Acsis on Big Retail’s RFID Initiatives

“When the Wal-Mart suppliers came out with their RFID mandates, we were a major provider for suppliers that were affected,” says Andre Pino, Chief Marketing Officer, Acsis, Inc. “We had about 30 of the top 100 suppliers at Wal-Mart. We were helping them to meet that requirement. Now that this new requirement has come out for the suppliers to Sam’s Club, we’re getting a lot of calls from the companies that we worked with previously on the Wal-Mart mandate that are now looking to figure out what they need to do to meet the Sam’s Club requirement.”

Acsis is telling its clients that there is a value proposition here beyond simply compliance. There is a way they can improve the efficiency of their operations. “If you look at our value proposition, it is really to enable safe, secure, and efficient supply chains,” says Stewart McCutcheon, CEO of Acsis, Inc.

Safety and security are issues that primarily fall into the pharmaceutical sector of the industry to prevent counterfeiting and ensure the integrity of the drugs that go through the supply chain. Acsis believes that efficiency is the major value proposition that will apply more the consumer packaged goods, specifically in the Sam’s Club initiative. The efforts that Acsis are making involve talking to people about how to do this in a way that’s scalable. McCuthcheon says: “If you look at Sam’s Club, they’re going to start off relatively small with one DC now and scale it up every few months to more DCs across the country. We’re telling them that they need be prepared to scale and take advantage of this.”

Acsis’ clients’ reactions fall into two categories: one is the slap-and-ship clients who will spend the money to do the bare minimum requirement to adhere to the Wal-Mart policy; and the other category is comprised of clients who embrace the technology. This group is not just trying to satisfy the needs of its key customers; but it is also looking back into its supply chains and seeing where it can take advantage of RFID technology in its own operations, not just in the shipment of the final leg of that supply chain when it’s shipped to Sam’s Club.

McCutcheon explains: “In the shipping process, Acsis will automate the transactions associated with shipment — the creation of the deliveries, the confirmation that the truck has been loaded, the validation that the right carton is going on the right truck, etc. Acsis had a major food and beverage company that implemented its solution in several stations of its supply chain and in its shipping operation. When the company’s forklift drivers would load the trucks to be shipped, tags on the pallets would be read and then confirmed in real time that they were the right shipments going on the right trucks.

Pino elaborates: “By meeting the Wal-Mart requirement, they are putting in a lot of the infrastructure already. So they may as well extend the use of that infrastructure to get some benefit.”

Acsis believes it attracts customers who are looking for the bigger value proposition in RFID. Though it has clients who have utilized its solutions on more of a slap-and-ship model, its core competency intends to realize much more scalable and integrated solutions than just a stand-alone thing.

“Wal-Mart’s idea of beginning to put a penalty on those who do not use RFID tags is something we haven’t seen before,” says McCutcheon. “It’s a way of pushing people into the water and making them swim. I think once they’re in the water, they will find out the water is fine. They’re going to learn to swim and get some value out of this. At the end of the day, for those suppliers that are going to take the time to figure out what their value proposition is, they’re ultimately going to get more out of it. And for those who are going to get pushed in the pool, tread water, and just do what they have to do, it will be an added cost to them. They will look at it as an added cost for doing business with these major guys who have already squeezed them on a price point in many cases. They may perceive it as an eroding margin, if they don’t go back into their own operations and look for opportunities to utilize RFID.

McCutcheon agrees, saying: “The timing is good. The technology has made some major advances. Gen 2 is much cheaper and more reliable. We’ve seen that the technology can be extremely reliable. I don’t think it should be seen as a replacement for UPC barcode-based technologies, but it certainly is more useful in several scenarios where you don’t have line-of-sight, where you want to automate the transactions, etc. It’s interesting also that they are focusing in on Sam’s Club now because they are doing it at the pallet level. So the cost from an incremental variable cost standpoint is fairly trivial. Most of the added expense is going to be in the infrastructure and services to put the stuff in place. There’s not really a prohibitive, ongoing operational expense associated with this, whereas if you were tagging at the item-level and you had a relatively inexpensive consumer packaged goods product — that could be a very expensive proposition. Pallet level — it’s going to be relatively cheap. I think Sam’s Club went for where the most value is.”

“The point is: when done right, serialization can really deliver ROI for these companies so they can leverage that investment they are making,” says Pino. “The whole idea of payment, having accurate invoices, and being able to do the three-way match — the shipment, invoice, and payment — much higher degree of accuracy there. In confirmation, if there’s any dispute, it’s much easier.”

McCutcheon adds: “Having the ability to look up when and where a shipment was located, received, etc. is going to greatly decrease the DSO (Day Sales Outstanding — the open accounts receivable) for these organizations and be able to improve their cash flow, especially with the volume that is going through these retailers.”

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SATO America Announces Ready-Set- Solved!
For Mandated Compliance Applications

SATO announces its Ready-Set-Solved! — SATO’s EPC Gen 2 RFID solution for mandate compliance applications enabling suppliers to Sam’s Club an easy and cost effective way to satisfy the recently announced RFID tagging requirement. By January 31, affected Sam’s Club suppliers must begin tagging all full, single pallets or incur a service fee for each pallet not RFID-tagged.

“SATO America’s Ready-Set-Solved! provides suppliers with everything they need to quickly, easily, and cost effectively ‘get up to speed’ and begin tagging full, single-item pallets that are destined for Sam’s Club’s distribution center in DeSoto, TX, or one of its stores served by that distribution center,” says Mike Beedles, Director of Integration Services and Development at SATO America.

Ready-Set-Solved! includes the following “ready-to-go” SATO products that offer ease-of-use, reliability, and durability:

• GL408e UHF RFID Printer
  SATO’s most significant release of printing technology to date. The GL4e Series offers an industry-leading printer management utility SATOnet CONNECT™, standard tri-port communication protocols, competitive emulations of all major barcode printers, and much more.
• Label Gallery 2 TruePro
  Full-featured, easy-to-use label design software that provides a complete barcode printing solution including the latest Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target, DoD, and UID label formats. Label Gallery 2 True Pro can be used with 32-bit and 64-bit Windows operating systems: Windows 98 SE, Windows NT 4.0, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.
• One roll of 4x6 AD-222 RFID Labels
  General-purpose smooth, white paper face stock and permanent adhesive with a high quality liner.
• One roll of T101A Standard Wax Ribbons
  General-purpose wax ribbon that provides an economic alternative that is especially effective on low-cost paper media.

“Ready-Set-Solved! serves as a very cost effective, stand-alone RFID solution for suppliers with mandated compliance requirements,” adds Mike Beedles. “For those users not facing immediate compliance, SATO offers a full, turnkey solution including RFID middleware, integration, service, and data collection; and we manufacture the printers and labels and provide the software. Our reputation for reliable products and services are unmatched.”

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Lowry Computer Products Announces the Release of Retail Quick Comply Kits

Lowry Computer Products— a manufacturer and single-source integrator of RFID, wireless, barcode, and data collection solutions — announces the launch of Lowry Quick Comply Kits, a complete suite of products designed for suppliers to comply to RFID mandates from Sam’s Club, and other large retailers.

Lowry Quick Comply Kits are a bundled solution, providing users with the necessary hardware, software, RFID Labels and support to adhere to retail compliance mandates, with minimal disruption to their current processes. Each suite of products includes best-in-class hardware from leading technology providers, user-friendly software, a starter supply of RFID labels and ribbons, and one on one installation support.

“These kits allow Sam’s Club suppliers to comply with the requirements at a low cost and scale the application as tagging volumes ramp up” states Jeff Tazelaar, RFID Product Manager at Lowry and former member of the RFID Strategy Team at Wal-Mart.

Lowry Quick Comply Kits are available in a variety of levels, catering to the needs of any corporation who is ready to comply with retail RFID mandates. To see which collection of products provides the best solution for your company, please visit www.rfidovernight.com.

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Diakinisis Automates Major Distribution Center with
Full-Scale RFID Solutions from Alien Technology®

Alien Technology announces the completion of a warehouse distribution center system for inventory and shipment tracking for Diakinisis’ warehouse distribution center (the largest third party logistics company in Greece). The system uses Gen 2 Squiggle® and M tags and ALR-8800 readers from Alien Technology, with RFID installation services provided by Business Effectiveness, a preferred Alien Technology solution integrator.

“The project’s focus was to achieve 100% traceability in the in-coming pallet shipments,” says Nikos Koromilas, Director of Executive Operations & Administration at Diakinisis. “We soon realized that RFID could be expanded to include additional benefits: using shelf tags to verify use of the correct storage location to automate control of outgoing shipments. We are quite satisfied with the RFID hardware and software infrastructure provided by Business Effectiveness and products from Alien Technology.”

Business Effectiveness — a leading provider of RFID integration services, RFID hardware, and supply chain solutions in Greece and the wider region — specified Alien®’s Gen 2 field-proven readers and tags for three separate RFID applications within the Diakinisis warehouse and DC environment. Floor-mounted and shelf tags communicate to fork-lift mounted antennas and validate pickup and inventory data. Alien’s Gen 2 M tags are applied onto the concrete floor and Alien’s Squiggle tags are used on pallets and the shelves. Portals are used at the dock door to track the out-going Gen 2 tagged pallets. Trucks are tagged with RFID labels.

“We consider the Diakinisis portal solution to be the best outdoor Gen 2 portal in the market today, as the eight portals have been designed to withstand the harsh conditions of both adverse weather conditions, and the challenges of operating within a DC environment,” says Vlasis Tsezos, Engineering Manager at Business Effectiveness.

“A typical RFID installation addresses the automation or streamlining of a particular process, but the Diakinisis DC is very unique in that Alien’s RFID solutions are being used as the central data capture method for storing all in-coming shipments.” says Stephen Crocker, Director of Sales/Channels for Europe, Middle East, Africa, and India for Alien Technology. “The Diakinisis project represents one of Europe’s first full-scale RFID installations in a FMCG DC environment, and we are very proud to be associated with Diakinisis in this unique and highly effective application.”

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Quest Service Labs First to Support
Lexmark’s RFID Laser Printer

Quest Service Labs makes software available to support the Lexmark T640rn, the first RFID enabled laser printer. The Lexmark T640rn is the first device on the market to combine RFID capability with laser printing technology, offering a company a flexible, affordable alternative to current RFID solutions.

"Quest Service Labs have developed a top notch middleware package that supports many of the RFID mandates in the market today. It supports shipping labels from 4" x 6" up to legal size media. What a great fit for the Lexmark RFID T640rn laser printer," says Rick Kallop, Lexmark RFID Business Development Manager.

"We believe this product will be well accepted in the industry. The T640rn will have more flexibility for on-demand printing than other label printers,” says Al Wilson, President, Quest Service Labs. “Quest Service Labs has been known for its streamlining organization's printing process from RFID print and apply automation to desk top solutions."

The T640rn printer will come pre-loaded with the Wal-Mart and DoD RFID label formats. This allows the software solution to send the variable label data with the proper form name and print commands to the printer and have the printer properly print and encode the label.

"Integrating the printer with epcSolutions product suite was simple and provides our users with the ability to use this printer with any of our applications" states Chuck Williams, CTO, epcSolutions. "We are excited partner with Quest Service Labs in delivering the first application to support the Lexmark laser RFID printer." This integrated solution is available now through Quest Service Labs.

RFID label printing was chosen for the following reasons:

• Supports multiple media types
• Sizes: 4" x 6", up to 8 1/2" x 14"
• Multiple output options
• No ribbons and calibrations
• No proprietary data streams
• Supports ASCII & PCL
• Leverages investment

As customers continue to be pressured to comply with RFID initiatives from companies like Wal-Mart, Best Buy and the Department of Defense, they need to address internal issues of limited IT bandwidth, lack of RFID expertise and budgetary constraints.

The Lexmark T640rn is the first device on the market to combine RFID capability with laser printing technology, offering a company a flexible, affordable alternative to current RFID solutions. The Lexmark solution can speed up distribution processes and increase productivity by printing on a wide variety of different types and sizes of media, including legal-size documents.

The Lexmark T640rn, when paired with Lexmark Document Solutions Suite (LDSS), offers an easy solution, designed to help meet your demands, that is scalable and deployable across the enterprise. This solution has the added advantage of leveraging the same device for a wide variety of applications beyond RFID tags to help consolidate devices and streamline your processes to improve productivity.

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AeroScout and Time Domain Introduce WiFi/Ultra Wideband Tracking System; AeroScout and Reva Partner on an Active and Passive RFID Solution for Enterprises, Enabled Through AeroScout's MobileView 4.0

AeroScout, Inc. announces its new Ultra-WiFi line of products that enable asset tracking using both WiFi and Ultra Wideband (UWB). The system, developed with partner Time Domain, features the industry’s only dual-mode tag that can be tracked with a standard WiFi network across the enterprise while also adding the high precision and inches-level accuracy of UWB where it is required.

The Ultra-WiFi solution utilizes a single, integrated tag to roam seamlessly between a standard WiFi network and an Ultra Wideband reader network. The tag’s low-impact beaconing message can be received by both WiFi access points and the Ultra-WiFi UWB receivers. The AeroScout Engine software determines location over both frequencies, and AeroScout MobileView software applies a consistent set of rules to all location data.

“WiFi-based tracking systems have come to lead the market due to cost-effectiveness, while UWB systems have also met application needs through very high accuracy in needed areas. Customers who required both technologies, though, have historically needed two separate solutions,” says Gabi Daniely, VP of Marketing and Product Strategy at AeroScout. “AeroScout’s and Time Domain’s innovative converged product line meets a real need among our global customer base for solutions that combine the scalability and ubiquity of WiFi with the extreme accuracy of UWB.”

Through the Ultra-WiFi solution, customers can track assets across a large facility or enterprise while meeting specific application needs that call for very high accuracy in certain areas. As an example, a manufacturing facility can use their WiFi network to track tagged parts as they move throughout the entire facility. When those parts enter an area of densely located workcells, Ultra-WiFi receivers can track to within 12 inches to precisely log the parts’ workflow. Because the same tags and software are utilized, customers can maintain the low cost and scalability of WiFi-based tracking while adding the high accuracy of UWB in areas where it is required.

“Our jointly developed product gives customers a single RTLS choice that allows them to incorporate the precision location of UWB while leveraging their investment in WiFi,” says Greg Clawson, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Time Domain. “Early in the development of our PLUS™ product line, we identified AeroScout as the company with the vision to work with us to create a dual-mode RTLS system the market is seeking.”

The solution includes Ultra-WiFi dual mode tags, Ultra-WiFi readers for areas where UWB tracking is desired, AeroScout Engine software for dual-mode location determination, and AeroScout MobileView software for management, alerting and visualization of tracked assets and people. All of the leading features of AeroScout’s WiFi-based Active RFID technology, such as integrated sensors and telemetry, Exciters for choke-point data, and real-time rules-based alerting, are enabled through the Ultra-WiFi solution as well. Also announced today, AeroScout MobileView 4.0 software integrates location and status data from a wide variety of sources, including WiFi, UWB, passive RFID and others.

Ultra-WiFi products will be marketed and sold by both AeroScout and Time Domain and will be available through the companies’ channel partners. In addition, the companies have signed a distribution agreement that enables Time Domain to use the AeroScout Engine to determine UWB location, as a component of the Time Domain PLUS™ UWB system. The Ultra-WiFi solution is currently installed with beta customers and will be available at the end of Q1.

AeroScout is also announcing a partnership with Reva Systems to deliver a combined active RFID and passive RFID solution for enterprises. Through the partnership, Reva Systems provides a gateway for passive RFID data to AeroScout’s new MobileView 4.0 application, enabling customers to use it as a single platform to view and manage all enterprise assets, regardless of the asset being tracked or the technology used.

“With the maturity of the RFID market, many customers are simultaneously deploying both active and passive systems to meet a broad set of needs,” says Buck Devashish, VP Business Development, Reva Systems. “AeroScout’s MobileView software uniquely delivers true visibility of all assets across the enterprise, and our partnership with AeroScout provides the unified RFID solution that these customers need.”

The companies have integrated AeroScout’s MobileView 4.0 software platform with Reva’s Tag Acquisition Processor (TAP) appliance. The TAP manages RFID devices, processes raw data from a variety of standard passive RFID readers, and passes accurate tag and location information into MobileView. The high-quality passive RFID data provided through the Reva TAP is unified with other real-time location, status, and identification data from a variety of other sources, including AeroScout’s WiFi-based active RFID, Ultra-Wideband (UWB), and wireless sensors/telemetry. MobileView 4.0 applies a consistent set of business rules to all data, enabling customers to search for and track assets, trigger alerts, pull reports, and integrate with third-party software.

By combining active RFID and passive RFID data, customers can track assets of all sizes and values across an enterprise’s facilities, from a single interface, and act simultaneously on all of this data. They can also perform more complex applications — for example, linking an active RFID tag on a container to the passive RFID tags on items inside that container.

“Both our customers and Reva’s have expressed a real need for the advanced visibility that comes from combining active RFID and passive RFID,” says Gabi Daniely, VP of Marketing and Product Strategy at AeroScout. “Reva’s TAP appliance provides a powerful and scalable means of providing consistent and high-quality passive data, and we’re pleased to work with them on integrating this data into our application to benefit customers.”

The combined solution will be enabled through AeroScout’s MobileView 4.0 — the next generation of Aeroscout’s wireless asset tracking software. MobileView 4.0 provides a platform for driving context-aware applications and automating and improving business processes through the integration of real-time asset location and visibility data.

“As the market for real time location systems (RTLS) continues to expand, organizations are increasingly recognizing the need to leverage the technology for information in addition to location based services,” says Louis Bianchin, Senior RFID Analyst at Venture Development Corporation. “AeroScout’s MobileView 4.0 not only leverages the firm’s history of success and extensive experience with RTLS, but also moves the solution beyond the ‘traditional’ RTLS offering by realigning its data gathering capabilities with the market’s requirements and preferences.”

An integral part of AeroScout’s Real-Time Visibility Solutions, MobileView 4.0 integrates wireless visibility data (location, status, auto-ID) from any source, and provides a flexible set of tools for making this data actionable. MobileView 4.0’s user-friendly Web interface enables business users to easily manage assets across their enterprise, whether those assets are tracked using AeroScout’s WiFi active RFID tags, passive RFID, UWB, or wireless sensors. The software also provides an advanced and flexible set of plug-ins and tools for building and integrating with industry-specific asset-tracking solutions in the healthcare, manufacturing and logistics sectors.

One of the key new features in MobileView 4.0 is its full integration with multiple leading providers of visibility data, allowing users to apply a consistent set of rules to all their asset information. MobileView 4.0 accepts and interprets the following types of location and status information:

• Real-Time Location (RTLS) using AeroScout’s WiFi-based Active RFID system
• RTLS using Cisco’s Location Appliance
• Passive RFID tags, through a partnership with Reva Systems
• Ultra wideband (UWB) for high-precision location-tracking, through products co-developed with Time Domain
• Sensor and telemetry data, communicated over WiFi through AeroScout tags

AeroScout solutions help customers in healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, and other industries to improve visibility of mobile asset location, status, and identification. Along with AeroScout’s WiFi-based active RFID tags, MobileView is a key part of AeroScout’s offering and is used by enterprises around the world. MobileView 4.0 is currently in beta testing at several customer sites, including Boeing.

“At Boeing, we have a vision of enterprise-class visibility that can provide actionable, real-time data across a variety of wireless technologies, and AeroScout shares in that vision,” says Craig Dupler, Technical Fellow, Strategic Planning, Boeing. “AeroScout’s integration of a unified WiFi network with UWB and other best-of-breed technologies is driven by the real application needs of large, global enterprises like ourselves.”

Key features of MobileView 4.0 include:

• Intuitive Asset Searches
  using the Asset Locator function, business users can intuitively search for assets individually, in groups or based on multiple criteria. They can view both real-time and historical movement, and intelligent tool-tips provide additional asset data such as status or critical alerts
• Powerful Reporting
  MobileView 4.0 provides in-depth reporting functionality to analyze real-time and historical asset location and status of hundreds of thousands of assets throughout extended time periods, with both built-in and user-generated reports in tabular, chart and graph formats
• Business Events and Alerts
  users can define rules-based business events for up to 17 types of contextual scenarios, ranging from the movement of an asset, to inventory shortage, to reaching a temperature threshold. These events can trigger real-time alerts via several methods including email, Web service, text message, and even Skype chat
• Industry Customization
  MobileView 4.0 is fully customizable with a modular design, allowing enterprises to add advanced applications such as temperature monitoring, and tailor the solution to meet their individual visibility needs
• Open Third-Party Integration
  MobileView 4.0 uses an open SOAP API to integrate with a wide variety of third party applications such as ERP systems and hospital information systems. MobileView can both enhance these applications with location and status data, and pull critical asset data from these applications as needed
• Web and Handheld Views
  MobileView 4.0 is available on standard Web browsers as well as handheld devices for mobile use. The Flash-based interface is simple for any employee to learn, and uses context-sensitive toolbars and wizard-based tools to guide users through their everyday tasks
• Enhanced Management Tools
  MobileView delivers a sophisticated layer of logical grouping and authorization to assets, zones, and users, which ensures that users across the enterprise can view and edit the right set of assets. LDAP-based single sign-on mechanisms simplify access to the variety of applications throughout the enterprise
• High Scalability and Availability
  Built with J2EE, MobileView 4.0’s enterprise-grade design is built to handle millions of tracked assets, and tens of thousands of location reports per second. High Availability and Clustering ensure that the application can meet the needs of large, distributed businesses.

“Though years of experience gained in hundreds of installations with industry leaders like Boeing, Freescale Semiconductor, and University Medical Center in Tucson, AZ, we defined the needs for the next generation of visibility applications,” says Gabi Daniely, Vice President of Marketing and Product Strategy at AeroScout. “This release builds on the success of previous versions of MobileView, and we’re pleased to offer an enterprise-ready software platform that will enable our partners and customers to use location and status information from a variety of sources to improve their business operations.”

AeroScout’s MobileView 4.0 will be available in the second quarter of 2008.