Asset Management Service for Distributed Computing Environments

• US 20140131434A1
• Filed: 11/15/2012
• Published: 05/15/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ozkan, Mehmet
• Granted Patent: US 9,218,586 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/375
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information

Abstract

Concepts and technologies are disclosed herein for an asset management service. The asset management service can receive asset record creation requests and can store asset records at an asset data repository. The asset records can identify assets and associated information such as, for example, asset identifiers, personnel, organizations, users, geographic locations, time and date information, status information, or the like. A user device can execute an asset management application to generate asset tags including the asset identifiers and to scan existing asset tags. When asset tags are scanned, the user device also can capture device and/or user information that can be used to set a status or provide available status choices. Status updates can be provided to the asset management service for updating of the asset records.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

obtaining, at a user device executing an asset management application, an asset identifier comprising information identifying an asset;

capturing device data, the device data comprising data indicating a geographic location associated with the user device;

capturing event data, the event data identifying a status of the asset; and

transmitting the asset identifier, the device data, and the event data to an asset management engine.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the asset identifier is obtained from image information associated with an asset tag attached to the asset.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the asset tag is generated at the user device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein generating the asset tag comprises

generating the asset identifier,

obtaining asset information, and

requesting printing of the asset tag.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein generating the asset tag further comprises

transmitting the asset identifier and asset information to an asset management service for creation of an asset record associated with the asset.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the asset tag comprises a two-dimensional barcode.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein obtaining the asset identifier comprises presenting a user interface for scanning the asset tag to extract the asset identifier from the two-dimensional barcode, recognizing the two-dimensional barcode, capturing image information associated with the two-dimensional barcode, and extracting the asset identifier from the image information.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the device data further comprises a device identifier associated with the user device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the device data further comprises user credentials associated with a user of the user device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein capturing the event data comprises providing the asset identifier to the asset management engine, receiving a list of events associated with the asset identifier, and selecting the status from the list of events.

11. A device comprising:

a processor; and

a memory that stores computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising

obtaining an asset identifier comprising information identifying an asset,

capturing device data, the device data comprising data identifying a geographic location of the device,

generating event data identifying a status of the asset, and

transmitting the asset identifier, the device data, and the event data to an asset management service.

12. The device of claim 11, further comprising an image system that captures an image of an asset tag comprising indicia representing the asset identifier, and wherein the image system extracts the asset identifier from the image.

13. The device of claim 11, further comprising a cellular transceiver that communicates with the asset management service, wherein the asset management service comprises an application executing on a server computer.

14. The device of claim 11, further comprising a global positioning system device that determines the geographic location.

15. The device of claim 11, wherein capturing the device data comprises capturing a unique identifier that identifies the device and user data comprising a credential associated with a user of the device, and wherein the event data is selected from a list of events obtained from the asset management service.

16. The device of claim 11, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations further comprising:

providing the asset identifier to the asset management engine to generate a list of events associated with the asset identifier, wherein the asset management engine generates the list by searching a plurality of asset records stored at an asset data repository for asset records associated with the asset identifier and identifying the events based upon the asset records;

receiving a list of events from the asset management service; and

selecting the status from the list of events.

17. The device of claim 11, further comprising a printer that prints an asset tag comprising indicia representing the asset identifier.

18. A computer storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

obtaining an asset identifier that identifies an asset, device data comprising data indicating a geographic location associated with the asset, and event data identifying a status of the asset;

generating a list of events associated with the asset identifier, the list of events being based, at least partially, upon the asset identifier, the geographic location, and the status; and

providing the list of events to a device for selecting a status of the asset.

19. The computer storage medium of claim 18, further comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations further comprising:

searching for asset records associated with the asset identifier;

identifying events for an asset associated with the asset identifier, the events being based upon the asset records;

generating the list of events based upon the asset records; and

receiving a selection of the status at the device.

20. The computer storage medium of claim 18, further comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations further comprising:

presenting a user interface via which the asset tag is scanned to extract the asset identifier from an asset tag attached to the asset, the user interface comprising a user interface control for scanning the asset tag; and

presenting a further user interface via which the status of the asset is indicated, the further user interface comprising user interface controls for

editing the status of the asset,

verifying the geographic location, and

selecting personnel associated with the status.