ODIN Makes a Move With Reva Acquisition

The systems-integration and software company is clearly positioning itself to become a major player as the RFID market enters a period of more rapid growth.
Published: January 4, 2011

Dec. 17, 2010—The term “moving day” is used by professional golfers in the United States to describe the third day of PGA tour events. That’s because the first two days, Thursday and Friday, are used to reduce the field to the 40 or so golfers who “make the cut” and play on the weekend. Saturday—moving day—is the day that competitors try to move into position to win the tournament on Sunday.

This year, and perhaps part of next year, feels a little like “moving day” for the radio frequency identification industry. Systems integrators are jockeying for positioning—they want to be seen as leaders, as the market for RFID products and services scales.

Solutions provider ODIN made a bold statement this month with its acquisition of Reva Systems, a provider of RFID networking devices (see ODIN Acquires Reva Systems).

Reva Systems was a bit ahead of its time. The company developed the Tag Acquisition Processor (TAP) devices and middleware that were great for managing large-scale deployments. Unfortunately for Reva, the market didn’t scale as quickly as expected, and the demand for its products over the last few years has not been strong enough to sustain it as a standalone company.

ODIN’s decision to purchase Reva for cash and stock puts ODIN in a position to become one of a handful of companies that can manage large-scale deployments. (Unisys has been managing the U.S. Department of Defense‘s large Total Asset Visibility Network for several years.) ODIN has already developed the EasyEdge operating system software to make it easier to deploy readers on a large scale. Reva’s TAP products, which will be renamed EasyTAP, complement the offering by enabling ODIN to provide the infrastructure to manage large amounts of RFID data from large systems.

There are other strong systems integrators that have developed their own RFID solutions, such as RFID Global Solution, Rush Tracking Systems and Xterprise. Each company is strengthening its position in preparation for a period of more rapid growth in RFID adoption. Judging by the recent activity among these RFID solutions providers, I’d say they clearly sense that day is getting closer.

Mark Roberti is the founder and editor of RFID Journal. If you would like to comment on this article, click on the link below. To read more of Mark’s opinions, visit the RFID Journal Blog or the Editor’s Note archive.