Deep Springs International (DSI) provides tools and methods to obtain or create clean drinking water.  After the earthquake in 2010, DSI deployed their people and resources throughout Haiti.  Early in March, RFID Journal reported that DSI is now using RFID NFC technology to help out.

As part of that program, DSI sends water technicians to the homes of those who use its kits, to check whether those households are utilizing them properly, and to provide additional chlorine solution, if necessary. To help it better manage its technicians and the data they generate, the organization has begun employing RFID technology—namely, Near Field Communication (NFC) passive 13.56 MHz RFID passive tags attached to buckets, as well as NFC-enabled phones to collect data and forward it to a back-end system.

Many experts believe that a cloud-based architecture will quickly enable scalable RFID, eliminating one of the biggest roadblocks to adoption of the technology. Many technology providers are leveraging the cloud to deliver solutions that make RFID and the data mined by the technology more valuable than ever before.

I think this type of commentary is evidence of the useful data that RFID creates.

http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/8037/1/1/

Until the RFID system was launched monthin mid-2010, verifying that an order was filled correctly required employees to look up each product’s serial number and associated stock-keeping unit (SKU) number, in order to confirm that the items being packed matched the order, and to then scan the bar-coded number printed on the packaging and corresponding to the product’s serial number. While workers rarely make mistakes, Lee says, the process is slow. RFID, he notes, should reduce the time spent ensuring the proper items are being packed.

Time will tell, but this type of application should continue to provide immediate ROI.  Ensuring order accuracy has always been a time-consuming part of the fulfillment process.  With relatively high-cost products like camera electronics, errors can be quite costly, and as a result, companies don’t take any chances, putting systems in place to verify order accuracy very meticulously.  RFID should provide a very effective alternative with the wave of a wand.

RadarFind uses active RFID tags with an RTLS component to provide real-time location of both patients—not specifically Alzheimer’s patients—and equipment to improve hospital operations.  it goes without saying that losing patients or equipment is unacceptable for myriad self-evident reasons.  I look forward to learning more about how RadarFind has put this powerful technology into action.

Years later, it is exciting to see that our foresight was on point.

The Universal Postal Union (UPU), an arm of the United Nations that coordinates international postal mail services, has embarked on a project to use RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) to track the speed of international deliveries. The program, using tag processing systems from Reva Systems, will begin a test phase later this month in 21 countries. The UPU expects it to be used in 100 countries by 2012.

This is an outstanding example of something I’ve talked about before.  RFID doesn’t have to be used to tag every little thing.  Sometimes the best solutions are merely on the margin.

So, I AM is sock number one.  Number two is their sales pitch: IEEE.

• Inexpensive
• Easy to Implement
• Easy to Use
• Easy to Integrate

How much better can you get?

http://www.ihelpyoublog.com/20070316-101-great-posting-ideas-that-will-make-your-blog-sizzle

Thanks, Philip, by way of Chris.

Pricing
As a follow-up to UPM and Avery putting forward announcements of a 10% price increase, we have a few observations and a comment. With respect to our observation, we have heard of several instances where existing customers have been told that their pricing won’t change, potentially undermining the cost increase effort. Our view is that this is a natural phenomenon as customers place significant resistance to the increase and individual salesmen seek to protect their relationships. Our view is that it is too early to truly understand to what extent the price increase will take hold. Our comment is this – the companies should be absolutely focused on pricing the tags appropriately to make a profit. It is time to focus on customers that will gain appropriate value from RFID and are willing to pay accordingly. And, it is sure not time for one vendor to play price games to gain share. It is an emerging market that needs to realize value to progress, playing a share game is not helpful.

I think it would be premature for the major players to wage war on market share by dumping or loss-leading.

But, then again, I’ve always advcated a price-plus pricing model.  I believe in this day and age, consumers are sympathetic to the constrains on an organization.  They recognize that companies are out there to make a modest profit.  So, if there is transparency, and companies are saying “hey, this is how much it costs us to produce product or service x and we’re going to charge you x plus y% profit,” consumers get that–they’re okay with it.

Look how quick this works…

Retailers are looking for ways to retain existing customers. Using advanced technologies that involve radio frequency identification, digital displays, interactive screens, etc retailers can create a new experience for their existing and new customers. At the same time the retailers can gather valuable information about which products are being evaluated, not just purchased and what is in inventory. Understanding the value of item-level business intelligence.

Should be a good meeting.