The adage that if you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough, rings true especially when it comes to the complexity of the solutions we represent. Throughout our website we mention:
In the last few years, many vendors have joined the RTLS market, and new vendors are being added all the time. Everyone claims "they can do it all." This is where we will begin because "doing it all” gets complicated, and to do it right you should be armed with information. Information that begins by asking questions:
Once you know the answers to the above questions, next is understanding the specific goals you want to achieve. These goals should be the cornerstone of the system and everything should point towards achieving them. Beware, this is where things get complex because to achieve your goals, vendors will start talking about the pieces and parts of an RTLS system. So let's simplify the pieces and parts.
All RTLS pieces and parts fall into one of three categories: hardware (infrastructure), software (user interface) and accessories (tags & badges). Each one of these categories has its own required expertise and its own set of criteria. Some vendors may only have expertise in one particular category such as hardware or software, but others, such as IMS, can represent all three categories. Understanding how a proper combination of these three RTLS categories can help you achieve your goals.
The final puzzle piece is which network will the RTLS be dependent on. What’s your hospital network: Cisco, Ariba, Extreme, Wi-Fi or something else? Is the network location grade? This is just the tip of the connectivity iceberg. At the expense of sounding repetitive, it all depends on your goals.
At IMS, we ask a lot of questions and request a lot of up front information because we believe designing the system before we quote it lets you know exactly what you are getting, and what it will do. We want to keep it simple for you. Within our team we all have experience and unique expertise just like your team and that's why we need a team effort to match RTLS technology to user expectations, and to "Make It All Work Together."