2008 the year of RFID? Welcome to the ODIN blog
Posted by Patrick Sweeney on Sun, Feb 08, 2009
Welcome to the new ODIN blog. If you're passionate about RFID and wireless technology like the folks at ODIN, this might be Valhalla on the net. My hope is this becomes a source of information and education in a chaotic RFID world.
In 2002 I started ODIN technologies. In the years since founding the company the market place has changed dramatically. In 2003 I wrote RFID for Dummies to educate folks about this exciting technology and help people understand the basic physics around radio frequency identification. Shortly after the book was published the technology pundits and analysts predicted an explosive boom market for RFID. For the last two years those same pundits have said RFID has not lived up to its promise. So is 2008 "The year"?
2008 is poised to change many perceptions in the marketplace, if the last quarter of 2007 is any indication. It is the first year we have seen many Fortune 500 companies allocating seven figures in their budget for RFID systems.. Clearly a strong indication that companies are finding a return on investment in RFID that is both measurable and repeatable.
Unfortunately there are a lot of people who make the mistake of thinking any integrator can implement RFID. This is clearly not the case. One reason ODIN is successful is that RFID is a meticulous skill, and experience plays a big role in future success. For instance after two and a half months testing RFID tagging technologies with a company better known for making printers than RFID, the Italian Oil conglomorate, Eni, was confronted with a seemingly insurmountable challenge in metals tagging, they needed expert help.
If the company didn't believe in the technology they would have said "it's just not ready for prime time". Instead they asked other RFID users for recommendations and then brought us in. In two and a half weeks we set up systems that achieved 99.9% accuracy.
2008 will be a foundation year for RFID growth - no dramatic hockey stick, but rather a nice steady adoption and more proof of companies getting a competitive advantage from RFID.
Once a week I'll add a new post to this blog to update you on what is happening in the industry and give you some of the insight into what we at ODIN see happening with both the market and the technology. Hopefully, like the Dummies book, this will further educate folks on the fascinating world of RFID, and help make your RFID deployments EASY! Please pass on any suggestions you might have. Talk to you next week.