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Global competition and increased internal financial scrutiny are compelling companies to maximise both the business value and the return on investment (ROI) of their RFID investments by means of better integration with operational applications and infrastructure, according to research by Aberdeen Group and Using RFID.
The report, entitled 'RFID and IT Infrastructures: Maximizing Business Value', found that 80% of best-in-class companies using infrastructure monitoring and management solutions cited the need to maximise the availability of business-critical applications and services as the top deployment drivers for such solutions.
Main concerns
Meanwhile, early RFID adopters' cost concerns have shifted away from tags and readers, and toward integration with core operational applications and data. Also, the range of areas in which RFID is now being used is expanding beyond traditional "slap and ship" and "track and trace" applications.
More survey respondents (43%) are tagging or planning to tag IT assets than manufacturing work in process (35%) or inventory (30%), which were two of the most traditionally popular RFID applications.
Key findings
According to more than 200 survey respondents, the top pressures driving integration of RFID and IT infrastructure management are the desires to ease integration of RFID-generated data with key applications, and to maximize the business value of that data.
Among the most compelling findings of the research:
- Best-in-class companies enjoyed an average 75.4% year-over-year increase in the number of applications meeting or exceeding external service level agreements (SLAs);
- Best-in-class companies enjoyed an average 16.7% year-over-year increase in IT infrastructure operational efficiency and business responsiveness;
- Best-in-class companies enjoyed an average 1.92% year-over-year reduction of unplanned downtime;
- Best-in-class companies enjoyed an average 6.9% reduction in "time to information" for business intelligence;
- Best-in-class companies enjoyed an average 9.5% reduction in "time to information" for business processes.
"Best-in-class survey respondents enjoyed an average 6.9% year-over-year reduction in 'time to information' for business intelligence, underscoring the ability of RFID-IT infrastructure management integration to deliver meaningful business benefits," noted Aberdeen Group analyst Michael Dortch.
Future strategy
According to Aberdeen Group, companies that have not yet integrated RFID and IT infrastructure management in 2008 risk foregoing significant business benefits, such as the average 75.4% year-over-year increase in the number of applications meeting or exceeding external SLAs and 9.5% reduction in "time to information" for business processes enjoyed by best-in-class survey respondents.
The survey report was created to provide recommendations to help companies maximise the business value of their IT investments by achieving best-in-class levels of RFID and IT infrastructure management and integration. The report has been made available for free download for a limited time from Aberdeen Group's web site - click here (free registration required).
Source: Aberdeen Group
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