PSTrax, a technology service organization that helps fire departments automate their apparatus, equipment, daily narcotics, and inventory checks, has launched a Critical Assets Module.

The Critical Assets Module is especially useful for high-dollar or grant funded items that periodically require tracking of costs, inspections, expirations, maintenance, movement and repair history—detailed information from manufacture to retirement. Customized to every department’s specs, the Critical Assets Module can be tailored for any frequency of check and offers a batch log option to group appropriate assets together instead of having to log or review each piece individually.

One emergency management organization is using the new module to track and recalibrate assets for nuclear power plants. Notes PSTrax co-founder Cliff Long, “The system can be used in many different ways—for inspections, cost-tracking, maintenance-tracking, budgeting, repair scheduling, compliance, grant-funding reporting requirements, audits, inventory and more.”

Long adds that items can be assigned to a vehicle, station or an area in a station (a training room, electronic storage, etc.), or individual (e.g., a captain’s phone or radio). He notes, “Anyone from station officers to a regulatory body can see where items are supposed to be the last time versus where they actually are. The Critical Assets Module makes sure that no assets, or inspections/maintenance of assets, get left out.”

Reviews address everything from irregularities to periodic verifications. For example, if a truck is supposed to have four radios, the department can set up a monthly truck check that ties into critical assets. When the check or inspection pops up, the department can verify based on individual item serial numbers to ensure everything is there and operating properly.

Typically, these items—which can include radios, computers, TICs and extrication tools and more—historically have been logged on Excel spreadsheets or routine paper checks, which are difficult to maintain and report findings. With the Critical Assets Module, any authorized user will be able to input and/or access information reliably and rapidly to create a robust snapshot literally at one’s fingertips.

More at www.pstrax.com.