SAMSys to Unveil RFID Reader Platform

By Mark Roberti

Mar. 21, 2006—SAMSys Technologies, a Durham, N.C., maker of radio frequency identification interrogators (readers), says it will soon unveil a new architecture for its interrogators. This architecture will enable the company to create products for original equipment manufacturers and itself, and to expedite bringing them to market.

"We've taken a platform approach to our products," says Tom Dziersk (pronounced Dursk), who assumed the roles of president and CEO at SAMSys in December. "The perfect analogy is when the car industry came out with a common chassis and a common engine and common wheelbase; all they had to do was change the body and the interior. The cost to develop new models was reduced dramatically. More important, the quality improved because they didn't have to reengineer everything from the ground up."

Tom Dziersk, SAMSys

SAMSys plans to unveil the first interrogator product based on this platform architecture at RFID Journal LIVE! in early May. The new platform approach represents a radical shift in SAMSys' approach to the market. Previously, the company sold mainly high-end readers under its own brand.

Dziersk says SAMSys' future lies primarily in selling fixed interrogators and reader modules to OEMs, with only about 20 percent of its product sold under its own brand. Making modules for OEMs, however, has required the company to change its approach.

"Today, companies are selling one-size-fits-all modules," Dziersk says. "If I sell my module to several companies that make RFID label printers, they have a problem. They have to compete against each other, but they can't differentiate on the reader [because the modules inside are identical]."

The same would be true if SAMSys licensed its fixed interrogator to an OEM that wanted to market it under its own brand. The OEM would be competing with SAMSys in such a scenario, and would have a limited ability to differentiate its product because it would be the same interrogator.