HP today unveiled new Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, including software and services to facilitate integration with RFID solutions from SAP AG and Microsoft Corp. for up-to-the-minute supply chain visibility.
The company also announced an RFID innovation lab designed to foster research and adoption of the technology.
RFID is a data collection technology that holds tremendous potential to improve operations by providing greater visibility into supply chains, from inventory and logistics to freshness dates. The technology can, in turn, help companies improve stock availability, reduce lost or stolen inventory, and deliver better customer service.
At EPC Connection 2007, an annual conference and exhibition about RFID benefits and Electronic Product Code (EPC) industry standards, HP introduced the HP Connector Solution for use with SAP® applications and Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2. The solution enables customers to link RFID devices to crucial supply chain and asset tracking applications.
“HP, Microsoft and SAP continue to deliver innovations to drive the adoption of RFID, a critical technology in the business process cycle,” said Frank Lanza, worldwide director, RFID, HP. “By cost-effectively simplifying the integration of RFID devices with business applications, companies can reap the many business benefits of RFID.”
Through Microsoft BizTalk RFID, Microsoft’s device management and event processing platform, customers can collect, manage and optimize data from within the physical RFID environment. The data integrates with the SAP Auto-ID Enterprise offering to enable supply chain, analytical and asset tracking applications.
“Today RFID solutions are a core enabler for better business process management,” said Steven Martin, director of product management, Microsoft. “With key solutions such as the HP Connector Solution, BizTalk Server customers now have one more way to use RFID data to make better business decisions.”
Specific solution benefits include:
* Reduced cost – HP provides a comprehensive solution that leverages existing investments in SAP applications, BizTalk Server and RFID technologies, eliminating the need for additional expenditures.
* Reduced risk – HP delivery professionals possess extensive implementation expertise with solutions from SAP, Microsoft BizTalk Server and RFID, helping to deliver a secure deployment – on time and within budget.
* Accelerated implementation time – HP utilizes a pre-integration work functionality so that a new custom code does not have to be written for each application.
* Industry-standard solutions – HP offers implementation platforms that allow customers to build heterogeneous environments, including HP ProLiant and BladeSystem servers and HP StorageWorks offerings.
“SAP is committed to helping its customers leverage RFID and serialization technology to achieve increased business value across their enterprises,” said Dr. Krish Mantripragada, global head, RFID and Supply Chain Management solutions, SAP. “Working together with HP and Microsoft will allow us to drive business value for our collective customers by tying together data collection through Microsoft to business transformation through SAP. This announcement underscores the importance of and growth in the RFID market today.”
HP Services offers delivery and maintenance support for RFID implementations to ensure enterprises are utilizing the solution to best reach their business needs. HP provides the connector as part of its RFID implementation service offering and is the worldwide prime integrator for Microsoft BizTalk Server.
New Labs to foster RFID adoption
HP also announced, in conjunction with the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT), the opening of the SAIT Radio Frequency Applications Development Lab (RAD) to advance RFID innovation and research.
The new laboratory will provide faculty and students at SAIT with the facilities, services and hands-on experience needed to design, develop and test RFID solutions. The areas of application research will focus on the energy, agriculture, health and manufacturing industries. In particular, the RAD Lab will:
* Showcase RFID technologies and help local companies expand their RFID business;
* Deliver services in the form of a test development platform for RFID integration to local industries;
* Provide a place where service providers can work to study, design and deploy advanced RFID solutions; and
* Allow customers to complete a lab based proof-of-concept so they can see the technologies live at work prior to deployment.
HP will utilize the RAD facility to communicate its latest RFID technology offerings and HP RFID experts will offer support and expertise to research clients during the development of prototypes and proof-of-concepts. HP will also support the fellowship of the RFID Applications Engineer position at RAD.-HP news
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