Using RFID to boost business' bottom line

Plans to deploy radio frequency identification technology in supply-chain settings have kept retailers and manufacturers busy over the last couple of years, spurred by adoption mandates from Wal-Mart, Target, the U.S. Department of Defense and others.

Early IT pilots focused on the physics of RFID - finding ways to improve reader performance, figuring out how to apply tags and other device-focused issues. These days, IT executives are turning their attention to higher-level RFID challenges, such as how to make business sense of the data being collected.

To glean usable business intelligence from RFID data requires middleware, experts say. RFID middleware sits between the readers that collect tag data and the business applications that eventually will digest the data. The software manages RFID devices and turns the data they generate into information that business applications can consume.

Early adopters first worked on RFID devices, and now they're ready to think about software, says Sharyn Leaver, a vice president and research director at Forrester Research. It's a natural progression, she says. "Without the tags and readers working correctly, there was no need to think about middleware or applications. As the technology matures, we'll see the interest shift from hardware up to software," she says.

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Plans to deploy radio frequency identification technology in supply-chain settings have kept retailers and manufacturers busy over the last couple of years, spurred by adoption mandates from Wal-Mart, Target, the U.S. Department of Defense and others.

Early IT pilots focused on the physics of RFID - finding ways to improve reader performance, figuring out how to apply tags and other device-focused issues. These days, IT executives are turning their attention to higher-level RFID challenges, such as how to make business sense of the data being collected.

To glean usable business intelligence from RFID data requires middleware, experts say. RFID middleware sits between the readers that collect tag data and the business applications that eventually will digest the data. The software manages RFID devices and turns the data they generate into information that business applications can consume.

Early adopters first worked on RFID devices, and now they're ready to think about software, says Sharyn Leaver, a vice president and research director at Forrester Research. It's a natural progression, she says. "Without the tags and readers working correctly, there was no need to think about middleware or applications. As the technology matures, we'll see the interest shift from hardware up to software," she says.

As RFID users turn their attention to software challenges, a slew of vendors are standing by with products. There are pure-play RFID vendors, such as ConnecTerra and OATSystems, and retail industry specialists such as Manhattan Associates. Big infrastructure software companies IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and Sun also offer RFID middleware, as do integration specialists such as webMethods and Tibco Software.

Most recently, Sybase subsidiary iAnywhere Solutions got into the race. Last week, it announced RFID Anywhere , a software platform that includes connectors and controllers for communicating with RFID hardware, and simulation software for assessing the potential impact of RFID data loads and content on networks and applications.

ProPath is one of the first users of RFID Anywhere. The Dallas pathology services company uses RFID technology to track biopsies and other pathology specimens as they advance through the laboratory's complex processes. An RFID tag placed on every specimen that comes into the lab will store information about the specimen, and who performed each task and when.

RFID Anywhere helps track specimens more closely than the lab's current system, says Mel Lively, director of IT at ProPath. ProPath's current anatomic information system documents four stages of a specimen's analysis, while RFID Anywhere will let the lab document nine stages.