I spent a day at the IDTech Ex event in Cambridge this week where there were a number of presentations on RFID in action from users such as TNT Express, IATA, Marks & Spencer on how they were either implementing RFID or evangelising about it.
Sometimes, it seems, making a success of RFID is a question of mindset. Perhaps it is also to do with the personal drive and understanding of the business from the individual leading the RFID initiative. It certainly requires the ability to communicate why 'we', as an organisation, should address business issues with RFID, and be able to win over corporate hearts and minds.
Sybren Tuinstra from the international logistics company TNT Express made some intriguing comments in his presentation. He suggested that TNT could use passive RFID at every stage of the business process, but it would still take time and considerable resources to build the infrastructure. He added that the only way RFID will fly is when people start believing in it. "It's not a question of the business case; it's a question of believing it will work."
On the same subject, James Stafford, Head of RFID and General Merchandise at Marks & Spencer detailed the story behind M&S's adoption of RFID. Stafford is an impressive speaker in explaining his company's adoption of RFID (though it may be because he's done it so many times at RFID conferences around the world!)
I'll detail the M&S story here another time, but one thing Stafford did mention in his discussion was building the business case and the subsequent pilot.
To see whether RFID would fly, M&S's pilot in 2006 involved 42 stores, 6 clothing departments, 20 countries and 15 suppliers. Yes, it was a closed loop solution - in other words, using M&S's own suppliers. But it was still a big pilot.
As Stafford said, "You do do have to do big pilots to prove big business cases....to produce the numbers that will impress your Board."
RFID is now being used in M&S's 120 largest stores, it has 120m garments tagged up, and Stafford pointedly wouldn't - for competitive reasons - put a figure on how much benefit RFID had brought to the business. As the business driver for RFID in M&S is ensuring that the customer always gets their particular clothing size when they're in-store, because the products are always in stock, then the business would appear to be benefiting massively from its RFID investment.
Perhaps the moral from these two tales at TNT and M&S is that with the right business case, there are real investment returns to be made for businesses utilising RFID. But it requires an effective business case to be made, a subsequent successful pilot to generate the numbers to convince the Board, and a healthy slice of belief, charisma and commitment from the RFID advocate to pull it off.