RFID framework developer OATSystems Inc. announced Wednesday a partnership with chip manufacturer Intel Corp. designed to help increase the adoption of RFID in the retail sector.
Dubbed the Retail RFID Leadership Initiative, the two companies will work together to pound out a long-term road map for retailers and retail manufacturers looking to implement an RFID system. On top of that, OATSystems and Intel will co-develop “targeted” RFID software products.
The initiative will also look to home in on those retailers seriously considering an RFID implementation, but still on the fence in terms implementation procedures.
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“RFID holds the potential to transform the supply chain, but many retailers are struggling to figure out how to get started,” said Prasad Putta, OATSystems founder and CEO, in a statement. “Intel and OAT launched … the Leadership Initiative to identify leading retailers that believe successful application of RFID will create long-term competitive advantage.”
No strangers to one another, the two companies formed the Leadership Initiative based on several joint deployment projects that include a store back-room inventory management system for high-value goods and an automated receiving solution to help eliminate shipment errors between distribution centers and stores, among others.
What Intel brings to the table, besides its vast services arm, is platforms that gather and manage RFID data, and run RFID readers, servers, desktops, mobile devices and networks, officials said.
What OATSystems brings is RFID infrastructure software that integrates and manages RFID data from a variety of sources.
Next Page: Tracking inventory across the supply chain.
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Separately, OATSystems announced Wednesday the next iteration of its OAT Foundation Suite for Retail, Version 4.5.
This latest iteration helps retailers track inventory across the supply chain, from a distribution center to a store, through run-time configuration capabilities that let end users add, remove or change locations and device configuration settings—while the system is still online.
This latest version also provides automated polling from distribution to stores—meaning a clean view of tagged goods, officials said—with so-called consistency logic that lets users re-create goods movement and inventory from data that is not complete.
The upgraded suite also offers prebuilt execution scenarios for distribution center-based shipping and receiving. A device monitoring dashboard is added that tracks type, status and location of goods.
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