First RFID Show Kicks Off

At the Electronic Product Code Symposium, which opened Monday in Chicago and runs through Wednesday, IBM launched an RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) service based on its WebSphere Business Integrator running on WebSphere Application Server, DB2 Information Integrator, Tivoli Access Manager, and WebSphere Portal Server.

The service, which is being demonstrated at the Symposium, gives companies considering deploying RFID a three-phase implementation of the product tagging technology. In Phase I, IBM consults with the business on developing RFID, while a three-month pilot program rolls out in Phase II. In the final phase, IBM deploys the full system it built in consultation with the customer.

But one analyst doesn't think much of the IBM entry. "It's more hype thananything," said Jeff Woods, a principal analyst with Gartner. "It's as if IBM just put the letters 'RFID' in front of its existing technology.

"IBM's services seem a little confused as to the benefits of RFID," said Woods. There's a lot of talk coming from IBM about things that aren't all that important to RFID."

As it happens, IBM wasn't the only vendor making news at the Symposium.

Intermec Technologies, an Everett, Wa.-based developer of supply chain hardware and software, including scanners, terminals, and wireless LANs, on Monday introduced Intellitag Ready-To-Go RFID kits that let companies evaluate the tracking technology.

The kits bundle Intellitag's RFID tags and readers -- including an IP3, the company's newest RFID-enabled handle for its 700 series handheld computer -- software, and a day's worth of services to put a typical enterprise supply chain application through the RFID paces.

"I'd liken this to one of those chemistry sets that kids get as gifts," said Woods. "It's a way to simplify getting your toes in the RFID water, and is a good way to see what the technology can do."

Intermec also used the Symposium forum to announce an RFID printer that simultaneously writes to Intellitag RFID chips embedded in a label, and prints bar codes and human-readable text. The EasyCoder Intellitag PM4i printer, which features frequency agility -- the ability to write a single tag that can be read at multiple frequencies, important for companies which want to mark products or pallets only once, but make them readable in both Europe and the North America -- will be available in early 2004, said Intermec.

On the chip side of RFID, silicon giant Philips introduced new chips to its supply chain line-up at the Symposium. The ICODE EPC chip, targeting item-level management -- where individual items carry a one-of-a-kind identifier -- averages up to 200 labels read per second, according to Philips. It's available now only in sample quantities, but will go into volume production by the end of the year.

Philips' UCODE HSL (ultra-High frequency Smart Label), meanwhile, is available now in volume, and takes aim at the container- and palette-tracking end of RFID. It operates in both the UHF and 2.45GHz ranges, allowing one tag to be used globally. Other characteristics of the UCODE HSL chip include reading ranges of 11 feet for a single antenna and 22 feet for gate readers -- such as those at the doors of a warehouse -- for reading as palettes and containers roll into a facility.

ConnecTerra, an RFID software management maker, also took advantage of the Chicago gathering Monday to debut its RFTagAware platform in Chicago. Rolling out to select customers this month, and scheduled to ship in December, the Solaris-, Linux-, and Windows-based software collects RFID data using a three-tier system of servers, filters it into meaningful data for the enterprise's business and supply chain applications, and provides provisioning, management, and security features for RFID data collection.

By implementing the Auto-ID Savant standard, RFTagAware allows RFID data to be collected at remote sites without the need to write application-specific code, said ConnecTerra, speeding up deployment of both pilot and complete RFID programs.

What's missing so far from the product announcements he's seen at Symposioum, Woods said, is an emphasis on business processes, and making a business case that justifies investment in RFID.

"RFID comes down to business processes," Woods said. "Companies have to sift through all the bad RFID ideas, like point-of-sale data collection, and look for the good ideas, like re-engineering manufacturing processes.

"That may not sound sexy when compared to global product inventory, but it's potentially more realistic and more powerful," he concluded.

This story courtesy of TechWeb .