05/20/2005

The Integration Consortium (IC) today announced the formation of a new committee chartered with establishing and promoting best practices and industry consensus that will further enable the integration of Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) technology and data within enterprise systems.

Inaugural members of the IC's RFID Committee include representatives from Wipro, Chronologic Systems and webMethods with working groups already being established to address the core requirements for more widespread RFID adoption, such as common technical standards, templates for various business case analysis, and expanded vendor collaboration leading to more uniform, end-to-end or partner-to-partner solutions.

"As businesses look to exploit the value of RFID data, the ability to readily integrate this information within the enterprise is becoming more and more critical. Representing leaders from across the industry, the Integration Consortium should be commended for taking a leadership role in addressing these business-critical requirements," said Andrew Savitz, co-chair of the IC RFID Committee and Director of RFID Solutions and Industry Alliances for webMethods.

"Underscoring our commitment to producing tangible results that our members can immediately employ, we're delighted by the chance to showcase during the Global Integration Summit a very real-world example of what's possible using RFID. Based on technology from webMethods, Verisign and others, we're deploying an extremely unobtrusive tracking system that vividly illustrates how easily and effectively critical information can be accessed, leveraged and enhanced across multiple touch-points," he said.

During the IC's 2005 Global Integration Summit in Banff, Alberta, Canada (May 23rd to 25th 2005), attendees will specifically have the chance to participate in live "track & trace" EPC (Electronic Product Codes) Network demonstrations in which RFID tags will be embedded within their registration badges and used to support a number of interactive programs. In addition, the committee will be meeting during the program to address other objectives for the remainder of the year, including the creation of the IC's first annual RFID awards program to recognize vendor leadership and innovation in actual customer implementations.

Information on the Integration Consortium is available at www.integrationconsortium.org or by sending an e-mail to information@integrationconsortium.org.