How should end users approach the RFID-related systems integration challenge?
Overall, it is not fundamentally different from other similar challenges you find in other business scenarios. You have to have a multitiered approach, starting with an assessment around what specific problem you should be addressing and what the return on investment in doing so might be. From there, you dive down into the technology pieces.
Where do you think most companies interested in building RFID capabilities stand right now?
Most companies are in the process of really understanding the RFID base technology -- readers, tags, data formats on the tags and the implication of having all this technology in a warehouse environment. It's about testing and exploring the impact of different materials on the RF behaviour; how fluids or metals might interact with that. They're looking at where you put the tags on a given pallet or on a given case so that you get optimal read rates from those tags. The focus so far is really at the RF level and understanding how radio frequency could be used to optimise the supply chain.
What sort of IT issues will these companies be looking to address first?
At this point, I'm not sure that anyone has identified the most significant pain points. Over time, the most critical issue will be to define the right business logic on top of the base capability RFID provides and define that logic in such a way that it actually delivers business value.
Can you give an example?
Suppose that you have a business case that says you want to be able to feed information to the person at the loading-dock door who has just received a shipment. That, in itself, could be a relatively new piece of functionality, depending on the maturity of your existing operations. But it could also be new functionality that demands a process change. From a technology perspective, the challenge is to not only gather the data, feed it up into the IT infrastructure and process it there -- but also to feed it to the person at the dock door in a real-time mode so that they can make appropriate decisions and essentially become more productive over time.
There is some level of new process that must be defined to really use the power of RFID. If you install RFID and continue to do what you've been doing the last five years, then you probably will not be taking full advantage of the technology.
