Savi gets preferred vendor status from NATO for RFID technology implementations.Savi Technology, now a Lockheed Martin company, is continuing its trek around the globe to push its supply chain products into other nations and software products.
The company announced on June 19 that it secured a pan-NATO contract for its RFID technology and services, and joined in a partnership with IFS Defense to integrate its RFID technology with IFS ERP (enterprise resource planning) software for the aerospace and defense market.
The NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency, NAMSA for short, has established an "In Service Support" contract with Savi for its RFID-based products and services. Under this contract, the 26 nations of the NATO alliance can look to Savi as a preauthorized vendor for RFID consignment tracking and management software, officials said.
Non-NATO nations that are part of the Partnership for Peace initiative, which can build an individual relationship with NATO based on their own priorities for cooperation, can also source products from Savi under the NAMSA contract.
To read about how the pharmaceutical industry is participating in an MIT-SAP test program for using RFID to track products, click here.
Savis SmartChain CMS (Consignment Management Solution) is already being used by NATO and several member nations and defense coalitions as they implement an RFID-tagged supply chain from the United States, Europe, Afghanistan and Iraq.
The NATO programs goal is to provide member nations supply chain visibility and interoperability while tracking goods and services through the war theater supply chain.
"The NAMSA contract accelerates the momentum of expanding interoperable RFID-based logistics networks that automatically locate, track and manage defense supplies while in transit worldwide," said Bruce Jacquemard, Savis managing director of international business.
"This stimulates the build out of a global logistics coalition network that improves the efficiency and performance of delivering critical supplies from the factory to the foxhole," he said. NAMSA is NATOs primary logistics support agency.
Click here to read why the National Institute of Standards and Technology is warning about the potential security risks of implementing RFID.
Separately, Savi is partnering with IFS Defense, a defense industry IT systems integrator, to develop real-time information software for the aerospace and defense sectors. The companies will integrate Savis RFID software with IFS ERP software. The goal of the integrated software is to help the defense industry improve their end-to-end and in-transit supply chain visibility.
Savis CMS software is engineered to automatically track and manage supplies tagged with RFID and other tracking devices like bar codes, sensors and GPS systems.
IFS, which has over 600,000 users, develops standard ERP software for a number of verticals outside of the aerospace and defense industries, including automotive, high tech, industrial manufacturing, process industries, construction, and utilities and telecommunications.
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