RFID NEWS
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Wells Fargo Banks on RFID
In this case, Wells Fargo has the RFID tags on such items as servers, chassis, blades, storage devices and other data center equipment. Each unique ID number is linked to data regarding that asset in Wells Fargo's back-end system. RFID portals are being installed throughout the buildings at locations where equipment could be moved, for example, between storage areas. If, for instance, a piece of machinery is decommissioned, it will leave the raised floor and pass through a portal that transmits the ID number to the back-end system, along with location, time and date. In that way, the company's ERP system can update each item's status (such as decommissioned) and location.
"If you look at it from an efficiency perspective, RFID makes perfect sense," Russo says. By using the technology to track the locations of so many items, he explains, the company is able to save significant man-hours that employees previously spent walking around the buildings conducting manual inventories or searching for data about specific items.
"As we started looking at RFID, we saw more and more clearly that there were ways this technology could benefit the entire industry," Russo says. "We all have the same problems we want to solve."
Russo helped form an RFID special interest group (SIG) within the Financial Services Technology Consortium, a New York-based group comprising several North American financial institutions, including Wells Fargo and Bank of America. The SIG plans to have a standard recommendation for IT equipment vendors that will define the use of Gen 2 tags, and how tags should be applied to equipment they sell to financial market end users (see Banking Group to Set RFID Roadmap).
"We are just about to wrap up the standard," Russo says. That standard will define for hardware vendors such things as the type of tags to use, and where to apply them. "It's an efficiency issue," he states. "If we can simplify workflows for our data center staff, and we use common models with our hardware suppliers, it translates to an advantage for all of us and enables us to provide even greater customer services."
If vendors begin tagging their products as they ship them, Russo says, the banks could receive advance shipping notices, and RFID readers at the receiving dock doors could update the bank's ERP system to indicate items have been received.
Russo says he expects the SIG to make its RFID standard recommendation in December.
"If you look at it from an efficiency perspective, RFID makes perfect sense," Russo says. By using the technology to track the locations of so many items, he explains, the company is able to save significant man-hours that employees previously spent walking around the buildings conducting manual inventories or searching for data about specific items.
"As we started looking at RFID, we saw more and more clearly that there were ways this technology could benefit the entire industry," Russo says. "We all have the same problems we want to solve."
Russo helped form an RFID special interest group (SIG) within the Financial Services Technology Consortium, a New York-based group comprising several North American financial institutions, including Wells Fargo and Bank of America. The SIG plans to have a standard recommendation for IT equipment vendors that will define the use of Gen 2 tags, and how tags should be applied to equipment they sell to financial market end users (see Banking Group to Set RFID Roadmap).
"We are just about to wrap up the standard," Russo says. That standard will define for hardware vendors such things as the type of tags to use, and where to apply them. "It's an efficiency issue," he states. "If we can simplify workflows for our data center staff, and we use common models with our hardware suppliers, it translates to an advantage for all of us and enables us to provide even greater customer services."
Russo says he expects the SIG to make its RFID standard recommendation in December.
