When the Department of Defense told all military branches they would have to account for all their assets, the scope of the project seemed a bit staggering. After all, everything and all its parts needed to be identified and labeled – this means an Army helicopter would need identification – as well as the 2,000 or so parts needed to make it run.

The Department of Defense calls it the Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy. A2B Tracking Solutions, based in Portsmouth, calls it “the next big phase of our business.”

A2B, a package tracking company specializing in bar code technology, is working with more than 10,000 defense contractors to ensure they’re Universal Identification compliant. To do so, A2B has written tracking software to account for all items, generates labels and offers technical support for the new systems.

“The defense department needs to identify what it has and what it is … and apply a value for what it’s worth,” said Peter Collins, president of A2B. “Every branch of the military has to comply with UID”; which means that billions of items around the world have to be marked. To do so, each item needs a two-dimensional bar code. The two-dimensional aspect allows for more data storage, Collins said. And depending on the amount of items being marked, a bar code can reach a length of 72 characters.

“Anyone who makes something for the Department of Defense over a certain value needs to put bar codes on each part of the product they send,” Collins said. And those bar codes must last for the life of the product, which can stretch as long as 50 years. Depending on their usage, some items receive a label made from durable polyester with a permanent adhesive.

“For items like tanks, we make steel-plated tags that are laser-etched,” Collins said. The steel tags require high-powered images to scan.

“A2B is the integrator for the printing, marking and scanning,” Collins said.

Each company that provides goods for the defense industry must purchase A2B’s software module. The company scans the items into a database and A2B then uploads the information to the Department of Defense.

“Right now we’re working with a lot of suppliers who are scrambling to comply,” Collins said.

A major deadline looms on Jan. 1, 2006, when manufacturers or suppliers who have or make government property need to report to the database. Fortunately for the suppliers – and for A2B – the actual dates on which individual companies must comply with UID are written into contracts, meaning they will have rolling dates on which they must begin complying.

A2B began working with the Department of Defense about 18 months ago, when the UID standards were released.

“We started to develop a system based on those standards,” Collins said. Today, roughly 80 percent of A2B’s resources are dedicated to UID compliance.

The remaining 20 percent of the business is focused on an internal tracking system developed for companies that receive packages. The system, called “Trackpad,” allows businesses to track the progress of a delivered package within large organizations.

A2B began developing the system six years ago. Many UPS customers were calling customer service, complaining they hadn’t received their shipments. UPS’ records showed the package had been delivered to a loading dock, but there was no record after that.

Trackpad monitors a package’s progress from the receiving area to its intended recipient. A2B is the only licensee for the technology, and roughly 800 companies now use the Trackpad system, which uses commercially available scanning hardware. A2B designed the software, which the company integrates so it works seamlessly.

“We combine it and become the point of contact for the customer,” Collins said. The system also works to track non-UPS parcels, including FedEx and DHL.

Between Trackpad’s growing popularity and the UID contract, Collins said A2B is growing rapidly.

“Our head count of employees alone grew 15 percent in the last year,” Collins said. Fifteen people now work for A2B. He expects the UID project to continue to help the company grow.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” Collins said. “The business projections for UID are 90 percent growth year over year.”