RFID Services From AfarRFID Services From Afar

Indian service provider Infosys Technologies Ltd. is hoping to cash in on the growing radio-frequency identification market by offering a service that takes advantage of the company's low-cost offshore labor resources. "There's no reason that the global delivery model cannot be applied to RFID," says Gopal Devanahalli, chief of sales at Infosys' retail group.

Infosys already is engaged in pilot RFID implementations with several companies in the retail industry. As part of the service, the company will provide customers with business-process blueprints that map out how RFID will affect their logistics operations and the underlying technology that supports them.

"You have to look at RFID holistically in order to implement it successfully," Devanahalli says. Infosys will focus on seven layers within a company, including providing consulting about optimizing business-process architectures and application development for network and data collection tasks.

While the initial implementation of an RFID project needs to be done at the customer's facilities, a great deal of the follow-up work--including application support and development--can be done offshore, Devanahalli says. "The economies that we have seen with traditional application work can be applied to RFID, and this helps improve the business case for undertaking it," Devanahalli says. Infosys is aiming its RFID offerings at companies in the logistics, retail, consumer packaged-goods, and pharmaceutical industries.

Research firm IDC expects RFID services to become a $270 million market by 2007, up from $23 million in 2003. Among the companies offering such services are Accenture, IBM, Sun Microsystems, and even International Paper (see Ready For RFID? Jan. 5). Over the same period, RFID hardware spending will reach $875 million, according to the research firm.