Personally I like DataMatrix on small parts, and QR codes for more complex data structures and internal user-facing stuff. An example with QR Code, I made "pre

Personally I like DataMatrix on small parts, and QR codes for more complex data structures and internal user-facing stuff. An example with QR Code, I made "prefilled" email templates using the mailto: protocol, so let's say you want to report an issue regarding a specific piece of hardware in the office, you can scan the Tech Support QR code and it will prefill the email to send to our tech support email with all its information (hostname, serial number, model, location, etc) and then the client can fill up a small description of the problem before sending. I only do this for hardware that doesn't leave the premises, on laptops I just put a CODE-128 barcode that contains the hostname (also written in plaintext) below the display, and another one on the lid to make the process of taking an inventory quickly when someone is working at their desktop using a docking station with the lid closed. It saves us some back and forth with our users. It's a bit of work, but once you have your template it's fairly easy to automate the generation.