Technology vendors set the stage for RFID data integration to business systems
By Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 11/1/2005 7:00:00 AM
Limited RFID pilots that are ramping up to full-scale enterprise implementations could spark a shakeout among early technology suppliers in the coming months, according to ABI Research, Oyster Bay, N.Y. Reason being: it's what you do with RFID-generated data that matters.
"If you are [proceeding] piecemeal, you may have a great solution, but it's really all about the network," says Erik Michielsen, ABI's director of RFID & Ubiquitous Networks.
Users will be looking for more extensive integration to business systems, which will put pressure on tag and hardware vendors at the tactical level to augment breadth if they hope to stave off incursion from major hardware and software vendors eager to capture demand for what promises be a ubiquitous element of global supply chains.
"One piece alone won't make a difference, but integrated, it will impact end-user processes," says Michielsen. "The key issues will be how to understand and use data generated by RFID tags, how to integrate it with the overall IT architecture, and subsequently manage information flow to make more intelligent decisions. This will justify higher levels of spending," he asserts, making the market increasingly attractive to larger players.
The stage for a shakeout has already been set. "We're seeing larger companies moving into this space: SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, IBM, and to a certain extent, Cisco," says Michielsen. "This will pressure small players to reinvent themselves as they try to compete with larger ones with more resources, but that may move slower."
At the same time, Michielsen adds, just announcing an RFID initiative isn't good enough. "The big players will make investments in this space to encapsulate small company offerings within their own, and overtake other competitors as companies move from test pilots to fully integrated deployments," he says. "Smaller companies may partner to compete head to head, or seek other areas where they might find success other than where they have to date."
For example, SAP, with its Auto-ID Infrastructure, is pushing down into middleware areas handled by OATSystems, Acsis, and Connecterra. In turn, OATSystems, for one, is pushing up to challenge some functionality in the SAP NetWeaver platform, Michielsen explains.
No stand-alone segment is sacrosanct, including the most elemental—i.e., tags—with Philips and Texas Instruments looking to make inroads here.
"Will there be a clash with [RFID and supply chain solutions vendor] Alien Technology, or will it be complementary?" asks Michielsen, but what is certain in the end, he believes, is that "multipartner relationships or single-source architects will be down on each other for every last dollar."
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