Wanna start some static? Tell people with a vested interest in a particular technology-centric industry that you fear users won't care about it after next year.
Want a specific example? How about, oh, I don't know -- RFID?
On Nov. 30, I posted a Brief at Focus, where I work, entitled "RFID on 2010: Will Anyone Care (Who Doesn't Work for an RFID Company, That Is)?" You can read the whole thing at http://bit.ly/RFIDin2010. Here's an excerpt.
"If significant improvement in integration and simplicity does not pervade the RFID industry throughout 2010, that year could be the last one in which very many people outside of the RFID community care anything about RFID. And indicators to date are not promising. ...Granted that the current worldwide economic unpleasantness has not helped. But there is still ample circumstantial evidence to cause concern about the future of the RFID industry. Those concerned should be watching developments throughout 2010 very closely – to decide whether to continue doing so or not in 2011 and beyond."
Well, I got comments almost immediately. Some excerpts of these follow. "Michael, good piece and perhaps a wake-up call for the industry," said Mark Roberti, founder and owner of "RFID Journal." "RFID needs to be simpler to deploy and more focused on complete solutions," he added.
"Your article is a little bleak but I understand the point that RFID has seen a lot of unfulfilled potential," Kurt Mensch, Principal Product Manager at Intermec, a vendor that I think "gets it" where RFID is concerned. "I think we'll see a lot more collaboration in the coming years with more focus on the business benefits and less focus on the 'feeds and speeds.'"
There's more, but I think you get the idea. If you have any interest in RFID at all, please go to http://bit.ly/RFIDin2010, read my Focus Brief, then post some comments, and let's make some more discussion happen. Maybe we WILL wake someone up!
Showing posts with label troubled vendors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label troubled vendors. Show all posts
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
What if RFID Hardware Were Free?
According to a May 11 article at the Japanese business news site Nikkei.com (registration and paid subscription required; free trial period available) NEC Corp. plans to start taking orders in July for new RFID tag reader/writers. The new systems will be compatible with all major worldwide radio communications standards, and priced at less than 10 percent of today's prices for comparable systems, according to “company sources,” Nikkei.com said.
Unspecified improvements in semiconductor design and manufacturing techniques enable NEC to sell its new reader/writers for approximately 10,000 yen (or just over US$100 at current exchange rates) each for orders of 10,000 units or more. Further, NEC “has developed servers and software that can read and write several tens of thousands of pieces of data per second, which it will lease to clients using RFID tags,” Nikkei.com reported.
“The company aims to generate 100 billion yen in sales within the next five years by selling the reader/writer and leasing servers and software,” according to the Nikkei.com article. The report adds that NEC plans to focus on growing RFID use beyond traditional supply chain and asset-tracking applications, particularly in the retail sector.
Two reactions.
Reaction One: Nice innovation chops, NEC (assuming that the reports from the usually reliable Nikkei Group are accurate, of course).
Reaction Two: So what?
Cheaper tags, readers and writers and bigger, faster read volumes can only go so far. (This is a lesson being learned by many RFID vendors even as you read this. And that includes at least some of those pursuing the “RFID as a service” go-to-market approach, where they own and manage the infrastructure and users pay monthly usage fees.) The savvy users and vendors I've worked with agree about what's really needed to make RFID a truly significant, sustainable, mainstream set of technologies. Herewith, a summary.
Affordability – of the whole solution, not just the hardware, and especially including interoperability and integration (about which more just after the next item).
Reliability – as defined and measured by users' business requirements and not just any particular vendor's particular silo.
Interoperability – of solutions with one another and with incumbent IT solutions and relevant processes and operations, as well as “fork-lift-free” integration of all relevant data, technologies, and operations.
Scalability of all solutions – both up and down.
Economic stability and transparency of all vendors and partners involved in the user's value chain – and an easy, low-cost exit strategy, should a particular vendor or technology go away or cease being appropriate for any reason.
Even if hardware and software were free and infinitely capacious, unanswered questions about the other above issues would still keep many users away from RFID (and other potentially critical and transformational technologies, such as SaaS and cloud computing). And this is as it should be.
Users, in fact, should treat the above considerations as a bare-bones version of a “bill of rights” they deserve to have upheld by every vendor hoping to do business with them. And vendors should consider them the minimum buy-in required to gain and keep users' business and trust. Because it's each user's business that lives, dies, or thrives by how well solutions such as RFID actually work to improve agility, competitiveness, and profitability. And helping more users thrive is how technology-centric markets such as that for RFID are grown and sustained.
So whether user or vendor, you and your colleagues should “ARISE” (it's not just an acronym – it's a mnemonic!) and support the above goals, altruistically, pragmatically, cynically, or otherwise. Whatever your reasons, the effects will be a stronger, more vibrant market and more solutions that actually deliver benefit and value – and that actually sell.
Not that I have any strong feelings about these things, you understand...
Unspecified improvements in semiconductor design and manufacturing techniques enable NEC to sell its new reader/writers for approximately 10,000 yen (or just over US$100 at current exchange rates) each for orders of 10,000 units or more. Further, NEC “has developed servers and software that can read and write several tens of thousands of pieces of data per second, which it will lease to clients using RFID tags,” Nikkei.com reported.
“The company aims to generate 100 billion yen in sales within the next five years by selling the reader/writer and leasing servers and software,” according to the Nikkei.com article. The report adds that NEC plans to focus on growing RFID use beyond traditional supply chain and asset-tracking applications, particularly in the retail sector.
Two reactions.
Reaction One: Nice innovation chops, NEC (assuming that the reports from the usually reliable Nikkei Group are accurate, of course).
Reaction Two: So what?
Cheaper tags, readers and writers and bigger, faster read volumes can only go so far. (This is a lesson being learned by many RFID vendors even as you read this. And that includes at least some of those pursuing the “RFID as a service” go-to-market approach, where they own and manage the infrastructure and users pay monthly usage fees.) The savvy users and vendors I've worked with agree about what's really needed to make RFID a truly significant, sustainable, mainstream set of technologies. Herewith, a summary.
Affordability – of the whole solution, not just the hardware, and especially including interoperability and integration (about which more just after the next item).
Reliability – as defined and measured by users' business requirements and not just any particular vendor's particular silo.
Interoperability – of solutions with one another and with incumbent IT solutions and relevant processes and operations, as well as “fork-lift-free” integration of all relevant data, technologies, and operations.
Scalability of all solutions – both up and down.
Economic stability and transparency of all vendors and partners involved in the user's value chain – and an easy, low-cost exit strategy, should a particular vendor or technology go away or cease being appropriate for any reason.
Even if hardware and software were free and infinitely capacious, unanswered questions about the other above issues would still keep many users away from RFID (and other potentially critical and transformational technologies, such as SaaS and cloud computing). And this is as it should be.
Users, in fact, should treat the above considerations as a bare-bones version of a “bill of rights” they deserve to have upheld by every vendor hoping to do business with them. And vendors should consider them the minimum buy-in required to gain and keep users' business and trust. Because it's each user's business that lives, dies, or thrives by how well solutions such as RFID actually work to improve agility, competitiveness, and profitability. And helping more users thrive is how technology-centric markets such as that for RFID are grown and sustained.
So whether user or vendor, you and your colleagues should “ARISE” (it's not just an acronym – it's a mnemonic!) and support the above goals, altruistically, pragmatically, cynically, or otherwise. Whatever your reasons, the effects will be a stronger, more vibrant market and more solutions that actually deliver benefit and value – and that actually sell.
Not that I have any strong feelings about these things, you understand...
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Are Your RFID Vendors in Trouble? And If So, What Can/Should You Do?
So what do green energy, software as a service (SaaS), radio frequency identification (RFID), and their offshoots and affiliates all have in common as industries or markets?
Two things, for the purposes of this particular rant.
Thing the First is that they were all predicted as recently as the end of 2008 to be some of the few areas that were likely to weather what was (apparently) seen by many (but not everyone) then as a looming but temporary economic...unpleasantness.
Thing the Second is that given the significantly more robust and sustained nature of said...unpleasantness, all three of arenas are facing significant, sustained challenges. In many cases, these challenges are life-threatening to at least some companies – and unspoken of by almost all of them, especially those not publicly traded and therefore compelled to make at least some financial disclosures.
Now, it's not lost on me that among SaaS companies, Salesforce.com is not only a market leader and publicly traded. According to its most recently disclosed financial information, while challenged, it is not in any real, imminent danger. (As I expected during the recent media mini-furor over whether or not SaaS was going to make it, or something like that.) I worry far more about the ecosystem of smaller and emerging SaaS, RFID, and related suppliers, including some of RFID's better-known names.
I especially worry when I see no recent announcements of major customer wins, or even significant pilots. I also worry when I see no announcements of strategic alliances – or see what are touted as such, but that include no laudatory statement from any senior executives from the supposed “strategic partner.”
I'm not sayin'. I'm just sayin'. (If you want to see such an announcement done right, check out Fluensee's recent BMC integration announcement -- and I'm not just saying that because I'm quoted in it.)
Green energy is not one of my core strengths, so I'll leave that to others more expert and focused than I. (I would But where SaaS and RFID are concerned, well, I'm concerned. And I'll have more to say about both Real Soon Now. Meanwhile, though, if you don't have them in place yet, craft, execute, and enforce some effective, protective, and business-driven service level agreements (SLAs) with every SaaS or RFID vendor or reseller critical to your business. And keep close tabs on the financial health of those vendors. To the extent that such tabs are possible, at least.
Two things, for the purposes of this particular rant.
Thing the First is that they were all predicted as recently as the end of 2008 to be some of the few areas that were likely to weather what was (apparently) seen by many (but not everyone) then as a looming but temporary economic...unpleasantness.
Thing the Second is that given the significantly more robust and sustained nature of said...unpleasantness, all three of arenas are facing significant, sustained challenges. In many cases, these challenges are life-threatening to at least some companies – and unspoken of by almost all of them, especially those not publicly traded and therefore compelled to make at least some financial disclosures.
Now, it's not lost on me that among SaaS companies, Salesforce.com is not only a market leader and publicly traded. According to its most recently disclosed financial information, while challenged, it is not in any real, imminent danger. (As I expected during the recent media mini-furor over whether or not SaaS was going to make it, or something like that.) I worry far more about the ecosystem of smaller and emerging SaaS, RFID, and related suppliers, including some of RFID's better-known names.
I especially worry when I see no recent announcements of major customer wins, or even significant pilots. I also worry when I see no announcements of strategic alliances – or see what are touted as such, but that include no laudatory statement from any senior executives from the supposed “strategic partner.”
I'm not sayin'. I'm just sayin'. (If you want to see such an announcement done right, check out Fluensee's recent BMC integration announcement -- and I'm not just saying that because I'm quoted in it.)
Green energy is not one of my core strengths, so I'll leave that to others more expert and focused than I. (I would But where SaaS and RFID are concerned, well, I'm concerned. And I'll have more to say about both Real Soon Now. Meanwhile, though, if you don't have them in place yet, craft, execute, and enforce some effective, protective, and business-driven service level agreements (SLAs) with every SaaS or RFID vendor or reseller critical to your business. And keep close tabs on the financial health of those vendors. To the extent that such tabs are possible, at least.
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