Helping Hand For RFID AdoptionHelping Hand For RFID Adoption

Making sense of the deluge of data that radio-frequency identification systems are expected to generate could be the biggest obstacle to widespread RFID adoption. ConnecTerra Inc. said Monday it's now offering RFTagAware 1.0 software for monitoring and managing radio-frequency identification readers and RFID data.

RFTagAware filters and aggregates data generated by RFID systems and integrates it with enterprise resource planning, supply chain, and warehouse-management applications. The software consists of "edge servers" that reside near RFID readers and "control servers" IT staff use to manage RFID systems.

As more companies move beyond pilot projects and begin deploying RFID on a bigger scale, "the infrastructure is going to become more critical," says Erik Michielsen, a senior analyst with ABI Research. "Being able to manage [RFID] information and seamlessly bring it into enterprise IT systems will be a big challenge." He says middleware products like ConnecTerra's will help speed RFID adoption by "eliminating many potential potholes" RFID projects may run into.

The software runs on Windows, Linux, and Solaris servers and supports all popular RFID readers as well as EPCglobal Inc. RFID standards. The software's application programming interface, called application level events or ALE, supports Java, .Net, and Web-services applications and enterprise application integration frameworks. Pricing starts at $30,000 and is based on the number of RFID readers deployed.