ASUG 2004 and RFID
At the ASUG 2004 conference I’m learning that SAP is definitely trying to push RFID. I mentioned RFID about a year ago and I said that it was coming sooner rather than later. I’m starting to hear the same messge from corporations now. If you don’t know anything about RFID you should probably do some research on it, especially if you are in any sort of business where you need to track products and information inside and outside your organization. I don’t have time to say much more right now because I need to head off to my next session on mySAP CRM. I’ll try to explain more of this later either in another posting or as comments tied to this posting.
I just realized that I have about two minutes to explain RFID. (I need to create an RFID FAQ for Little Monkeys!) The idea is that you tag your products with a small radio frequency device. The device (small!) probably will cost about $0.30, at least for now, so it isn’t going to help you with tracking anything too small; cost is prohibative. The device has a small memory chip and an antenna. The amount of data storage is in the very low byte to low kilobyte range. Not much memory, but as most of us know, even a few K can go a long way. Another thing to think about is that the RFID tag holds information, sends information, gathers information, and so forth. The key is that the RFID is the core, the center. The locus of information is the RFID tag. (What does this mean for usability, folks?)
OK, that’s all the time I have. I promise to continue to update you on my ASUG experiences. Feel free to post comments (if you are registered) or email me directly at john(at)webword.com