Asset tracker: IT channel seeing growth in RFID projects

Information technology (IT) channel companies say their customers are showing more interest in RFID technology.

A worldwide survey of 155 IT companies conducted by Oak Brook Terrace, Ill.-based CompTIA , the Computing Technology Industry Association, finds 46 percent of their customers have implemented one or more RFID solutions either as pilot projects or production deployments. This represents an increase from a 2007 survey, when IT companies reported 34 percent of their customers had initiated RFID projects.
The Web-based survey, conducted during the second quarter of 2008, questioned IT channel companies on their current and future intentions for addressing RFID. Customers come from a cross section of industries, including manufacturing, services, government, finance, health care, retail, and communications.
The most popular RFID deployments tapped by customers are asset tracking, cited by 32 percent of IT companies surveyed; personal identification (28 percent); supply chain (25 percent); retail marketing (15 percent); and closed-loop manufacturing (9 percent).
“RFID offers adopters of the technology benefits in the form of improvements in manufacturing, inventory, and distribution processes; and reduced costs for product theft, spoilage, or obsolescence,” says Todd Thibodeaux, president and CEO, CompTIA. “It’s incumbent on our industry, with help from organizations such as CompTIA, to help customers overcome any obstacles to RFID usage.”
Among the RFID products and services IT companies say they’re delivering to customers today are:

• Hardware installation and maintenance (62 percent);

• Consulting (46 percent);

• Training (43 percent); and

• Software implementations (40 percent).

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