Dec 01, 2011The following are news announcements made during the past week.
Intelligent InSites Intros Business Intelligence Solution, New Consulting Service
Intelligent InSites, a provider of enterprise real-time location system (RTLS) software designed to help hospitals improve patient satisfaction and operational performance while supporting multiple RFID and RTLS technologies, has introduced a solution called Business Intelligence (BI). This software application is designed to provide operators with easy-to-use data mining so they can more easily analyze contextual data stored in the BI database. The goal, according to Intelligent InSites, is to help users analyze trends, identify process-improvement opportunities and report on key performance indicators (KPIs). The Intelligent InSites Enterprise Visibility Platform culls information collected from various automatic-identification technologies—such as RFID tags—to help hospitals visualize the location and status of assets, track equipment-utilization rates and generate rules-based notifications and alerts. The BI application lets health-care practitioners analyze data and create their own reports without having to rely on the IT staff, and provides interactive, easy-to-use dashboards and reports to visualize and understand enterprise data—within a single hospital and across multiple medical facilities—in order to identify trends, perform benchmarking and optimize performance. Data-mining algorithms can enable a deep-dive analysis of years of historical data, including the location, status, condition and interactions of tracked assets, patients and employees, the company reports, without impacting RTLS performance. Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas is utilizing RTLS technology to gain a better handle on its mobile and portable equipment, thereby improving inventory management and reducing rental costs (see RFID: The Key to Knowledge). "The enterprise data-mining and powerful analytics of Business Intelligence allows us to improve operational processes across our healthcare enterprise with actionable information," said Clint Abernathy, the hospital's administrative director of operations, in a prepared statement, "and we see tremendous value in this increased ability to support information-driven decision-making."
In other news, Intelligent InSites has announced a new consulting service designed to help health-care organizations identify the impact of RTLS and related technologies on their core processes and workflows. RTLS+ Value Analysis is a consulting engagement, accomplished with the aid of independent consultants, that includes in-depth customer interviews, as well as extensive data analysis to help an organization better understand its specific challenges, and to put a quantifiable value on how RFID and RTLS technologies might help each specific department or workflow. Example areas for improvement include "right-sized" equipment inventories (based on optimized equipment utilization), reduced rental expenses (based on real-time equipment tracking and improved rentals management) and increased value-added time for nursing staff. At the conclusion of the Value Analysis project, the RTLS+ Value Impact Report provides concrete opportunities for improvement, hard-dollar impacts, and a recommended roadmap to implement RTLS solutions and RTLS+ enabled process improvements.
Xerafy Announces Global Trak, a Broadband On-, Off-Metal EPC RFID Tag
RFID metal tag provider Xerafy has introduced Global Trak, a broadband- RFID tag that, according to the company, is suitable for such applications as source tagging of IT server blades and assets, global supply chain warehousing and enterprise-wide asset management. Global Trak is compliant with the EPC Gen 2 and ISO 18000-6C standards, and offers performance across the entire ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID frequency band: 860 MHz to 960 MHz. The Global Trak tag has a small footprint, measuring 1.50 inches by 0.50 inch by 0.15 inch (38 millimeters by 12.7 millimeters by 3.8 millimeters) and weighing 0.09 ounce (2.6 grams). It features a built-in tethering hole that Xerafy says eases deployment and enables fast attachment with a standard tie-wrap. The tag has read-range capability of up to 8 feet on metal and 6 feet off metal. Xerafy also offers custom encoding and label-printing services for tag commissioning, the company reports, which includes wraparound labels for improved security and identification. "We designed the Global Trak to offer our customers a cost-effective RFID tag solution across frequency borders," said Dennis Khoo, Xerafy's CEO, in a prepared statement. "Complementing the Trak family of tags, the Global Trak performs well on and off metal and can be read on both sides when the tag hangs in free space." The tag was introduced at the RFID Journal LIVE! Latin America (LatAm) 2011 conference and exhibition, held last week in Mexico City.
HID Global has announced the addition of the SlimFlex tag to its lineup of general-purpose ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) transponders. The SlimFlex tag, made with Alien Technology's Higgs 3 chip, complies with the EPC Gen 2 standard and has a thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) housing—a flexible housing that, according to HID Global, allows for greater placement options than traditional UHF hard tags. The tag is designed to offer broadband performance, supporting deployments across the UHF spectrum worldwide, 860 MHz to 960 MHz. The tag can be mounted securely on rounded or irregular surfaces, bending without negatively affecting tag performance; it conforms to surface contours, and can be securely attached via industrial adhesives or screwed into place via predrilled holes. Data can be read and written from distances of up to 19.7 feet (6 meters) when the tag is mounted to any wood or plastic surface, the company reports. The tag's UHF technology enables anti-collision functionality, fast data-rate communication and password data protection for reliable reading and updating of each tag's 512-bit user memory, the company adds. The SlimFlex tags are available now.
Retail Tech Provider I Love Velvet Intros Solution for Mobile NFC Payments
I Love Velvet, a startup retail technology provider focused on mobile-payment solutions, has announced its Universal Holster (U-Holster), which holds various smartphones and tablets and equips them with technology so retailers can accept payments and perform other services while moving throughout a store and attending to customers. The goal of I Love Velvet's solution, the company reports, is to help retailers provide a custom shopping encounter, while eliminating lines at checkout counters. Not only does the solution enable mobile payments, I Love Velvet explains, but customers who opt to allow their purchase history, loyalty-card and other information to be stored and accessed by the retailer can take advantage of offers and features built around a custom, one-on-one shopping experience. The U-Holster, an upgrade to the firm's D-Holster, offers greater security for customers, as well as an integrated pad and screen for PIN debit entry. It includes the ability to read linear and 2D bar codes, in addition to Near Field Communication (NFC) 13.56 MHz passive RFID tags. The solution can be used to accept payments, redeem coupons, administer loyalty cards and more. The U-Holster works with the Apple iPad, iPhone or iPod, as well as devices that use the Android or Microsoft Windows 7 operating system, and can accommodate the different form factors via fitted sleds—frames that can be slipped on and off. According to the company, a U-Holster can scan 2-D bar codes in less than one second (compared with typical scans that take 15 seconds), for reading U.S. driver's licenses, college ID cards, boarding passes and mobile screens. The U-Holster also features an NFC RFID reader that enables customers to pay by contactless debit (via PIN entry), credit and EMV cards. The U-Holster has a 10-hour battery life averaging 5,500 swipes, I Love Velvet indicates. It has been certified by Apple for use with the iPad, and has a built-in Apple microchip—a feature that the company says allows it to offer a fully compatible device with the Apple standard, thereby enabling an ultra-secure and controlled data flow from the U-holster to the Apple device using the Apple-certified connector. Available in a variety of colors, the U-Holster is heat-resistant and comes with shoulder and wrist straps, along with a build-in stand.
Cachapuz Bilanciai RFID Solution Optimizes Logistics at Indian Cement Plant
Jaypee Group, an industrial conglomerate headquartered in India, has adopted the SLV Cement dispatching and logistics flow-control solution, provided by Cachapuz Bilanciai Group and its partner, String Automation Pvt. Ltd., which handled the implementation. The solution is designed to automate all processes associated with the plant's dispatch operations, from a truck's arrival to the dispatching of cement and the automatic printing of the necessary documentation at the end of the process—by optimizing truck movements, reducing human intervention and process errors, and decreasing the amount of time required to complete loading and unloading operations. The solution, which leverages RFID for access control, dispatching, weighing, parking, entry/exit gates and raw-materials unloading, was customized to meet the needs of Jaypee Group's Rewa plant, located in Madhya Pradesh. The factory has a production capacity of 3 million tons per annum (MTPA). In addition to RFID, SLV Cement includes tools for process management and business analysis, as well as integration with the plant's SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. To begin the loading and unloading processes, a truck driver first identifies himself at a parking kiosk via a contactless RFID card; at that point, permission is validated by communicating the card's unique tag ID and the associated driver with the load/unload instructions held in the SAP system. Once permission is granted, the driver then goes to one of the entry weighbridges and identifies himself again via the RFID tag, and the system registers the first weighing after checking with positioning sensors to make sure that the vehicle is in the correct position on the weighbridge. Once a traffic light informs him to proceed, the driver moves to the indicated loading/unloading area, in order to perform the operation as instructed. From there, he moves to the exit weighbridge and identifies himself via RFID at the weighbridge's kiosk, after which the system registers the second weight and prints the necessary documentation. All of this information is automatically synchronized with SAP to ensure that the data is consolidated in the two systems. To conclude the process, the driver goes to the dispatch zone in order to collect the legal documents. The solution on site includes the SLV Cement software framework with SAP ERP integration, various digital information panels and signage units, a variety of self-service kiosks with color touch screens, proximity RFID tag readers, RFID tag collectors and thermal kiosk printers, as well as 14 positioning sensors to control the weighing operation and 14 traffic lights.
