Issue #136 | Feb. 29, 2008 | by Michael Dortch

Where in the world is RFID taking off? More and different places than you might expect.

As these examples demonstrate, some of the most innovative and potentially disruptive RFID deployments are taking place around the world:

• Byblos Bookstore, a Portuguese retailer, recently outfitted its 35,000-square-foot flagship superstore in Lisbon for item-level RFID tracking of more than 150,000 books and other items. The largest reported single-store, item-level RFID deployment to date combines a platform from Vue Technology; long-range, multi-protocol RFID readers from Advanced ID Corp.; and expertise from local systems integrator Creativesystems.

• Semiconductor and "Gen 2" RFID developer Impinj announced that its Speedway Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) reader has been certified by the China State Radio Regulation Committee, enforcer of relevant bandwidth, interoperability, and performance standards in the country. The certification makes the reader available to a growing number of local reseller and integrator partners.

• Emirates Airline, headquartered in the seven-state Middle Eastern federation the United Arab Emirates, is conducting a large-scale test of RFID as a replacement forbarcodes used to tag passenger luggage. The airline is partnering with Dubai International, Hong Kong International, and London Heathrow airports for the test, which is planned to last six months and may involve as many as 500,000 bags.

• Scan Guangzhou, the fifth edition of the China International RFID Exhibition and Conference, takes place in June. Last year's event attracted some 150 exhibitors and delegates from across Asia as well as from North America and Europe.

• UPM-Kymmene, Finland's largest producer of magazine paper, has announced plans to begin manufacturing RFID tags and inlays in Guangzhou. The company's Raflatac unit, which currently manufactures RFID tags in Finland and the United States, anticipates ramping up to a capacity of as many as 100 million tags per year in China.

Those deployments offer potentially valuable guidance to companies pursuing or considering RFID, as Aberdeen research finds an increased focus on doing business more globally among many types and sizes of surveyed companies.

For The 2008 Aberdeen Report, a major annual survey of business IT deployments and plans, Aberdeen Group surveyed more than 1,100 end-user organizations about RFID adoption plans. Some 58% of those respondents’ companies are headquartered in North America, 21% in Europe, and 15% in the Asia/Pacific region. Respondents from the Middle East and Africa made up 4% of respondents, while those from South and Central America accounted for 3%.

Results of the survey show that planned North American and European growth of RFID adoption, in and beyond 2008, will be exceeded in every other region. Planned post-2008 adoption rates will be greatest in the Middle East and Africa and in South and Central America, as shown in Figure 1.

Thus, companies planning for greater globalization and greater RFID use in 2008 and beyond should be prepared to see growth of RFID deployments largely to follow the trends we found. Even for companies headquartered in North America or Europe, greater growth in and beyond 2008 is likely to occur in other regions.

How Best to Respond?

Companies currently using or planning RFID deployments and pursuing strategies for increased globalization should take a truly global view of opportunities for RFID and its business benefits. Based on surveys and interviews conducted with business and IT decision-makers, specific actions and considerations should include the following.

• Ensure that Service Level Agreements (SLAs), Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and other metrics used to evaluate RFID deployments are consistent with both enterprise goals and local requirements and processes.

• Garner participation from stakeholders in all geographic regions important to the enterprise to ensure that locally discovered best practices can be appropriately modified for enterprise-wide use.

• Partner with RFID solution providers that have local expertise and contacts in key geographies, as well as business- and RFID-specific knowledge and experience.

• Devote sufficient scrutiny to solution interoperability and integration features to ensure that local bandwidth, certification, power, and other business needs are met.

In addition, business and IT decision-makers should expect RFID knowledge and expertise to grow along with RFID deployments across the world. By devoting sufficient attention to all geographies deemed important to the business, decision-makers will be able to recognize and take advantage of opportunities for business benefit from RFID, wherever those opportunities arise.

Michael Dortch is a Senior Analyst and leader of Aberdeen Group’s Enabling Technologies & Information Management practice. This column is excerpted and adapted from an upcoming Aberdeen Group Analyst Insight also authored by Michael, RFID Without Borders: Worldwide Innovation, which contains more information and is soon to be available from Aberdeen. For more information on The Aberdeen Report 2008, Aberdeen’s upcoming “RFID in Retail” study, or other Aberdeen research topics, please contact Michael at michael.dortch@aberdeen.com or visit www.aberdeen.com.