How RFID As A Service (RaaS) Can Accelerate Your RFID Application Deployments

 Part 1 — Market Landscape Creates Opportunity For RaaS

By Ravi Panja, CTO and Co-Founder, InSync Software

We all thought, or at least hoped, that it would go faster than it has…

RFID adoption, which is undeniably experiencing growth even in this tough economic climate, has still

managed to lag considerably behind analyst projections at the beginning of this century. The reasons for

this are far from uniform for each application, as each industry faces unique roadblocks. However, if you

are lucky enough to have been entrusted with the task of leveraging RFID and sensor-driven

technologies for your company, you likely can attest that the majority of adoption and deployment

difficulties are the result of two distinct challenges.

Technology Choice Overload

RFID is an emerging, albeit mature, technology. There is certainly no dearth of hardware or software

options in today’s RFID marketplace. There is an abundance of varying hardware options (frequencies,

functionality and application relevance, economics, etc.), a wide variety of software applications

(middleware, line of business, etc.), and complex back-end integration issues — the result is that many

companies are unable to find a single vendor who can cover all of their needs, and they therefore are

forced to piece together multiple systems. The result is a marketplace shortage of complete, or

hardware/software-matched, solutions that require minimal time and effort to prove, develop, and

deploy.

Navigating this technology labyrinth is a challenge for first-time adopters as it puts a large premium on

validating return on investment (ROI) for the internal business users and many times delays or makes

such projects infeasible.

High Cost Of Technology Validation For Proof-Of-Concept

As chief RFID strategist for your company, it gets very frustrating trying to explain the value of

technology adoption for your specific business process when the evaluation phase is as expensive as the

actual full-fledged implementation of the project. In a world where business users are used to

downloading evaluation software free-of-charge, trying to justify a six-figure cost for RFID application

proof-of-concepts becomes a formidable challenge.

If there’s anything that puts the brakes on RFID implementations faster than technology issues, it’s the

initial high costs associated with developing and deploying these applications within the four walls,

much less across the enterprise. Hardware costs (and the services costs associated with installation,

calibration, etc.), software licenses, additional server infrastructure, integration, and scalability quickly

add up, creating a significant hurdle for internal project champions to make and sell the case for

application adoption. Proving a concept through a full-scale pilot can be as costly as actual deployment,

especially in enterprise applications, where value of adoption (ROI) is dramatically enhanced by the

number of enabled ecosystem partners.

Definition Of RFID As A Managed Service

First we should perhaps define what is meant by RaaS — RFID applications as a service. Simply put, it is

an RFID software application deployed as a hosted service, accessible via the Internet and paid for as a

monthly fee. The term does not speak to the technologies or specify the architecture. Simple enough?

Now let us deal with the nuances. As opposed to a classic SaaS application like salesforce.com, an RFID

application is dependent on information about the real-world via a collection of presence-aware sensors

(i.e. RFID, GPS, etc.) as opposed to relying on “human glue,” (a collection of users manually inputting

data).

A component of any RaaS software solution needs to reside on the “edge” or in the physical domain

where real work occurs. This edge component reliably filters, aggregates, and repurposes real-world

events, then securely streams them into the RaaS component resident in the cloud. The primary reason

for the edge component is to ensure reliable data capture in the event of intermittent, unreliable, or

unavailable network access.

This edge component or software agent can run on a mobile handheld device, phone, or vehiclemounted

computer (on a forklift, etc.). Most importantly, the edge component can run anywhere

especially in areas that are traditionally not accessible by enterprise software applications — inside or

outside the four walls of the enterprise, within the four walls of a partner’s enterprise, or between four

walls of multiple enterprises.

OpEx The CapEx

By reducing initial costs and executing more rapid, intelligent deployment, a company is able to

accelerate ROI at a faster rate than standard models. In addition, the application can scale up or scale

out based on business needs very rapidly, without a massive increase in capital outlay. Rather, the

investment can be expensed — making it much easier to get buy-in from internal stakeholders.

Deployment And Evaluation Savings (Risk Mitigation)

Costly, hair-pulling deployment delays are particularly reduced on the software side of things through a

hosted service model. High costs and time associated with server installation and configuration are

eliminated through shifting the software application to the cloud, and providing it as a web-based

application, hosted by the service provider.

RaaS additionally allows a company to spend significantly less upfront to develop and deploy RFID

applications, shifting much of the risk of technology understanding and application adoption and

complexity over to the RaaS service provider.

Flexibility of delivery in terms of contract terms also reduces the amount of risk to which a business is

exposed, as a company can sign up for a six-month or even monthly service contract, allowing the

option to reevaluate or alter the application after a pre-defined period.

Hardware may also be a viable addition to the managed service model of RFID application delivery. If a

service provider is able to include hardware equipment as a part of their service, initial costs of

application development and deployment are reduced further, as now the installation and configuration

pieces are the only up-front expenditures. In addition, it removes the technology risk for the customer

of committing to a particular hardware solution.

Once deployed, the savings in this model continue. System configuration, testing, and other crucial tasks

that in traditional deployments require training and at times new personnel are no longer a burden on

the customer. System maintenance, upgrades, commissioning applications to locations and devices,

device management, monitoring, and support/troubleshooting are now the responsibility of the service

provider. While this situation can create definite reliance issues, this speaks to the importance of finding

a RaaS service provider with a robust support infrastructure that is available when a business needs it

most.

About The Author

Prior to co-founding InSync Software, Ravi Panja was part of the senior management for Asyst

Technologies, a company that specializes in automated material handling systems and a leader in Auto-

ID systems using RFID, IR, and barcode-based technologies. Prior to Asyst, Panja was one of the founding

members of Radiance Systems and was responsible for product development and worldwide software

integration solutions. He has experience in product strategy and management, Auto-ID technologies,

developing web-enabled software architectures, mission-critical enterprise software systems utilizing

object-oriented technologies, workflow systems, and business process modeling. He also had several

positions at National Semiconductor in their Santa Clara and Scotland manufacturing facilities.

Panja has an M.S. in engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a B.S. from

Osmania University in India.