Revealing RFID Beyond Tracking at RFID Asia Summit 2008 in Indonesia

PRLog (Press Release) – Feb 10, 2008 – A few years ago, Wal-Mart issued a mandate for suppliers to attach products with RFID tags. Today, only a few suppliers have complied, or in other words, the mandate does not work effectively in retail supply chain. 5-cent RFID tag is the most demanded RFID product in the world. Unfortunately, the product does not exist. The underlying assumption of large volume purchase to reach the price level of 5-cent has never become reality.

“We quickly determined that if RFID tags were ever going to have a shot at being widely used, a 5-cent price target was important for both psychological and commercial reasons. In return, though, the volumes would have to be very high—for example, more than 5 billion bar codes are scanned daily today. The problem with RFID tags at the time was that the industry was "stuck" in a higher-margin, lower-volume mind-set.” wrote Sanjay Sarma, the co-founder of MIT's Auto-ID Center (now Auto-ID Lab), and also the CTO & Director of Oat Systems, in his article “Integrating RFID” several years ago.

Eventhough Wal-Mart has recently started to issue an ultimatum to its suppliers shipping to its Sam's Club warehouse outlet distribution center in Texas, USA with a premium price of $2 per pallet, it is estimated that over 15,000 Wal-Mart suppliers have yet to comply with Wal-Mart's RFID mandate, according to a recent article at Computer Business Review.

While the retail supply chain industry is still waiting for the coming of 5-cent RFID tag, various RFID applications that do not rely on 5-cent price level have mushroomed for the past few years in diverse vertical industries.

RFID & Sensor Technologies
The use of RFID & sensor technologies have become more common nowadays. Active RFID tags with built-in sensors are readily available in the market. Applications such as electronic container seals, intelligent buildings, vital sign measurement of monitored hospital patients are only a few of applications that require cost-effective infrastructure. With the increasing number of nodes & types of sensors in wireless sensor network (WSN), the role of infrastructure has become more critical to manage sensors & intelligent networks.

Stephen Dolan, the Director of Sybase Australia and New Zealand, one of the international speakers in RFID Asia Summit 2008, will unveil how to integrate business logic and processes with RFID and sensor technologies, including mobile devices.

“My expectation is that this summit could create people's awareness of what RFID technology can support to the existing environment, from biology to medical, from telecommunication to material engineering,” said Dr. Toni Anwar of TGGS Thailand who will present how to design and implement integrated and intelligent building automation and security with RFID technology. “This event could also be a real summit of people, who then will continue in a good RFID project with another.”

Animal and Food Traceability
Predicted as the largest RFID market of all, the use of RFID technology for animals, food and farming will benefit the food supply chain in a huge number of ways, including livestock disease control and merchandising prepared food, according to the latest report “RFID for Animals, Food and Farming 2007-2011” published by IDTechEx.

During the RFID Asia Summit 2008, Dr. Urachada Ketprom of NECTEC, Thailand's National Electronics and Computer Technology Center, will present how Thailand, the world's largest producer of farm-raised shrimp and the fourth biggest poultry exporter, uses RFID technology for animal and food traceability.

“RFID Asia Summit 2008 presents an opportunity to update current RFID trends and connects people in RFID business or academic together to exchange information and new conceptual idea for new application development,” said Dr. Urachada Ketprom.

Contactless Smart Card and Near Field Communication (NFC)
From mass transportation to ID cards, contactless smart card has been the choice for micropayment in cashless society. Now that NFC is ready to turn mobile phones into credit cards and personal payment terminals, mobile commerce has also been redefined. Jupiter Research estimates the total of US$22 billion mobile phone payment transaction by 2011.

Jonathon Gould, Vice President of ViVOtech will share his experience and knowledge about the ecosystem for NFC-enabled mobile payment and mobile commerce, including mobile wallet and digital money. Moreover, the transition from EMV to NFC payment, the latest contactless payment technology, applications, projects and market trends presented by international renowned speakers such as Goh Say Yeow, VP & Director Asia of INSIDE Contactless and  Chua Thian Yee, CEO of CASSIS International will also become the inspiring and thought-provoking discussion during the RFID Asia Summit 2008.

“I hope this summit will share with the participants the implementation experience and to do the project right the first time,” said Chua Thian Yee of CASSIS International, a leading end-to-end security solution and service provider of smart card innovation, technology and services headquartered in Singapore.

Different from other RFID events, the RFID Asia Summit 2008 to be held in Jakarta, Indonesia, will integrate conference presentations by a line up of international renowned speakers, RFID Demonstration Rally™, exhibition and networking sessions, making the RFID Asia Summit 2008 a unique one-stop event to learn from RFID experts and business leaders, experience the latest RFID products and meet prospective partners and clients.

ABOUT RFID ASIA SUMMIT 2008
RFID Asia Summit 2008 aims to address the potentials & challenges of RFID technology & harness the economic opportunities in various vertical industries in Indonesia & Asia Pacific region. As the only event in Asia Pacific dedicated for leaders and RFID experts in charge for the development of businesses in the emerging markets, RFID Asia Summit 2008 is also endeavored to boost business interests in RFID technology within the region.

Catering the demand for invaluable insights on the latest Auto-ID, RFID, Smart Card & Mobile technology, trends & markets, RFID Asia Summit 2008 will present a line-up of international renowned speakers who will lead intellectually thought-provoking and inspiring conference tracks, RFID demonstrations and business networking sessions.

For more information about the RFID Asia Summit 2008, please visit The Official Website of RFID Asia Summit 2008 at http://summit.rfid-asia.info.


ABOUT INDONESIA
Indonesia accounts as one of the fastest and vibrantly growing economy in the South East Asia with more than 6% annual economic growth. As one of the next major emerging economies with strong economic growth and commodity trade, Indonesia - the world´s largest archipelagos boasts a growing demand for RFID technology solutions in telecommunication, banking & finance, transportation, logistics, healthcare, oil & gas, mining, building automation, manufacturing, agriculture and security industries. In conjunction with the official Indonesian Government's programme of Visit Indonesia 2008, RFID Asia Summit 2008 will attract both international and local business leaders and RFID experts in the Asia Pacific region.

As the first country in Southeast Asia that has implemented National Single Window (NSW), which provides one-stop electronic services for customs and excise, shipping, bank transfers, insurance and licensing, including electronic processing of trade documents, Indonesia is expected to modernize its national infrastructure in the upcoming years. Various sectors in Indonesia are expected to grow faster than its annual economic growth. Such sectors include transport and communications sector that is expected to achieve annual growth of 6.8% with total value of US$33.23bn by 2011, according to the latest research on Indonesia's Freight Transport report published by Business Monitor International.