SharePoint University

I've been looking around online trying to find a way to use sharepoint for keeping track of our inventory. I have been wanting to use barcodes and print out a label from sharepoint that represents that certain asset.  Then when the asset is checked back in or when we are doing year end inventory we could go around and scan all of the items and somehow sharepoint would be be notified. Or something along that extent.

Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas about this?

Hello,

Barcode readers are nothing more than fancy... strike that.

Barcode readers are nothing more than strange keyboards that only have one role - to enter numbers based on how many and the configuration of laser read lines. So, basically, anything you can do with a number you can do with a bar code.

One option to solve this is to have a unique code for each asset - it could be an auto-generated number, for instance 1000000 plus the ItemId of the SharePoint item or you could just use a random but unique number. Perhaps you already have an asset numbering system that can be used.

When someone checks out an asset you just enter that number, look up the SharePoint item with that number and change a checkbox or yes/no field. When the item is returned, do the opposite. To ensure that you do not check out objects that are not supposed to be checked in, use different forms or methods.

This may be a really simple solution, but you can add on functionality as far as you want to go. Make workflows to inform those that check out that they are overdue after a certain amount of time. Fire them through an HR workflow if the still do not comply. Or do what thou willt :-)

.b