Jun 17, 2020ITag, a Brazilian company focused on Internet of Things (IoT)-based business solutions utilizing radio frequency identification technology, has announced that it will now offer viable alternatives for its current and future customers to let them print tags directly in Taiwan and other markets, including Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. This, according to the company, will facilitate logistics and reduce costs for its customers and partners.
The firm has been investing in the internationalization of its operations in recent years through representative offices, in order to generate competitive differentials in the market. This, iTag explains, translates into benefits for users of its solutions, smart tags and services. Recently, iTag announced an agreement with Probusiness to manage its business in Paraguay and its operations in Latin America. Probusiness thus became another representative office, expanding iTag solutions beyond the Brazilian map.
iTag's Sérgio Gambim
For Sérgio Gambim, iTag's CEO, the growth of e-commerce, particularly driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, has resulted in a greater search for RFID solutions as a means of allowing for greater sales and more efficient inventory control. "The use of technology at companies that have already adopted it in e-commerce operations has further accelerated RFID's return on investment—which is usually already fast—to just a few months," he explains. "In addition, RFID is proven to be an indispensable technology for omnichannel operations, which has become more than necessary for all retailers and product distributors due to the pandemic."
In 2018, iTag announced a partnership with Printronix Auto ID, a Taiwanese industrial printing company, to provide RFID tags to be sewn onto clothing made in Asia by brands sold in Brazil. The agreement has allowed garments to be traced from the point of manufacture, in countries like China and Vietnam, until they reach consumer markets, including in Brazil. The entire process of transporting goods and having them pass through Asian ports until they arrive in Brazil, for example, can be traced via iTag's international operations. In addition, the company reports, counting parts as products are unloaded results in optimization and reduced costs, due to the use of RFID technology to manage manufactured components.
With its marketing strategy in the foreign market, iTag intends to boost the distribution and printing of smart labels throughout Asia, starting in Taiwan. To this end, the company has the support and partnership of Printronix Auto ID through Maxhill Co., which represents iTag in the Asian market. The partners created an RFID printing bureau in Taiwan. Thus, iTag and Maxmill, as representatives of Printronix Auto ID, will be responsible for the printing and serialization of RFID tags for products manufactured in other countries, by companies that use the RFID solution from iTag or its partners.
According to Gambim, the service is intended for customers that wish to adopt iTag's RFID technology, or that already use it, but have part of their production carried out outside Brazil. "Manufacturing takes place on demand, according to the customer's needs, meeting the growing needs of the market, with economy and agility," he states. "The ready-made labels are now delivered to any manufacturing destination of the customer, be it in Asia or Europe." ITag, he says, is focused on increasing its customers' productivity, controlling the traceability of an item's path in the process chain, managing inventory more easily, avoiding losses, reducing waste and simplifying logistics.
"ITag's partnership with Printronix Auto ID will bring peace of mind to those who carry out operations on another continent," Gambin predicts, "because the T6000 line of RFID printers is already approved in iTag's solution, and the entire team in Taiwan was trained to manage the information received from Brazil." The strategic partnership, he adds, represents a large step toward offering iTag's customers RFID-based control of their production, which should help with checking invoices in transit.
With several success stories in Brazil, iTag was a pioneer in that country regarding the generation of GS1's EPC Gen 2 standard. Printronix Auto ID has been offering its services for more than 40 years, and it now enables the application of RFID. According to Gambin, iTag considers Printronix Auto ID its first strategic partnership in the international market.
