Weighing The Upscale

Those answers are not easy to come by, but the work released by GCI is a significant contribution to the growing body of knowledge that is available to the industry, and should help companies still on the cusp make their decisions.

The fact is, many experts say, implementing RFID/EPC technology within a given enterprise is not an easy process. There is no out-of-the-box technology available yet; each company’s needs are unique and often solutions are complex.

Still, when major suppliers, ranging from Wal-Mart and other big-box retailers to the U.S. Department of Defense, make the inclusion of RFID tags on cases and pallets shipped to their distribution centers a requirement for doing business with them, and they stick by their requirements, that is pretty strong stuff. That’s true, in fact, both for suppliers who must comply with these mandates to retain that critical portion of their business, and for competitors who must constantly fight to find ways to increase their own long-term efficiency if they are to survive.

And there appears to be no give on that score.

For a copy of the “A Shared Vision for Transforming Business Processes” study, go to FMI's Web site at www.fmi.org/technology/GCI_IBM_EPC_report.pdf.