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SAMSys to Unveil RFID Reader Platform
In late 2004, SAMSys hired Michael Koch as vice president of engineering. Koch used the platform approach to revamp the firm's interrogator line completely. He started with six engineers and now has a team of more than 20. The team took every major element of the interrogator—the main circuit board, the input/output (I/O) ports, the firmware and so on—and turned each into a separate component that could be swapped out for another component to create a new reader.
"We've componentized the frequency so that if you need to change from UHF to HF, you can swap out the components without changing the device management, IO processing or anything else," says Dziersk. "Or I can sell a fixed reader to an OEM, and the OEM can use its own device-management capability with our I/O and RF processing, and we wouldn't have to reengineer that. I could provide a turnkey reader to an OEM, and because the reader is based on the Intel XScale architecture, they could put their own Java applications on that reader, so it feels like it has different functionality, even though it's the same architecture."
Dziersk believes SAMSys is the first RFID interrogator company to adopt the platform approach, and that this will be a big competitive advantage. "The strength of the platform is that it lowers costs and improves quality," he says. "It takes time to create [the platform] because you have to do a lot of the engineering on the front end, but you can create derivative products quickly. And every time you create a new product, you lower your overall cost basis."
Dziersk used the same concept to turn around ClearOrbit, a company that provides supply chain execution and collaborative supply management software. He became ClearOrbit's CEO in 2000, when the firm was struggling, and left in late 2005 after successfully transforming and growing the company's profits.
"When I took over, the company had some great products, but it had no consistency," he says. "We reengineered the software products to use a common software architecture based on standards. That let us create derivative products at a rapid pace and low cost. When I met Cliff Horwitz [SAMSys' chairman], he was taking the same type of approach for the next-generation reader. What we're announcing in May, at RFID Journal LIVE!, is the platform technology and the first reader in the family."
Dziersk also wants to change SAMSys' image in the marketplace. He says the company has been known for engineering products that work, but on the negative side, those products have been perceived as fairly expensive. The goal now is not to be the lowest-cost provider, but rather to provide "high-end functionality at an aggressive price performance."
"We've componentized the frequency so that if you need to change from UHF to HF, you can swap out the components without changing the device management, IO processing or anything else," says Dziersk. "Or I can sell a fixed reader to an OEM, and the OEM can use its own device-management capability with our I/O and RF processing, and we wouldn't have to reengineer that. I could provide a turnkey reader to an OEM, and because the reader is based on the Intel XScale architecture, they could put their own Java applications on that reader, so it feels like it has different functionality, even though it's the same architecture."
Dziersk believes SAMSys is the first RFID interrogator company to adopt the platform approach, and that this will be a big competitive advantage. "The strength of the platform is that it lowers costs and improves quality," he says. "It takes time to create [the platform] because you have to do a lot of the engineering on the front end, but you can create derivative products quickly. And every time you create a new product, you lower your overall cost basis."
Dziersk used the same concept to turn around ClearOrbit, a company that provides supply chain execution and collaborative supply management software. He became ClearOrbit's CEO in 2000, when the firm was struggling, and left in late 2005 after successfully transforming and growing the company's profits.
"When I took over, the company had some great products, but it had no consistency," he says. "We reengineered the software products to use a common software architecture based on standards. That let us create derivative products at a rapid pace and low cost. When I met Cliff Horwitz [SAMSys' chairman], he was taking the same type of approach for the next-generation reader. What we're announcing in May, at RFID Journal LIVE!, is the platform technology and the first reader in the family."
Dziersk also wants to change SAMSys' image in the marketplace. He says the company has been known for engineering products that work, but on the negative side, those products have been perceived as fairly expensive. The goal now is not to be the lowest-cost provider, but rather to provide "high-end functionality at an aggressive price performance."
