Build Your Own Application: How QR Codes Alleviate Asset Management Burdens for SMEs
Original article: https://cli.im/article/detail/2106
Every mid-year and year-end, Wang Meng spends days manually inventorying her company's fixed assets. Despite being familiar with workflows, the process remains chaotic.
"Especially during April and May when employee turnover peaks – tracking computer returns from departing staff and registering assets for new hires. Our Excel sheet has thousands of rows, yet unexpected issues still arise. Sometimes we have to search multiple offices just to locate a missing monitor."
The frustration extends beyond HR. The finance team repeatedly inventories assets during budget planning to identify procurement and maintenance needs. Unclear asset status could lead to spiraling purchasing costs.
How to optimize internal asset management models and achieve efficiency through digital tools has become a critical consideration for business leaders.
Three Pain Points in Fixed Asset Management
Large enterprises typically implement comprehensive asset management systems with dedicated personnel handling procurement, warehousing, usage, retirement processes, and rigorous approval mechanisms – often investing hundreds of thousands in specialized systems.
SMEs, while prioritizing cost sensitivity and cash flow management, frequently neglect fixed asset management. Common issues include unclear asset status, unassigned responsibilities, and discrepancies between records and physical assets. Even when using collaborative office tools, many still rely on paper-based tracking and manual inventories in a primitive management stage.
Fixed assets directly impact costs and expenditures, making them crucial for cost optimization. While managers recognize these challenges, three inherent pain points persist:
1. Management Complexity
Long lifecycles, dispersed usage scenarios, and diverse equipment types complicate manual tracking. Challenges include inconsistent data entry standards for low-value consumables, warehouse materials, and personal assets, exacerbated by frequent departmental changes and personnel turnover. This leads to low utilization rates, incomplete records, duplicate purchases, and asset loss.
2. Data Fragmentation
Though SMEs have smaller scales than large corporations, untimely updates and inaccurate records prevent holistic visibility. Without clear equipment usage data across phases, organizations struggle with budget approvals and procurement planning, ultimately increasing management costs.
3. Dynamic Tracking Difficulties
Initial records often become outdated, making it hard to track asset quantities, locations, responsible parties, departments, and status changes. Each inventory requires cross-departmental collaboration for photo documentation and data entry – any errors may trigger weeks of rework, burdening staff and perpetuating inefficiencies.
The barrier isn't willingness but cost. Custom digital solutions often require tens of thousands of dollars in development costs, with even simple features like repair requests needing multi-department coordination. Faced with high expenses, many SMEs continue relying on error-prone manual methods.
"Build Your Own Asset Management System"
The solution lies not in better awareness but finding affordable, lightweight tools that lower digital transformation thresholds.
"During a partner factory visit, I noticed QR codes on equipment for maintenance checks. Scanning revealed parameters, inspection records, and maintenance history," Wang Meng recalled. This led her to discover CaoLiao QR Code, a platform enabling users to build custom asset management applications.
"Initially expecting to purchase a solution, I found a cloud platform where business users can create applications using templates – covering asset tags, item tracking, vehicle management, maintenance requests, and inventory control. Modifying templates meets most needs, with free tier sufficing for basic usage. Managing hundreds of devices only requires upgrading to a ~CNY 1,000 paid plan."
After studying CaoLiao's workflow, Wang Meng batch-generated QR codes for 300+ devices using Excel data. Each code displays equipment details, responsible parties, status, and location while linking to repair forms. She built a lightweight asset management system in one day.
New hires now update computer status via QR code scans. Departing employees trigger instant status updates through handover scans. Maintenance requests submitted via QR automatically notify Wang Meng, who tracks repair progress in real-time.
Unexpected benefits emerged: The "status" module integrates with CaoLiao's mobile workbench dashboard, enabling real-time views of asset statuses (in-use, idle, damaged, retired). Previously day-long inventories now take minutes. Collaborating with IT, Wang Meng connects CaoLiao's data API to BI tools for detailed reports.
QR codes now permeate all asset processes: office supply cabinets feature codes for usage tracking, warehouse staff batch-scan items during intake, and delivery vehicles maintain usage, refueling, maintenance, and violation records accessible via mobile scans.
The breakthrough lies in empowering users as developers. Business staff can build and deploy applications without IT dependency. Platforms like CaoLiao embody "citizen development," enabling individuals to solve temporary, fragmented, and personalized needs through accessible tools.
Conclusion
According to IDC research, asset management solutions can help enterprises:
- Reduce audit costs by 75%
- Cut spare parts inventory by 40%
- Decrease redundant test equipment by 20%
- Reduce missing assets by 45%
- Improve utilization rates by 30%
For SMEs grappling with asset management challenges, cloud platforms like CaoLiao QR Code offer a new paradigm: After minimal training, staff can implement full lifecycle digital management from procurement to retirement through citizen development. This approach accelerates enterprise digital transformation through democratized tool access.
Article adapted from China Daily report:
How to Solve the Asset Management Dilemma of SMEs?