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Story URL: http://www.silicon.com/research/specialreports/enterprise/0,3800003425,39128515,00.htm

Microsoft jumps into RFID management
Software release set for next year...

By Ina Fried

Published: Wednesday 09 March 2005

After investing significantly in technology for radio frequency identification devices, Microsoft is readying its first major product, a software package designed to help companies manage the product-tagging technology.

Microsoft plans early next year to release the RFID Services Platform, a "middleware" product that connects the hardware that monitors RFID signals with the business software that can make sense of the information. The product is designed for businesses that want to incorporate RFID into their own systems as well as for other software companies that want to build a product based on Microsoft's technology.

The RFID product will be built on top of Microsoft's .Net development platform and will run on a two-processor server, Microsoft RFID programme manager Alex Renz told CNET News.com on Tuesday. It will also incorporate the company's SQL Server database software for information storage.

Renz did not disclose pricing for the product but noted that Microsoft wants to be a low-cost option in a market that is already seeing prices come down.

"We are going to make sure that it is not going to break the bank," he said.

The RFID field has attracted many of the biggest names in technology as well as a host of start-ups. IBM and Oracle are among those that have been heavily involved in the area.

Often called electronic bar codes, RFID tags emit a signal that shares basic identification information about a product. Such tags can be used to track a product from manufacturing through distribution and then on to retailers.

Microsoft, for its part, has made RFID a key part of its broader "Smarter Retail Initiative". The company has also announced plans to support the tagging technology in an embedded version of Windows XP specifically aimed at retailers.

By contrast, most customers are adding RFID only grudgingly, often because a key business partner is forcing them to add tags to their products.

"Manufacturers are struggling to find the business case," Renz said during a presentation at the Convergence 2005 conference in San Diego.

In many cases, product makers are being pushed by retailers such as Wal-Mart. The retail giant is already requiring its largest suppliers to tag shipments to certain distribution centres and will require smaller suppliers to do so by early 2007.

In most cases, though, Wal-Mart suppliers are adding the tags at the end of the manufacturing process, meeting Wal-Mart's requirements but not giving the suppliers any added cost savings or efficiency gains.

Ina Fried writes for CNET News.com.