Report: RFID technology's potential opens up numerous application sectors

With several radio frequency identification (RFID) initiatives getting underway across diverse verticals in the South East Asian and Australia New Zealand region, RFID is all set to live up to its billing as a breakthrough technology. In line with this technology's capabilities to enable greater security and efficiency, more end users are considering it a tool that will help them gain a competitive edge.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, South East Asia and Australia New Zealand RFID Market, finds that the market earned revenues of more than $80.0 million in 2008 and estimates this to reach more than $250.0 million in 2016.

Various governments, along with industry-based associations, have been investigating and promoting RFID's usage in numerous verticals, including oil and gas, mining, casino chips, prison, CD/DVD, and aviation, to showcase potential benefits. With the effects of the global economic slowdown likely to spill over into 2010, the aviation industry, on whole, is bracing itself for the worst.

However, some potential end users are looking to innovatively leverage technologies such as RFID to improve efficiency levels, reduce wastage, and increase security to ensure the company remains profitable.

The need to remain competitive, especially in the current economic conditions, has impelled several end-user segments to implement trial runs of RFID technology to enhance operational efficiency. Many have been satisfied with initial results, leading to full-scale rollouts.

Having said that, the overall RFID industry is not without challenges. For instance, the high total cost of ownership of this technology is still seen as one of the key hindrances to greater traction.

"Many stakeholders are deterred by the total cost of ownership, as both hardware and system integration cost can be significant – particularly for larger-scale rollouts," says Frost & Sullivan industry analyst Richard Sebastian. "Hence, many potential end-users prefer to wait for the costs to reduce before deploying the technology."

Nevertheless, this reticence to deploy new technologies is gradually easing with the emergence of a knowledge ecosystem, wherein the findings of the evaluation phase are published. This, along with training programs, is encouraging companies to consider full and cross-facility implementations.

Stakeholders will also be aware that to thrive or indeed, survive, in these difficult times, they need to be more dynamic and willing to invest in areas with promising return on investment (ROI).

"Initial results have shown that RFID provides tremendous promise in cost savings, besides significantly improving operational efficiency and enhancing security levels, which is also critical in running any organization today," notes Sebastian.

After conducting feasibility studies or cost-benefit analyses and deducing potential gains, stakeholders need to push toward an RFID initiative to boost its operations. Stakeholders need to aggressively leverage RFID as a tool to ensure a more competitively run enterprise, as this technology is pivotal for long-term sustainability and profitability.

If you are interested in more information on this study, send an e-mail to Donna Jeremiah, corporate communications, at djeremiah@frost.com, with your full name, company name, title, telephone number, company e-mail address, company Web site, city, state and country.