Asset management
British Red Cross and its technology partners AIDC Solutions and TransitionWorks have developed a new system designed to streamline and improve the management of over 5000 Red Cross assets in the field, including laptop computers, satellite phones, GPS locators, surveying equipment and vehicles used in multiple humanitarian aid projects worldwide.
Each asset will be fitted with an updatable RFID (radio frequency identification) tag which will hold details of user, programme, location and several other pieces of information. Tags can be scanned in the field using a handheld device to record changes that are then updated on the tag before being uploaded via the internet to a British Red Cross server in the UK.
The system is being piloted at the Red Cross international warehouse in Bristol, where the organisation stores the equipment for its logistics and mass sanitation Emergency Response Units, or ERU.
