New Research Brief from ABI Research has found that many
IT professionals have a misplaced preoccupation with short-range
wireless communications technologies where the end technology
becomes an end unto itself and not the means to an
end.
ABI points out that recent decades have seen the widespread
adoption of short-range wireless communications, including wireless
LANs (Wi-Fi), ultra-wideband (UWB), and RFID which can see use in
real-time location systems (RTLS). But the analyst argues that a
more useful concept would be real-time intelligence
visualisation (RTIV),
RTIV is based upon the principle of capturing real-time data and
the processing and synchronisation of that data with back-end
systems through defined rules. Such input can be actioned according
to companies’
business intelligence strategies and the information obtained
will be accessible to the relevant systems and people. It involves
the establishment of alerts, alarms, actions, decisions, and where
required, audit trails and documentation.
The result will be that RTIV is not based on individual
technologies but instead can be used to provide an enterprise-wide
view of tagged objects, assets, and personnel through wireless
identification and location, explained ABI research director
Michael Liard.
“It is about the process and logic that end-users must embrace.
That concept focuses on end-users seeing data (or the
‘intelligence’) and their tagged assets in new ways, with
‘real-time eyes,’” Liard added. “The end (as well as the beginning)
of real-time intelligence visualisation must be the value
propositions and business problems challenging end-users.”
ABI added that competitive, yet complementary wireless
technologies, approaches, and solutions have historically been
treated as independent silos, but are now converging. It sees a
growing number of end-user environments where a combination of
technologies is being used such as passive and active RFID used
jointly for fixed and mobile asset tagging; Wi-Fi- and UWB-based
RTLS solutions employed in asset tracking; a combination of GPS and
active RFID employed for cargo tracking and security.