Tune into RFID

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.

At the IDTechEx RFID Europe event in Cambridge last week, a conversation with Motorola's RFID specialist Andy McBain threw some light on the business drivers for organisations' dabbling with RFID.

The Global Commerce Initiative, a user group of manufacturers and retailers committed to the use of GS1 standards to improve the smooth running of supply chains, has sounded a warning about the use of RFID in 'direct store delivery', where supermarkets, convenience stores, and other retail outlets are replenished directly from the manufacturer, rather than through retailers' distribution centres.

Interesting article here in RFID Monthly which discusses the value of RFID. It suggests that RFID's ability to generate value is evolving, with businesses ready to take a closer look at how to add value with RFID by leveraging its automated features to more quickly discover process exceptions or to provide item level visibility into large pools of products.

It suggests that mistakes happen in daily processes, but we cannot always change the human element and it is hard and costly to define sufficient business controls to reduce errors to an acceptable level in many cases. It adds that this is where RFID plays a crucial role. It allows users to identify exceptions and manage business processes much more efficiently.

This concept doesn't seem too far removed from another theme I'm writing on a lot at the moment, that of IT Service Management and ITIL. ITIL is a set of policies and procedures for managing IT infrastructure assets, operations, development and review to manage core IT processes while standardising the way IT problems are tackled. The interesting thing is that both RFID and ITIL are helping to deliver business value.