Wave Issue 0508 2/25/05 Article 10-01

***RFID Deployment Accelerating as More Companies Consider
Mandates According to Larstan Business Reports

WASHINGTON
Feb. 22, 2005

More and more converts are jumping onto the RFID bandwagon. In
the wake of similar moves by Wal-Mart and the U.S. Department
of Defense (DoD), increasing numbers of large companies are
adopting RFID--Radio Frequency Identification--to infuse their
supply chains with greater efficiencies and cost-savings. Most
recently, retail behemoths Kroger and CVS are seriously
assessing the adoption of sweeping RFID mandates.

Indeed, newly published reports make it clear that RFID is
panning out as the "transformational" innovation its adherents
predicted. That's the conclusion of RFID reports that appear
in the February issues of the influential business-to-business
magazines Logistics Management, Manufacturing Business
Technology, and Warehouse Club Focus.

Produced by Larstan Business Reports, the RFID sector impact
analysis studies make it clear that the technology is coming
into its own, after months of assessment by prospective end
users. A powerful catalyst for accelerated adoption: mandates
to use RFID, imposed on suppliers last month by Wal-Mart and
the DoD. Now, grocery chain Kroger and drug chain CVS are
reportedly on the verge of following suit, with other
companies likely to follow.

Two-thirds of 669 supply chain and information technology
executives responding to an exclusive Larstan survey stated
that mandates are why they're currently installing RFID.
Larstan's RFID research appears in conjunction with the
reports.

Few entities are as vast, or wield as much clout, as Wal-Mart
and the Pentagon. Wal-Mart--the largest corporation on the
planet--is using RFID to track pallets and containers. The
retailer, which posted $65 billion a year in revenue last
year, now requires its top 100 suppliers to tag all pallets
and containers with RFID.

The shipping industry already occupies the vanguard of
leveraging RFID to optimize logistics. "If you talk to bigger
shipping players like FedEx, they will tell you that they've
been using RFID for a long time," said Mark Palmer, Vice
President, Complex Event Processing Line of Business,
ObjectStore, a Bedford, MA-based division of Progress Software
that specializes in RFID solutions.

www.larstan.net/RFID.htm