EQUIPMENT: Put Those Barcodes Away for Good; BofA, Wells and FSTC preach that RFID can shave time and cost out of the IT asset inventory process.(Shifting Gears)

Byline: John Adams

If the game is IT asset tag, Bill Conroy has no problem being told he's "it." Ideally, he'd like everyone to be it.

Conroy, the Chicago-based infrastructure optimization program executive for Bank of America, is also an enthusiastic evangelist for use of radio frequency identification (RFID) as a means to corral expensive IT assets.

RFID deploys automated tags to help institutions electronically track servers and other high value IT assets, reducing the need to have staff spend days walking around data centers to individually scan bar codes when taking inventory. The technology can be used to rapidly track all inventory processes, including ordering, receiving, maintenance, …