This article was originally published by RFID Update.
December 14, 2004—There has been increasing industry concern about the shortage of professionals with RFID expertise and skills, a shortage expected to grow more acute as demand for RFID services increases throughout 2005. The large consultancies are beefing up their available RFID manpower, and AIM Global and CompTIA recently introduced an RFID training and certification program to attract more IT professionals to the technology.
The problem, as outlined in this AIM Global editorial, is not actually a lack of RFID-skilled professionals. There are plenty of companies equipped to offer low frequency and active RFID technology solutions, for example. The problem is with the EPC-based RFID applications that are the driving force of the industry now and for the foreseeable future. Because EPC is relatively new, aggregate industry experience working with the technology is quite sparse. And those early adopters that have successfully completed EPC installations are naturally weary of sharing what they learned for fear of sacrificing the competitive advantage that this hard-earned knowledge represents. So now that EPCglobal’s second generation RFID standard has been ratified (see story above), and products and services based around it will start appearing on the market in abundance, it certainly does seem that professionals adept at working with EPC standards will become more precious still.
Read the article at AIM Global
