RFID News Roundup

Presented here are news announcements made during the past week by the following organizations: Stora Enso, Atos; PragmatIC, Schreiner MediPharm; Understory, MSI GuaranteedWeather; Altair Semiconductor; the Industrial Internet Consortium; PT Next, CodeNameWhat; Triax Technologies, and Skanska.

Stora Enso, Atos Partner on Sustainable Automated Retail Solutions

Stora Enso has entered into a global partnership with digital transformation company Atos to create automated retail solutions and services based on the concept of intelligent cabinets. Such cabinets are RFID-enabled e-kiosks designed for on-the-go purchasing using smartphones or standard card payments.

The partnership will commercialize Stora Enso's New Retail as a Service solution, which combines the company's technologies and service delivery experience with Atos's methodology. The New Retail solution merges in-store and online shopping and uses sustainable RFID tags to track and trace stored items. These tags are paper-based, providing a plastic-free and recyclable solution for packaging authentication.

To buy a product from an intelligent cabinet, a consumer requires only a compatible payment app or card. When the cabinet door is closed, the consumer is charged via the app for the items removed. A back-end solution helps retailers track transactions and replenishment orders.

Atos's digital services for retail and manufacturing will be used to enhance the New Retail solution. These services are based on Codex for Retail, a modular portfolio of solutions and services for connected retail services with Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, underpinned by end-to-end services. This establishes a set of digital business services for retail with the capability for scaling.

"While retail is aiming at convenience and efficiency all at once, we drive innovations to combine the localization of brick and mortar with digitalization," said Martin Ros, the head of Stora Enso's Intelligent Packaging unit, in a prepared statement. "With our partnership with Atos, we are entering the automated new retail market, where our sustainable RFID technology can bring the unmanned consumer experience to the next level."

"For any retail company and consumer goods brand, the topics of sustainability, product control and consumer experience are key values for their point of sales," said Philippe Miltin, Atos's group senior VP, in the prepared statement. "Combining the Stora Enso smart tracking solutions with Atos' Codex enablement and end-to-end service management, we jointly ensure that customers experience these values every time."