Article: BT Global Services Offers Retailers A Packaged System For Item-Level Tracking

By Claire Swedberg, RFID Journal

International IT services provider BT Global Services is offering a scalable, easily installable RFID solution for the retailing sector—stores, goods suppliers and logistics companies. The BT Retail Inventory Management solution (part of the company's BT Supply Chain Solutions portfolio) is being sold as an installation package for one or more stores, to be billed as a monthly service fee, but it is also available as a three-month pilot package for a single store, for any retailers that wish to test the technology before permanently deploying it. In addition, BT Global Services provides customer support to ensure a return on investment (ROI) before users expand the system to other stores, distribution centers or goods manufacturers. The company is initially marketing the solution to businesses in Europe and Asia.

BT Retail Inventory Management includes EPC Gen 2 passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID tags and handheld RFID readers provided by BT (the company works with all leading handheld manufacturers); an Omnitrol Networks' appliance loaded with runs Omnitrol software for managing handheld reader data, as well as for providing back-room inventory management, store front inventory management and business analytics; and the BT data network, which functions as a cloud from which a retailer's employees or other authorized supply chain members can access information via the Internet. The solution, once deployed, is charged to a user as a monthly fee that varies according to deployment size. In some cases, if end users request automation of receipt or shipping, BT will also provide fixed interrogators that act as portals at, for example, dock doors.

Used with permission from RFID Journal, Inc.