ASAP expands asset tracking

ASAP Software Express Inc. last week announced a new asset-tracking program that will allow agencies to keep better track of the desktop software products they buy and how those products are being used.

The Custom Information Option (CIO) is an expansion of ASAP's current Internet Tracker and Internet Reporter asset-tracking programs. While the older programs help agencies track who purchases a product, CIO will allow agencies to know where the product was sent and even what project the software supports.

The company developed the CIO program "because just knowing who bought the product doesn't always tell you everything," said Randy Lee, director of government sales at ASAP.

Under the new program, agencies specify what information they want to capture, and ASAP then collects that information when product orders are placed, Lee said. Agencies enrolling in ASAP's eCommerce program then have password-protected access to all of the tracking information and can give that access to anyone in their organization.

Often within large agencies, a single contracting office will buy products for a number of departments and projects, Lee said. In the past, agencies were satisfied knowing just who bought a product, but now agencies such as the Navy are starting to ask for additional information, such as where the product is being used and how, he said.

The Navy last September awarded ASAP a $166 million blanket purchase agreement to provide Microsoft Corp. desktop software to the Navy, the Marine Corps and the Coast Guard.

ASAP last week also announced new pricing for Microsoft software on ASAP's General Services Administration schedule contract. The new Microsoft Select 4.1 Level D pricing, depending on the size of the purchase, will give agencies prices 5 percent to 7 percent lower than standard GSA schedule prices, Lee said.

ASAP is one of the first companies to have Level D pricing on the GSA schedule, but several others also are in negotiations with Microsoft, according to a Microsoft spokesman.