A barcoe system is a network of hardware and software, consisting primarily of mobile computers, printers, handheld scanners, infrastructure, and supporting software. Barcode systems are used to automate data collection where hand recoding is neither timely or cost effective. Barcoding systems are not RFID systems even though the companies that provide barcode equipment will often also provide RFID equipment and many companies use both technologies as part of larger resource management systems.