Boston, MA —According to Business Wire, Aberdeen Group’s (AG) latest research shows that, despite perceived challenges, 53% of executives surveyed plan additional investments in RFID in the next 12-24 months. AG’s report, “Finding the Technology’s Tipping Point,” indicates that 60% of senior management respondents say they are optimistic on finding value from RFID within their organizations. Of those respondents, two-thirds indicated potentially significant differentiation in existing business processes due to RFID. However, despite this long-term optimism, short-term concerns about perceived value block RFID’s tipping point:
Over 50% of survey respondents have not yet identified RFID’s specific value; and
48% said their organizations are keeping their RFID project in pilot stage because they are waiting for increased technology maturity.
“Increased attention to infrastructure middleware and applications and analytics are crucial steps toward increased RFID adoption,” says John Fontanella, AG‘s senior vice president, supply chain and retail research, and report author. “Just solving the physical issues alone will not create the RFID tipping point.”
So far, enterprise resources planning vendors have been slow to help companies realize this tipping point. According to 15% of respondents, these firms have been the least helpful in establishing a successful internal and external RFID-blueprint.
According to the AG study:
73% of companies are building their internal RFID expertise;
Nearly half of all companies will be spending up to 30% of their RFID-related budget on external services and technology, a key technology maturity indicator, within the next year; and
The number of companies with no existing RFID pilots in place is expected to be halved during the same time frame.
— Richard Phelps , senior editor, Control Engineering
