IBM and OATSystems announced they will jointly deliver RFID solutions in Australia and New Zealand.
The partnership will help Australian retailers, consumer products companies and manufacturers harness the potential of RFID technology to deliver benefits in areas like inventory availability, promotions execution and asset management.
OATSystems and IBM have worked together since 2005 to market an integrated offering comprising OATSystems RFID applications, IBM’s RFID infrastructure software and IBM global business services’ strategic input on business case development and system design.
Total RFID integration
This partnership provides a complete end-to-end RFID service, from ascertaining the business case for change and identifying business processes that need to be integrated, through to the implementation, roll-out and maintenance of software and hardware systems.
Importantly, the service also includes real time process alerts and analytics, enabling customers to continuously improve supply chain performance.
Changing attitudes
IBM says Australian businesses have been taking a ‘wait and see’ attitude to RFID and have been cautious to embrace what is perceived to be a relatively immature technology.
Another barrier to business adoption of RFID in Australia has been the lack of key skills.
IBM has made a significant investment in this area, bringing in experts from overseas and upskilling engineers and consultants across Australia and New Zealand.
The company said that with greater accuracy rates, lower implementation costs, packaged applications and increasing benefits being derived from supply chain collaboration, attitudes in Australia are shifting to examine the potential the use of RFID.
Case study
Customers globally are already benefitting from solutions provided by IBM and OATSystems, including one of South America’s largest retailers that is using an RFID solution to track over 7000 apparel products in its department stores.
Its initial pilot was developed by IBM, using OATSystems Foundation Suite middleware platform, interrogators from Motorola and RFID hangtags by Paxar.
The project resulted in 98.4% inventory accuracy and enabled staff to count up to 9000 items in one hour.
As a result, the retailer experienced a 25% reduction in out-of-stock occurrences of RFID-tagged items.
Consumer goods provider Pacific Coast Producers, invested in RFID to comply with Wal-Mart’s mandate, resulting in better information about how its products move through the supply chain, improving stock levels in stores and ultimately increasing sales.
The company is using software from OATSystems to analyse the data captured and deliver a record of inventory and goods moving across the supply chain.
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