RFID Technology Adoption -- healthy at 300
Posted by Bret Kinsella on Thu, Feb 18, 2010
Reik Read of RFID Monthly / Robert W. Baird & Co. posted an article
this week citing the lack of industry and end user technical knowledge as the key factor holding back RFID technology adoption.
It stood out in sharp contrast to an ODIN milestone announced this week. As of January, ODIN has completed over 300 paid RFID projects. These span more than a dozen industries for over 90 companies.
Three hundred projects completed by a single company would typically suggest healthy and growing market adoption.
Of course, it depends where you are looking.
Two years ago, ODIN began to see some trends emerge. Retail was seeing decent results from RFID, but the industry was struggling with macroeconomic factors. At the same time, government use was accelerating, RFID IT asset tracking was taking hold, RFID tool tracking and inventory visibility applications were emerging with strong ROI. Weakness in one sector was counterbalanced by growing RFID adoption in industries ranging from the aerospace and defense to healthcare
and financial services. Several industries were embracing RFID because it enabled rapid item identification for high value and high risk assets without human intervention. It was more than just efficiency. RFID was providing visibility with real value.
Knowledge – an RFID Adoption enabler
Having completed many projects and seen many others that weren’t funded leaves me with the impression that Mr. Read is at least partly correct. Technical knowledge and RFID expertise have been important factors in whether RFID projects go forward and whether they are successful. The customers best educated in RFID have been the most likely to move forward. And, the most knowledgeable RFID implementers have been the most likely to deliver successful solutions. We have seen many projects go unfunded because of lack of technology understanding.
Unfortunately, we have seen other projects that were canceled due to unskilled implementation and end users looking to us to rescue their project.
There is no doubt that more knowledge will result in more successful projects. Oftentimes the challenges are not found in the technology, but rather in its proper selection and implementation. At ODIN, all of our engineers go through CompTIA RFID+ certification. This is a small portion of their training, but is a good foundation that we recommend all implementers of RFID consider for their staff.
Making RFID Invisible and Easy – embedded solutions
In 2004, knowledge was probably the biggest adoption barrier. Deploying systems was complicated and time consuming even for the most expert implementers. By 2007 we were seeing more buyers whose biggest concern was a paucity of peer references within their industry. They wanted to know that someone else like them had been successful. Today, there are a large number of successful references across a number of industries. We expect these successful deployments will lead RFID solution suppliers embed their experience into more pre-packaged RFID solutions.
The increased availability of easy to use, pre-packaged solutions will no doubt be a catalyst for RFID adoption. Three years ago, most solutions were custom designed and built to a customer’s specification. That approach can deliver great results, but it also involves more time, cost and risk.
Today, there are well proven, pre-packaged RFID solutions that can be installed and put to use in just a few days.
High ROI RFID solutions for kit tracking, IT asset tracking and tool tracking are good examples of solutions where end users don’t need a great deal of knowledge. The learning is embedded in the solutions and the RFID technology is transparent to the users. End users can now adopt business solutions that happen to use RFID and not the other way around. RFID software has also evolved to agents on readers, obviating teh need for costly server infrastructure.
Let us know your thoughts on RFID adoption barriers and successes by commenting below.