[11/21/08]
Many companies across a range of industry sectors provide their employees with Blackberry PDAs as remote office tools. Historically, if they also wanted mobile RFID capability they had to invest additionally in more expensive RFID embedded handheld computers. Now, thanks to Tracient Technologies' handheld RFID readers, they can invest in a low cost handheld reader which simply reads RFID tags and collects the data, then transfers it to their Blackberry via Bluetooth. From there it can be processed/ stored in an application on the Blackberry and/or transferred anywhere via the Blackberry's gprs.
A recent example of this was the use of Blackberry PDAs and Tracient's Padl-R HF RFID readers by Farmacias del Ahorro, a pharmacy chain that has 700 franchise stores through out Mexico.
Being the dispenser of a large amount of prescription pharmaceuticals the company relies on a large amount of expensive equipment to administer it's services, including scales, pill counters, centrifuges, computers, racks, etc. The amount of this equipment going missing was alarming so Farmacias engaged Nauter Technologies of Mexico City to come up with an autoID solution to track every single piece of equipment in each store. A key factor was the solution had to be easy for their staff to implement using their existing Blackberry 8700G PDAs.
Options that Nauter considered included Bar-codes and fixed RFID readers. Bar-coding was dropped because of complications reading the barcode in harsh environments, in particular in warehouses where there is a lot of dust and humidity. Fixed readers were considered too expensive in terms of capital outlay. In the end Nauter decided on a relatively inexpensive handheld RFID reader to be able to read tags on the assets and upload the information to the databases held on Farmacia's Blackberrys.
Nauter chose Tracient's Padl-R HF RFID reader because it's Bluetooth connectivity provided quick and easy RFID capability to the Blackberry. The compact, lightweight form factor was also important given many of the operators were relatively small women, and the single button operation meant reader operation was straight forward for low tech workers.
Solution
ISO15693 13.56 MHZ SLI tags were placed on every piece of equipment in the franchise store. During asset counting the pharmacy administration staff used the Padl-R HF to scan the tags. Tag information was transferred almost simultaneously to the operator's Blackberry via Bluetooth. The Blackberrys held Farmacias' asset database and matched the tag ID with the asset.
The operator could then write information such as time/ date of visit, operator's ID, status of asset and other business related information into the keyboard of the Blackberry and transfer it back to the tag using the 'write' function in the RFID reader.
Nauter capitalised on Tracient's comprehensive Software Development Kit (SDK) to integrate the readers with the Blackberry 8700G. Nauter developed their application in Java and ran it on the Blackberry's RIM operating system. Nauter's software for the smart phone offered a simple interface from the Blackberry back to Farmacia's enterprise database over the network. Staff could communicate the information to the enterprise database during the inventory taking via GPRS technology. Using a software platform developed by Nauter this gave the option of 100% asset visibility on every franchise in Mexico. Farmacia then knew exactly what time the asset inventory was completed and what assets were in each store.
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