The Hindu Business Line : `Retail, manufacturing to spur growth in RFID-related biz'

THE global RFID (radio frequency identification)-related business, estimated at about $1.3 billion (around Rs 5,759 crore) in the year 2003, is projected to grow to about $3-10 billion in the next three to five years, driven by growth of the retail and manufacturing sectors, according to a research study of AMR Research.

Addressing a meeting on "Exploiting RFID for RoI (return on investment)", a senior consultant on RFID at Satyam Computer, Mr Jayaraman Krishnamurthy, said, "the turn of year 2005 will see faster adoption of RFID-related applications. Driven by the likes of Wal-mart, the RFID-related services activity is also expected to go up in China and India which have emerged major retail potential countries along with the US."

Mr Krishnamurthy said that "Satyam too has created a separate team to address RFID-related services under the Consulting and Enterprise Solutions Group and has teamed up with OAT Systems for middleware.

"We have thus far handled several pilot projects and expect this sector to witness rapid growth driven by the growth of retail, pharma and manufacturing sectors. Interestingly, travel and transport applications are picking up in a big way driven by several large airports and airliners."

Citing the case of Wal-mart, which had announced plans to invest about $3 billion (around Rs 13,290 crore) over the next few years on a new inventory tracking technology using RFID, he said that next year many of its suppliers would have to comply with these requirements.

However, recent investments have not been up to the levels of expectations and projections made earlier.

Software needs to be complimented with the necessary hardware and middleware when the requirement goes up significantly.

More Stories on : Outlook | Software | Retailing

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page