Jul 14, 2020U.K.-based RFID company Paragon ID has partnered with French technology firm Apitrak to provide modular, cloud-based Internet of Things (IoT) solutions that leverage a variety of technologies to locate individuals or assets, or to monitor conditions from any part of the world. The solution consists of Paragon ID's RFID Discovery asset-tracking solution and Apitrak's geolocation IoT software. Several hospitals are planning to deploy the solution to track assets in order to improve COVID-19 patient care, the companies report, while pharmaceutical businesses are in discussions with the two partners regarding a temperature-tracking solution for vaccines.
The partnership's offerings are aimed at more than just healthcare; they will also be used at logistics and manufacturing sites to help businesses understand where people, assets and inventory are located. It's an effort on the part of Paragon ID to expand and diversify its offerings beyond the healthcare market to other industries, not only in the United Kingdom, but also in Europe, North America and other parts of the world, according to Bertrand Brault, Paragon ID's sales and marketing director.
RFID Discovery's GS1-compliant RFID passive tags are used at a U.K. hospital.
Paragon ID's technology is already in use by several U.K. hospitals and manufacturing facilities, with about 60 installations to date. Apitrak—which was launched in Tarmac, France, in 2016—offers an IoT platform with geolocation and Wi-Fi, BLE and GPS sensors to locate medical devices or hospital personnel via emergency-call systems. The firm has carried out approximately 50 deployments of its solution to date. By combining their technologies, the two companies have created a single system that includes a cloud-based IoT platform able to manage data collected from active and passive RFID tags, as well as from BLE, Wi-Fi and GPS devices.
The partnership is part of Paragon ID's growth strategy, Brault explains. At present, Paragon Group earns $1.3 billion annually and has a staff of 8,000 employees. In addition to healthcare solutions, the firm offers secure technology for tracking and tracing, access control, and payments. The company manufactures RFID products and, in certain vertical markets, it develops software—for instance, in the transit business for mobile ticketing. For track-and-trace applications, it acquired RFID Discovery and began offering that company's software platform to manage inventory and assets, based on passive and active RFID. The solution is now in use by NHS hospitals, as well as at airports and in the aviation, automotive and industrial markets.
Paragon ID's Bertrand Brault
"Now we are ready for another big step," Brault states. The company wanted to provide cloud-based solutions with a reach beyond the United Kingdom. Brault describes Apitrak as a small French company that offers a large set of services. "They bring us complementary technology" utilizing Wi-Fi, BLE and GPS, he says. "The end game for us is track and trace—not only in the U.K., abut also in continental Europe and into North America."
Asset tracking can utilize BLE and Wi-Fi, while inventory tracking is typically better served with RFID, the companies explain. Apitrak traditionally provides solutions on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) by design model, making it easier to scale and create modular solutions and microservices. The company can provide BLE-based data, as well as geolocationing. By adding Apitrak's solution, Brault says, Paragon ID can provide systems that are easier to scale, with modules specific to particular needs. It can also provide application programming interfaces and software developers' kits.
The companies began working together about six months ago to build solutions for new customers. They plan to announce the asset tracking of key medical equipment for COVID-19 response at a large U.K. hospital, for instance. The aim, however, is to reach out to new clients. "By working together, we are creating the condition of a very efficient IoT platform," he states, "basically to enlarge our market share in healthcare and industrial."
One of the new solutions will be based on temperature control for vaccines with global location. In September or October of this year, the two companies intend to launch a system with temperature-control features for moving containers. In this scenario, a temperature-sensitive UHF RFID tag could be applied to a container filled with vaccines. Such containers are typically refrigerated boxes containing a few thousand vaccines, and the company must ensure that the conditions within each container never exceed pre-specified temperatures. The tag could be interrogated by a reader anywhere throughout the global supply chain, and the collected data could be forwarded to a server via cellular or Wi-Fi connectivity, along with the GPS location data.
Apitrak's platform
Ultimately, the partners report, knowing where a product is and the temperatures to which it has been exposed can help drug companies or physicians ensure that products reach patients safely. Tracking critical assets is another potential use case. Traditionally, Paragon ID has provided passive UHF RFID solutions for tracking the locations of supplies, while high-value assets might require a real-time location system (RTLS) with active RFID or BLE, which are technologies that Apitrak provides.
For example, some hospitals are challenged with locating respirators, which are a key resource during the pandemic. "That service is something we do really well," Brault says. With BLE anchors placed in a room and a BLE beacon affixed to a piece of equipment, the system provides real-time data regarding where a particular ventilator is located, as well as where it has been. In the meantime, lower-cost passive RFID tags could be used to monitor supplies or consumables in order to better manage inventory levels. According to Brault, the partnership will ensure that companies can deploy a solution very quickly with limited infrastructure installation. "It accelerates deployments," he states.
Solutions could be deployed on a local server or on an SaaS basis on a cloud-based server. "When you really want to geolocate and track assets on a wide geographic scope," Brault says, "SaaS by design is the best option." The company is currently speaking with vaccine producers and working to develop a solution for managing vaccines in transit. The technology could also be built into temperature-managed containers.
