Metova, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) and mobile-application company based in Tennessee, is forging into the radio frequency identification market, following its acquisition of assets from bankrupt RFID company epcSolutions. Metova has been selling cloud-based software solutions and mobile applications for the commercial, government and educational sectors since 2006. This week, the company announced its plans to offer solutions involving passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID tags and readers as part of its product offerings.
“This is our first venture into the RFID space,” says Josh Smith, Metova’s VP of product strategy and business development. The firm developed an interest in the technology, in part, because its own customers wanted to use or pilot RFID to track assets, inventory and personnel or other individuals, he explains.
EpcSolutions, which made UHF EPC-based software and partnered with hardware providers to offer full solutions, filed for Chapter 7 in June 2013, around the same time that iGPS—which used epcSolutions’ technology in conjunction with the RFID-tagged plastic pallets it manufactured—filed for bankruptcy and announced its own sale to an investment group. Chuck Williams, one of epcSolutions’ co-founders, had been the firm’s chief technology officer until April 2011. Following his former company’s bankruptcy, Williams says he was contacted by the bankruptcy trustee (employed by epcSolutions’ primary creditors), who hired him to serve as a consultant to help with the sale of the existing hardware (such as RFID-enabled printers, as well as fixed and handheld readers made by other RFID vendors), trademarks, patents and copyrights related to epcSolutions products: RFID TagManager, FixedAssetManager and TetraGate. Williams says he is unable to comment on the reasons for epcSolutions’ bankruptcy.
Williams later began working with Metova, and has now been hired as a software engineer, though he intends to assist in the development of RFID solutions that could combine Metova’s own software with hardware from the company’s RFID partners. Metova completed its acquisition of epcSolutions’ assets in early August, Smith reports.
In the government sector, Metova intends to offer RFID solutions (including partners’ tags and readers) that provide an alternative to tracking goods through the supply chain via bar codes. For schools, the company will offer solutions for monitoring students with RFID tags, such as those carried in a backpack. In this case, schools could utilize the technology to gather and manage attendance data.
In the commercial arena, meanwhile, the firm plans to provide solutions for tracking inventory and assets, Smith says. “With Chuck’s leadership, we’ll start down a path of providing RFID for our client base,” he says, while also seeking out new customers.
Initially, Williams says, Metova will spend several months refreshing code and otherwise updating the RFID-based software that epcSolutions developed. The company will then begin creating projects and offerings for Metova’s existing customers and potential users. In addition, Williams says he plans to re-establish connections with hardware providers with whom epcSolutions worked in the past. “I’m excited about re-igniting partnerships with old partners, like Zebra Technologies and Motorola,” he adds, among other tag and reader manufacturers.
Although epcSolutions was unable to remain viable with its RFID software products, Smith says, Metova offers different types of software products (mobile apps and SaaS systems) that are growing in demand. “The mobile computing space is very exciting right now,” he states, and as more companies seek applications that can be used on mobile devices, such as tablets and phones, RFID is a natural inclusion. This, he says, is because an RFID reading device attached to, or built into, phones or tablets will enable a more automated collection of data regarding which items or individuals are at a specific location.