Integration efforts key to U.S. Defense and Aerospace RFID rollouts, study says
Oyster Bay, NY — May 3, 2005 — The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is one of the nation's largest organizations, and its intention to employ radio frequency identification (RFID) across a wide range of logistics services and situations is one of the primary drivers of RFID systems in the United States. But, according to ABI Research, the sheer scale of the institution, along with its complexity and fragmentation, means that RFID system integrators will play a critical role in the success of the project.
The DoD has nearly 50 RFID pilots either completed or in progress, and services providers such as Savi Technology and Bearing Point are involved in many of them. According to current analysis from ABI Research, both companies are likely to be involved in competition for the DoD's blanket purchase agreement awards, lining up against the major vendors such as CDO Technology, CSC, IBM, NGC, Unisys and possibly Lockheed Martin, given its recent acquisition of Sytex.
ABI Research's director of RFID and networks research, Erik Michielsen, points out that the DoD is striving to unify the more than 700 legacy IT and logistics systems within its various branches. "The challenge for these large integrators," he said, "is to work with small DoD suppliers. Global integrators must decide if and how to scale down to provide small project support." This is something they have not often had to address when working with large multinational businesses, Michielsen added, but it will be a prerequisite as these traditional integrators compete for the potentially very profitable DoD business.
These issues and other are canvassed in detail in ABI Research's study, "The RFID Aerospace and Defense Market," which details how, when, where and who will be implicated by the RFID agendas and mandates within the market.
For a more general and comprehensive tracking of the nascent RFID market, ABI Research offers its RFID Research Service, which includes research reports, market updates, forecast and industry databases, analyst access, analyst insights and vendor matrices.
Founded in 1990 and headquartered in New York, ABI Research has global operations supporting annual research programs, intelligence services and market reports in automotive, wireless, semiconductors, broadband and energy.
