Comcast subsidiary MachineQ used IoT to develop an end-to-end system that provides enterprises with a real-time view into the location of inventory, equipment and moveable assets.

Using LoRaWan and Bluetooth LE wireless technologies, the system for the real-time location system (RTLS) landscape offers scalable indoor asset tracking capability as an alternative to incumbent RFID-based options.

The IoT-supported asset tracking market will account for over 90% of all connected enterprise and industrial options by 2030, according to Research & Markets.

This end-to-end indoor asset tracker is another offering that Pennsylvania-based MachineQ has developed to meet the market’s needs. It offers enterprises a mix of real-time location and sub-room level accuracy within three metres, a long tag battery life, and cost-effectiveness. Plus, it is separate from the corporate wifi network, which can help relieve potential security concerns and gets enterprises deployed quickly.

“This RTLS offering is part of our growing business strategy to further develop end-to-end solutions,” said Steve Salata, vice president of MachineQ. “Having the hardware, software, connectivity and deployment all offered by one provider enables enterprises to quickly deploy IoT and realise value.”

Several dynamic industries rely on real-time, streamlined transparency into high-value indoor and portable assets, including healthcare, life sciences and manufacturing. One global pharmaceutical biotech company, for example, needed the ability to track the real-time location of lab assets across more than 1000 labs on an 80,000 square-metre campus so it could more efficiently locate assets for maintenance, calibration and use.

It looked to MachineQ’s asset management product, which offered rapid deployment leveraging in-house technical staff and low start-up costs and total cost of ownership. As a result, the company expects a full RoI in less than a year by saving millions of dollars on asset repurchasing costs, helping finance teams optimise their budgets and working capital, and eliminating costly maintenance contracts on lost and decommissioned inventory.

Beyond financial gains, it benefits from increased staff productivity by saving time spent manually searching for assets. It increased process efficiencies by integrating with its ERP, allowing holistic, enterprise-wide data transparency, a crucial driver for all departments relying on streamlined access to location data for cost allocations, inventory management, asset management and maintenance, and compliance tracking.

The system empowers enterprises to expand on the diversity of a LoRaWan and ecosystem to support future use cases central to operations, such as water leak detection, temperature monitoring and performance monitoring, further delivering RoI.