RFID Realities

"Middleware is a very important bet for us but it is also very important for the companies building the readers. Those guys have got very precise needs about they are going to work with the next generation Microsoft mobile platform -- [including] the evolution of CE.Net [and] the evolution of XP embedded," says Sandana Kitcheane, Microsoft European retail technical manager.

The company also says it has joined forces with EPCglobal, an organisation that is developing RFID standards for the Electronic Product Code Network

"We are already members of a lot of the RFID industry groups but we still need to be a responsible leader and we have a responsibility to our partners. There is a growing ecosystem of Microsoft partners building RFID solutions on our platform," adds Kitcheane.

Microsoft's mass-market approach to technology could be important in convincing the small suppliers that RFID is an affordable option. "The big retailers are asking Microsoft to make the technology easily available to all the suppliers. That's really important as you can't imagine how many suppliers are not yet IP enabled, a lot of faxes, a lot of telephone calls. There is a huge supply chain efficiency angle there. But we are also aiming at the large retailers too -- it's completely linked," says Kitcheane.

BT:
BT has created a special business unit to focus on RFID implementations -- BT Auto-ID Services. The telco has released some more details about the unit, including the fact that it will provide a suite of managed RFID services that will integrate with customers' existing ERP and warehouse management software.

BT Auto-ID Services chief executive Ross Hall likened the infrastructure around RFID to the telephone network, with BT in the middle acting as central hub or switch -- feeding in data from tags and dishing out information to a company's internal systems. "BT's expertise in IP infrastructure and data management, combined with our unrivalled global network, makes BT the obvious choice for highly scalable and secure Auto-ID services," he says.

BT Auto-ID will provide the tag and reader infrastructure for customers' products or inventory and then route the resulting data over broadband links to its own data processing centre, where the information will be converted into a form that can be pumped back into a company's existing systems. On receiving the data from a customer's site, the BT platform will use agent technology to manage its distribution of data to various sites in the customer's supply chain.

But despite the momentum behind RFID technology, BT claims to have a realistic view on how long the technology will take to become pervasive. "RFID is often referred to as a 'better barcode' but the reality is that both technologies are likely to co-exist for the foreseeable future. That's why we support barcode applications as well as RFID," says Hall.

Oracle
Oracle plans to develop RFID middleware, joining rivals IBM, Microsoft and others in the race to release software programs specially designed to handle the deluge of data that RFID systems are expected to produce. The information technology systems most companies use today are not equipped for a world in which billions of objects report their whereabouts in real-time, Oracle and its competitors say.

Oracle plans to build RFID data-processing capabilities into releases of its database and application server programs due out this summer. It plans to include special programs, called device drivers, in its software, says Allyson Fryhoff, vice president of Oracle Sensor-Based Services. The drivers are the technical bridge that allows computers running Oracle's software to talk to RFID readers, which wirelessly collect data about objects in within range.

Oracle is working with a number of RFID reader makers, including Alien Technology and Intermec Technologies, which develop the driver programs. Oracle is also developing a "device driver framework" that will help companies administer and build application software for their RFID systems, Fryhoff says.

Oracle expects the adoption of RFID to fuel demand for its database, application server and business application programs as companies grapple with how to make sense of RFID data, Fryhoff adds. The company is packaging the new capabilities into these core products, rather than creating separate RFID products. As previously reported, the company expects to release an RFID-ready version of its warehouse management program in June.

"You don't have to buy yet another piece of middleware for RFID," Fryhoff says. "You should be able to leverage your existing Oracle database."