The EPCglobal Network is designed to provide retailers such as Wal-Mart and its suppliers with easier to manage data than the flat files used in systems that operate XML files.
Data management is essential if suppliers are to gain any value from their investment in RFID. RFID tags - scanned every time they pass a reader at the door of a distribution centre, warehouse or store loading dock - will generate huge amounts of data that need to be managed and integrated into back-end ERP systems.
VeriSign says that it has the infrastructure to accommodate growth as more manufacturers and retailers incorporate RFID tags into their supply chains.
There is now an acceptance among food manufacturers and retailers that RFID technology is more than just tags and readers. A system of data management needs to be put in place if businesses and consumers are to benefit fully from the information provided.
This point is fully understood by Matthew Holland, MES product manager for Siemens UK. " If this enabling technology is to work, then it has to work at both the manufacturing and the retail end. This is the Wal-Mart effect - big retailers driving forward RFID. But you need the systems in place - the technology is only as good as the systems you have in place."
In an article in Computerworld, Raymond Blanchard, director of business development for Auto-ID at SAP in Walldorff, Germany, said that his company had integrated RFID data management into its software, including SAP Event Management, a component of the company's supply chain management software. The business had managed to demonstrate its use successfully in a pilot at Metro, the Germany-based grocery giant.
Blanchard said that the SAP Auto-ID infrastructure helps support pick, pack and ship operations, capturing data from the tag at each stage, with each event viewable over a Web browser in the same way an individual would use a tracking number to view the location of a package on the United Parcel Service Web site.
The new SAP RFID tools will also allow manufacturers to reconcile deliveries with purchase orders and provide them with the real-time signals needed to better manage inventory, Blanchard said. This is a critical issue at the moment - the tagging and tracing of returnable transport items (RTIs), such as crates and pallets will be standard as of 2005.
RFID appears to be here to stay. In an international study undertaken by IT consultancy LogicaCMG, the majority of the companies interviewed in the Netherlands, UK, Ireland, Germany, France and Belgium, gave RFID top priority in terms of planned IT investment. The study shows that half of the 50 companies interviewed in Europe have or are planning to deploy RFID pilot projects throughout 2004, with the vast majority planning to start implementing the technology within the next three years.
"The research shows that we are on the threshold of a breakthrough of RFID technology in the European market," said Paul Stam de Jonge, director sales and marketing at LogicaCMG. To fully benefit however, retailers and manufacturers will have to ensure that they have the ability to organise and store the data effectively.