Combination of integrated application, design and consulting service, and environmental testing
Waukesha, WI — May 7, 2004 — RedPrairie Corp., a provider of global supply chain technology solutions, today announced a suite of radio frequency identification (RFID) applications and services that it said are designed to ensure retail compliance regardless of a company's existing distribution infrastructure, and deliver a return on investment (ROI) throughout the supply chain.
The new suite, named RFID 360, combines "bolt-on" and RFID native applications; RFID design, consulting and implementation services; and an RFID testing laboratory for product and proof of concept testing.
The RFID systems are being demonstrated this week at RedShift 2004, RedPrairie's annual User Conference and Industry Summit.
RedPrairie said RFID 360 includes four software options tailored to meet each company's RFID implementation environment and schedule. The first software module, which serves as the foundation for the three others, is RFID Data Manager. The application does input data filtering and aggregation. This function, often referred to as the savant layer, then passes the filtered and aggregated data up to the middleware applications where business logic is performed. RFID 360 includes two "bolt-on" middleware applications.
For those companies just starting the pilot phase, RedPrairie offers RFID Igniter. The middleware package provides the ability to print, read and track RFID tag-embedded labels as required for pilot testing environments. It also includes software to provide a top-down view of all products in testing, and performance measurement software to analyze results. RedPrairie said RFID Igniter can be installed in any distribution environment.
The second middleware application is RFID Accelerator. The system provides what companies need to deploy RFID processing for compliance with the mandates of Wal-Mart, Target, DoD and other major retailers. RFID Accelerator can be integrated to any distribution environment, whether legacy host, enterprise resource planning (ERP), warehouse management system (WMS) or MES based. It contains all of the functionality of the RFID Igniter package, plus all internal processing and advanced shipping notice (ASN) production capabilities required for compliance.
Mike Dempsey, RedPrairie Industry Strategy leader, explained, "We knew the tight deadlines for compliance would not allow enough time for companies to upgrade their systems, or implement new ones. Therefore, we took as our starting point that our solution had to be easily integratable to any environment as well as provide everything companies need for compliance. RFID Accelerator does this."
Because most customers do not have experience dealing with the special requirements of RFID processing, such as tag selection, placement and orientation, reader/antennae placement and attenuation, or overcoming signal interference, RedPrairie said RFID 360 includes a complete set of RFID services. These include RFID training, application selection, business case development, product and proof of contest testing, hardware selection, installation and tuning, systems integration, pilot testing design and evaluation, and project management. Testing can be done in RedPrairie's RFID lab or at the client site.
