Tagging is a great way of grouping your SIMs which then can be used for easy filtering and searching. It can speed up your bulk actions too, by easily selecting a filtered list.
Tags can also help you organise SIMs based on your external system requirements or terminology. You can even use them to set up graphs in Excel by exporting the SIM list with Tags and usage, and extract statistical data.
Tags are flexible and use cases are numerous. But there are some characteristics of Tags and best practices to reduce complication and confusion.
One thing to remember is that Tags are account-based. So if another user in your account creates a Tag, you as a user can also see that Tag and use it. This makes it easier for companies sharing Tags and reduces the need for unnecessary personal Tags.
Do not use spaces in your Tags
Before the user interface re-design, it was possible to create Tags containing spaces. This is no longer allowed and pressing the space bar will create a Tag. If you already had Tags with spaces those will be available in the predictions and suggestions list as you type. You can select those.
Using spaces in between a Tag name will make it harder to read because users can confuse one Tag as two different Tags. Even though comma is used to separate Tags, it is still creating confusion in the SIM List or an export. We advise using an underscore (_) or dash (-) to join two terms in your Tags.
Do not create more than one Tag identifying same group
If you want to Tag your SIMs with a property like "CCTV", do not also use a Tag "Camera" and apply them both to same group of SIMs or, worse still, a different group of SIMs that mean the same thing. Best practice would be to use one common term to group all related SIMs.
Use multiple Tags to identify sub groups of SIMs to get more detailed grouping
Let's say you have different types of camera devices using data and each have an associated SIM. You can create multiple Tags like "Dash_cams", "CCTV", "speed_cams" to apply to each group. You can even use a "Cameras" Tag to apply all the groups to create hierarchical grouping. That way you have the flexibility to select all camera device SIMs, or only "Dash_cams" SIMs from "Cameras" group. Do not build a hierarchy into the Tag name, like "Cameras_Dash_cams". It is better to have a separate Tag for each group hierarchy and property.
Use the suggested Tags list to apply a Tag that is already created and do not create more than one version
If you start typing a Tag name, let's say, "ID_345" and the predictive list shows "ID345", use the pre-assigned Tag and do not create new one if they both identify the same group. This will help you maintain a healthy list of Tags and reduce confusion of users. It can also give false results. If you filter by one Tag only, you may lose a whole bunch of SIMs which are tagged slightly differently, even though they should be shown together.
Use Custom Fields if you want to define SIMs with more information and the information has a one-to-one relationship
As has been discussed, Tags are great for grouping. But they can also be limited if you want to add more information on a SIM which is not shared by other SIMs, or only a few other SIMs. In this case Custom Fields can be more useful. And the contents of Custom Fields are searchable with the global quick search facility. Let's say you want to log 'Device ID' for each SIM and maybe your devices can take more than one SIM. Instead of creating many Device ID Tags you can create a Device ID Custom Field and enter a value for each SIM. If the value is shared with more than one SIM (maybe up to 4) Custom Fields are still more useful than Tags, plus you can use more characters.
Moreover you can use spaces in the contents of custom fields, as well as in their names. You can also use the Custom Field bulk update feature and update them with one CSV file.