RICHMOND, British Columbia-eXI Wireless Inc., provider of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)-based asset management and security solutions, announced its eXI Systems subsidiary has completed an RFID Asset Tag Trial Program with 22 hospitals in the United States.
The trial program demonstrated Assetrac, a single system for protecting, locating, and tracking hospital equipment that works concurrently with eXI’s HALO infant protection solution, which prevents infant abductions.
According to eXI, Assetrac can provide significant cost savings. “It is estimated that the theft of equipment and supplies costs hospitals $4,000 per bed each year and with over 975,000 staffed beds in the U.S., this represents a potential loss of $3.9 billion annually,” explained Alan Foster, president of eXI Systems. “Ultimately, the financial burden falls on the facility.”
Demand for RFID solutions is increasing, a new study from ABI Research indicates. And according to ABI, as technologies advance to adapt to that increasing demand, integrating RFID solutions with existing enterprise systems will become a challenge. In fact, ABI predicts RFID integration revenue will surpass that of RFID product revenue by 2007.
RFID solutions aim “to create real-time visibility tracking, from customer through the warehouse domain and into the enterprise IT systems,” explained Erik Michielsen, ABI senior analyst, adding that changes to enterprise systems will require architectural mapping, systems programming and testing and changes in management implementations.
According to Michielsen, companies like Accenture, BearingPoint, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, IBM and Unisys have increased their focus on RFID, “but have a long way to go to meet staffing needs that will support an RFID supply chain integration market that will surpass $1 billion by 2006.”
Jeffrey Harrow, principal technologist at the Harrow Group, agrees demand for RFID technology is on the rise. Indeed, RFID tags are poised to replace UPC bar codes, used today by retailers to identify products, suggests Harrow.
Already WalMart and the Department of Defense are requiring their suppliers to put RFID tags on pallets of items sent to them. Harrow predicts RFID tagging for individual items is not far behind, and further warns that although it means improvements to the supply chain and advancements in home networking, privacy concerns will present a challenge.
