The company’s RFID printer, Infoprint 6700 R40, which can print traditional bar codes as well as RFID tags, pits IBM against heavyweight incumbents such as Intermec Technologies.
RFID tags transmit supply chain information to a company’s network to update shipping and tracking, as well as inventory status, data. Using an IBM Power microprocessor, the machine also can identify unreliable RFID labels and marks them faulty.
The machine will be priced at $3,025, with RFID upgrades boosting the price to $5,525. There also are Infoprint 6700 R60 and R80 models, for 6-inch and 8-inch bar codes, priced at $4,399 and $6,475 respectively.
The printers are slated to be available by September 9.
Big Blue also will announce today its RFID privacy consulting practice, which will consult companies on RFID privacy issues and come up with a RFID design to meet privacy requirements. That includes information on local and international privacy laws pertaining to RFID technology, as well as Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development principles, which underpin privacy legislation.
Through this consulting engagement, managers better understand what data they are collecting, how it will be handled and who will have access, IBM said. A two-day consulting workshop advises clients on best practices and ‘opt-in’ policies and procedures for protecting consumer, employee and partner privacy.
IBM also will announce today industry-specific RFID software kits to help consumer-product makers and retailers reconcile orders, generate shipping reports and provide pallet verification and inventory status. The kit includes IBM Websphere RFID middleware.
With today’s announcement we are moving the RFID marketplace out to more businesses that can harness the benefits of RFID, and we are extending IBM’s RFID expertise with our breadth and depth of capabilities combined with a strong partner ecosystem, said Eric Gabrielson, worldwide director of RFID Solutions, IBM Global Services.
