Jane Thomson, the managing director of Softworx, says business has a lot to gain by adopting Radio Frequency Identification (RFID).
The acceptance of RFID has unfortunately been weakened by a number of factors, including high costs, a lack of a skilled labour, and the need for global standardisation.
Thomson remarks that RFID's shortcomings are steadily being resolved as the industry's vendors join together to make the technology more attractive to organisations.
Costs are gradually coming down as the technology matures and frequency conflicts are also becoming less of an issue, as vendors and government agencies work together to smooth out global differences. Although item-level use is currently expensive, pallet and case tagging are now economically viable - widespread use of RFID thus only awaits the emergence of common standards and readability.
The adoption of RFID into the mainstream of the supply-chain unleashes huge potential. Key to achieving success with RFID is innovative implementation; Thomson suggests learning the capabilities and limitations of the technology and making the best fit of these capabilities within your operation.
RFID clarity is best achieved through action. Companies need to understand the impact of how the technology will affect their business processes. Despite its many variations, RFID comprises simple technology. What often inhibits it, however, is adoption - in many organisations adoption is a slow progression into the mainstream, as the new technology needs to engage with existing business systems and practices.
Effective adoption requires determining whether it will shift the competitive landscape. If this is the case, Thomson suggests organisations do an early pilot study to acquire critical knowledge and develop a strategy to scale the pilot when necessary.
In closing, Thomson states: "There is little doubt that RFID will have a major impact on supply-chain operations over the next several years."
According to research firm Gartner, RFID "could be one of the most significant developments since enterprises first explicitly recognised the importance of information flow in the supply-chain", with AMR Research predicting that RFID will be a $20 billion market by 2013.
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Softworx is a successful South African business applications company that prides itself in being able to deliver world-class products to its extensive customer base, which includes a number of Fortune 500 companies. In addition, Softworx supports clients in industries ranging from manufacturing, retail, distribution and financial, to supporting various government entities. The company is dedicated to marketing, implementing and providing support for its range of complimentary software products to medium and large enterprises that require effective solutions to optimise their business processes.
Softworx has positioned itself as a leading provider of business applications in South Africa, specialising in end-to-end business solutions. The company prides itself on being able to deliver true value to its customers through the implementation of business solutions, based on a powerful combination of leading-edge products and consultancy. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of EOH, Softworx has increased the number of services and products that can be offered to its customers from within the group.
EOH
EOH is a business and technology solutions provider, creating lifelong partnerships by developing business and IT strategies, supplying and implementing solutions and managing enterprise-wide business systems and processes for medium to large clients. EOH operates in the following three clusters of business units as a fully integrated business:
Consulting - concentrated under the EOH Consulting brand are business units offering services ranging from strategic and business process consulting, project services, change management, supply-chain optimisation, and education. The EOH consulting business unit is responsible for delivering IT solutions that make business sense. We focus on providing remarkable technology solutions, using robust methodologies to perform along the following four dimensions of IT excellence:
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EOH has a presence in all major centres in SA and Botswana, and operates in the rest of Africa.
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Infor delivers fully integrated enterprise solutions, as well as best-in-class standalone products that address the essential challenges its customers face in areas such as enterprise resource planning, supply-chain planning and execution, customer and supplier relationship management, asset management, product life cycle management, financial management, performance management and business intelligence. With more than 8 100 employees and offices in 100 countries, Infor provides enterprise solutions to more than 70 000 customers. For additional information, visit www.infor.com.
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