This article was originally published by RFID Update.
December 13, 2004—As Wal-Mart’s CIO and driving force behind the retailer’s aggressive RFID initiative, Linda Dillman has become one of the most recognized names throughout the industry. For her efforts, and with a particular emphasis on the RFID initiative hailed as a “revolution in supply chain management,” Dillman and her staff of 2,400 are awarded InformationWeek’s business-technology team of the year for 2004. Under the constraints of a “below-industry-average” budget, Dillman & Co. have worked since the official mandate announcement in March of 2003 to “collaborate with competitors to make sure that the industry’s efforts succeed, clear up confusion about RFID’s costs and benefits, and drive the adoption of EPCglobal standards.” And they have done so in the face of skepticism and reluctance on the part of many suppliers and industry watchers. As Kevin Ashton, co-founder of Auto-ID Center and ThingMagic VP of Marketing, is quoted as saying, “there was tremendous skepticism, … and a hangover period where skeptics huddled in corners explaining to each other why she would have to back down and why it couldn’t happen in that time frame. And here we are now; it’s pretty much happening.”
Read the article at InformationWeek
