profiles. Public profiles is a system that makes issues management, maintenance, and fixes more streamlined.

Our asset management software can assist with health and safety on both ends, from the user end to the backend for facilities managers.

Using Asset Management Software to Manage Issues

How public profiles works is simple. 

First of all, in your pro workspace, create an asset profile for the asset you wish to make public. This could be anything from a safety door, to a fire extinguisher, even a hand-drier.

Then, all you have to do is click on the cog and switch public profiles on. This will make all the assets in your workspace public, ready to be scanned by your tenants.

After this, if a tenant sees an issue with a fire extinguisher, they need only scan the QR code asset tag with their smartphone camera and open the web-link. They’ll be taken to a web-page where they can report an issue.

The information tenants see is limited: A description, the asset’s name, and its profile picture.

Public Profiles: How does it work?

Whenever an issue is reported, the administrators will get an email. The way issues work is then identical to the usual issues management feature in itemit.

What this means is that a smart AI bot will prioritise the issue and it will appear in the “issues” tab. It can then be managed by saying whether or not the issue is open or fixed.

Where We’ve Implemented our Asset Management Software

Many different industries and buildings have picked up our asset management software to use our public profiles feature. We piloted it in a few different places to great levels of success.

Cambridge University buildings: A wide range of Cambridge University buildings, including the University Library and Judge Business School, are using public profiles to track and manage issues in their meeting rooms and communal spaces.

Office blocks: We also rolled out public profiles in a few office blocks, including ours, where issues in meeting rooms and bathrooms can be reported. We’ve found issues are fixed much sooner with our system.

Housing Association: itemit is being used to track fire and compliance assets across many different housing association properties. Assets being monitored include fire extinguishers, fire doors and emergency lighting.

If you want to find out more about issues management, public profiles, or our asset management software, you need only contact us or fill in the form below.

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In 2017, the itemit asset tracking software was launched. The product was two years in the making and much longer in the research and creation phase.

itemit is the brainchild of the team at RedBite Solutions. RedBite is a spin-out company from the University of Cambridge and was founded in 2006. The founders were part of the original architects of the EPC Network at the Auto-ID Centre based at the University of Cambridge. From 1999 onwards, the team behind RedBite and itemit have been involved with the standardisation of RFID as well as providing consultancy services and designing and creating bespoke Internet of Things (IoT) asset tracking software solutions for the likes of Boeing, the United Nations and Rolls Royce.

After collaborating with such diverse and large global organisations, it became apparent to the RedBite team that no matter what the industry or the size of the organisation or even what assets or objects needed to be tracked, each company had the same set of fundamental problems. Additionally, the team recognised that these problems could ultimately be solved with very similar asset tracking software systems.

Key asset tracking problems:

1. Knowing what assets you have
2. Knowing where those assets are
3. Recording important asset information in an easily accessible place

The RedBite team saw a unique opportunity to use the experience and knowledge gained across a decade of supporting and creating bespoke asset tracking software solutions to develop a flexible yet powerful system that could be used by any organisation to track any asset. And thus, itemit was born!

itemit Asset Tracking Software

itemit is a solution that has been designed to allow any business, from any industry to track any asset. itemit addresses the critical asset tracking problems faced by every organisation and offers a low-cost, flexible way to track and monitor assets.

Since launching two years ago, itemit has grown to help over 70 companies track their critical business assets. Our clients include the Mountain Rescue Charity, Siemens, Becton Dickinson, Anglian Water and Aldi, to name just a few.

itemit is tracking a huge variety of assets including power drills and similar tools and equipment, water loggers that are moved from site to site and installed temporarily, as well as laptops, keyboards and other critical IT assets.

We have carefully crafted every feature in itemit to address the key challenges faced by the organisations we have collaborated with over the past decade in order to unlock the potential of tracking any asset using one system. Here are just some of the carefully designed features you’ll find in the itemit asset tracking software:

1. QR and RFID asset tagging
2. Unique digital profiles for each asset
3. Automatically updated last seen locations
4. Customisable reminders
5. Flexible and powerful reporting
6. Book assets out in advance
7. Check out and check in assets
8. Collection and location hierarchy trees
9. Issues management
10. Public profiles

What does the future hold for itemit?

As a team, we are so proud of itemit and its journey so far. We have spent the last two years adding a huge amount of additional functionality to the system. There have been some challenging times and we’ve learnt a lot along the way. Now, we are at a point in time where we have a stable, feature-rich system that is relied upon by many organisations. As always, we will continue to strive to add more functionality to the asset tracking software, adding improvements that make your lives easier.

Over the next year, we have an exciting, jam-packed development pipeline that will deliver even better results for you and your team.

Watch this space!

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On the 5th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: an easy way to track and manage issues!

Sooner or later, an asset will have an issue. How this affects you will depend on what job you’re in. 

If you’re in the construction industry, an asset issue could mean asset downtime for repairs. Asset downtime could, in turn, cause a temporary loss in profits, especially if the issue isn’t tracked and rectified as quickly as possible.

If you work in facilities management, issues management may mean something different. Issues management could mean a broken sink or toilet, or a light switch not working. This could mean many emails to your account from tenants requesting any number of fixes.

No matter what, issues management is crucial as otherwise, you can lose time or focus your efforts in the wrong places. With an effective asset tracking system such as itemit, these issues are solved.

How itemit’s Issues Management System Works

There are two main ideas with issues management. The first is to benefit maintenance and repair workers. The other is to benefit people working in facilities management environments.

Our bespoke asset tracking system can help both effectively and with ease.

You will be able to track and manage issues using both the App and our web portal at web.itemit.com.

The Web Portal

Now, on the web portal, it’s faster than ever to submit an issue. All you have to do is select the faulty asset and press the “create issue” button under the image. You can then type in what the issue is, and it’ll be reported.

You can add one in a similar way within the asset’s full profile by pressing “add” next to the issue field.

You’ll be able to track and manage all of your issues in the “Issues” tab, whether they’ve been resolved or not. This way, you can use our asset tracking system to see historical data about which assets break more frequently.

Whenever issues are resolved, you’ll be able to assign them as so, but you can also indicate that they’re not an issue or that they were created by mistake.

The App 

In the itemit App, the process is similar. You can scan an asset’s QR code asset tag, or open the asset profile and press “Raise issue.”

You’ll also be able to track and manage issues in an issues tab, much the same as in the web portal.

AI and Public Profiles

itemit’s asset tracking system is smarter than that, however. There’s more to how you can track and manage issues.

Integrated into issues management is a smart AI bot which employs machine learning to categorise the severity of your issues automatically. It already has over five years of facilities management data integrated into it!

You can reprioritise the bot and help it learn, should you need to.

That’s not all when it comes to itemit’s smart asset tracking system, however. Public profiles are also a new feature that has been rolled out to all of our customers.

With public profiles, you need only add a QR code asset tag to an asset and make your profiles public. This way, anyone can scan your asset with their smartphone and report an issue, without needing the App! They can only see what they need to, and all of the secret information remains in your hands. 

If you’re in facilities management or maintenance, itemit’s asset tracking system has made issues management simple and effective. Find out more by contacting us or by filling in the form below.

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If you’ve got large numbers of tools and equipment to keep track of, you’ll have your own list of reasons why you need a tools tracking system. Let’s recap together why a tools tracking system is so crucial for your business and how you go about implementing one.

5 reasons why you need a tools tracking system

1. So you know what tools and equipment you have

It may sound obvious but one of the most common reasons we hear from businesses as to why they need a tools tracking system is so that they have an accurate record of what tools, equipment and IT assets they have. For rapid growth organisations, asset tracking can quickly get out of hand if the number of items you own doubles or quadruples. 

This list of assets is often referred to as a fixed asset register and is essentially a list of all kit that the business owns, as well as critical information relating to each asset, such as inspection due dates or warranty expiry dates.

2. To ensure your equipment is fit for purpose and in good working order

Each of your tools is unique; each piece of equipment has a different maintenance schedule; you need a tools tracking system to manage this for you. You don’t need us to tell you how important it is to make sure your machinery and assets are in good working order, but we can tell you how you can ensure this is the case.

Asset tracking software lets you create a digital record of each of your assets. On each asset’s record, you can store configurable properties. For example, you may need to monitor PAT tests and therefore need to add a property called PAT Test Due. If you choose the right tools tracking system, you will be able to run reports to see at a glance which assets have a PAT test due for renewal, for example, in the next week. 

3. So that your team know which pieces of kit are available

As your team grows, it becomes more challenging to keep the whole company updated on new assets, which assets they can’t take as they’re needed by someone else, etc. The good news is that this is exactly what your new tools tracking system will do for you.

List your assets on your new system and share your account with the team. This means any member of staff can log in to itemit and see which assets are available and also see when checked out assets are due back in.

4. To track where your tools and equipment are and who has them

If your day-to-day operations involve assets being moved from site to site and job to job by various members of personnel, it can feel impossible to keep track of where all of your assets are. If you’re struggling to track your assets then it’s time you started using a tools tracking system. 

Each time an asset moves to a new site, it can be scanned to update its location so that you and the team can all see where it is (and who’s got it!)

5. To save yourself time

Once you switch to a better way of tracking your tools, you won’t look back. The amount of time (and stress) your tools tracking system will save you is staggering. Imagine every day spending 30 minutes less or an hour less trying to track down lost assets – it’s game-changing.

The itemit tools tracking system will revolutionise your asset tracking processes and streamline your operations. Not only will it make your life easier, but your teams out on the ground get to use a simple system that lets them tell you what you need, without adding painstaking manual operations to their every move.

Start your free trial of itemit today and see how much of an impact a tools tracking system will have on your business.

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On the 4th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: an easy way to group assets in bulk!

If you have a lot of assets, you’ll know the importance of creating an audit trail. Whether this is created by tracking the assets as they move from location to location, or by adding and removing them to and from collections, it can be a slow process.

Not anymore! With the quick-add feature, you’ll be able to scan QR Code asset tags and quickly add assets to a collection or location.

Collections and Quick Add

So, what’s the thinking behind quick-add?

There are many uses. For example, say you’ve created a collection in itemit for damaged assets, when it comes to inspection you may need to add or remove multiple assets from that collection.

If several assets have been repaired and are ready to be put back into use, historically, you’d have to change the status of the assets one by one.

Not anymore.

Now, the process is a lot simpler. All you have to do is go into the collection you wish to add multiple assets to and press “quick add.” After this, you can scan in all the assets you want to add to that collection.

Locations and Quick Add

But this isn’t the only use case. There are many different ways an asset can change in status. If it has changed hands or condition, collections can be used to reflect this.

But, what if the asset physically moves?

Remember, with itemit, you’ll be able to create location hierarchies too.

In the past, if multiple assets moved from room to room, it was a matter of re-assigning the assets one by one.

Now, all you have to do is open the location that you want to add your assets to, press “quick add” and scan the QR code asset tags or barcodes.

Quick add is intelligent when it comes to location changes. As an asset can’t be in two places at once, assets will be moved automatically from the previous location into their new location.

A Helping Hand for your Industry

Quick add will help you track your tools and equipment quickly and with ease, no matter which industry you’re in.

It could be that you’re tracking toolkits, but also want the additional accountability of tracking specific tools, you can now use quick add. In the past, the fastest way to track the movement of these tools would be to only track the toolkit. Not anymore!

If you have multiple assets that move around a lot, whether it’s within your own building or from site to site, quick add can help.

For example, if you work in a lab, and you want to know exactly where your crucial kit is, but also want to be able to move it from one place to another quickly. Now, you can use itemit to add that extra layer of accountability with ease.

You can find out more about what itemit, the ultimate asset tracking software, can do for you by contacting us or by filling in the form below.

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