Enjoy the video and drop me a line if you have any questions, comments, or feedback – And do check out the ‘How it Works’ section in our Transfusion Medicine RFID website to learn more!

Cheers!

/a

source: www.istockphoto.com

In recent conversations with industry professionals, a recurring theme that comes up is ‘How do I approach a Auto-ID based solution like any other enterprise application roll-out’? A simple enough question at first-glance, but as I prodded a bit more, it became clear that certain factors seemed to be causing apprehension in their minds – I’d like to share these insights gained for the benefit of the larger audience, and the questions behind the above question roughly translate to the following customer asks (with some paraphrasing by yours truly):

• Any solution we deploy needs to be Auto-ID hardware agnostic i.e. Why can’t I chose the most effective form of data-capture (RFID, barcode, sensors etc.) based on my application requirements (vs. what’s supported by the vendors software), and this needs to be able to ‘scale out’ to multiple devices and device types over time.
• The new solution must extend and ‘make better’ my existing Line-of-Business systems through Auto-ID data –  not try and replace them!
• ‘Mission-criticalness’ is a must… if I am going to replace existing ad-hoc or manual operations with it, that means 24×7 ‘hot-hot’ availability and failover metrics similar to my application and database servers. And it needs to play well within my existing enterprise platform architecture (ala Microsoft or IBM or Orcale) vs. custom middleware or worse, custom code masquerading as a proprietary development kit on device / server.
• Need packaged applications that address the common requirements across deployments like being able to specify a configurable asset catalog, support for asset commissioning, zone audits, check-in, check-out and movement detection etc.
• Remote Management of devices must be through standard mechanisms and tools – can’t be a silo or require any custom software on the devices which only leads to additional manageability nightmares when something goes wrong in production
• Mobile applications are an integral part of scanning / error-checking operations on the ground and need to work across various form factors such as hand-helds, fork-lifts and kiosks. We expect manageability support here to be standard including ‘over the air’ provisioning of device applications and support for sporadically connected / disconnected environments  with the central application server.
• My IT team HATES the complexity associated with custom code – customization and configuration need to be accomplished with standard development tools / IDE’s, not proprietary tools

To address the above, I went back and dusted some of the earlier posts on this subject – and they still seem to hold water going by the feedback of our clients – so here there are once again for your perusal:

The Top 5 factors that most influence a successful deployment of RFID applications in your Enterprise

The Top 5 habits of all successful, packaged RFID applications

I hope you find these resources useful and educative. Please do not hesitate to e-mail or call me if you have any questions, or would like to discuss how our Spotlight asset tracking platform and industry solutions  address the above and might be useful for a scenario you are planning.

Cheers!

/a

Have a look at the video, and goto the ‘How it Works’ section of the Transfusion Medicine RFID website to learn more.

As always, look forward to your feedback, and drop me a line if you are looking at similar mission-critical applications to automate the tracking of asset movement and eliminate errors in your operations…next post will be a similar video describing the hospital solution at work.

Enjoy!

Cheers!

/a

Rodeina Davis, RFID Program Director and Vice President and CIO at BloodCenter of Wisconsin, noted that “The stream of visitors was steady throughout the exhibit period and both hospital and blood center visitors expressed high interest in the work we’re doing.”

We presented live demonstrations of some of the more striking and meaningful processes that are enhanced and automated when using RFID technology in blood centers and hospital transfusion services – below are some images from the show for your viewing pleasure

Poster explaining the RFID-based solution to track blood bags in the transfusion medicine supply chain

Airport style display for transfusion services at hospitals with real-time updates on status of blood bags (dispensed, being used in transfusion, or completed)

RFID-tagged Blood Bags with Spotlight Mobile Point of Care Application

Automated check-in of blood bags shown using a mini-Tagsys ‘tunnel’ reader

Ram Venkatesh, S3Edge CEO demonstrating the system at work to the FDA

We also hosted a session at the AABB itself on Monday morning with some 100 odd folks from the industry in attendance.

For those who might have missed the demonstrations at our exhibit, the videos are accessible to you on this website’s main page (will be published on the blog soon as well). We have also included the presentation from our AABB session in the Downloads section of this website.

We want to thank all those who visited us. Any questions or requests can be sent to us at info@transfusionmedicinerfid.org and we have also included the presentation from our AABB session in the Downloads section of our website –> www.transfusionmedicinerfid.org

Cheers!

Anush & the Transfusion Medicine RFID Consortium Team.

This weekend to Tuesday (October 9-12th) ,we will be participating in the annual AABB Annual Meeting & CTTXPO 2010 as part of the Transfusion Medicine RFID Consortium to demonstrate the first set of mission critical apps to enable end-end tracking of blood and blood products as described in my previous post.

If you are going to be at the show, visit us at Booth #102 anytime during the show, and join us for an education session on ‘RFID in the Blood Product Supply Chain project’ on Monday (October 11th)  between 4-6:30 PM where Lynne Briggs of Blood Center of Wisconsin, industry expert, Clive Hohberger ,Alfonso Gutierrez from the UW-Madison RFID Lab, and Mark Anastas from S3Edge will present an update on the RFID in the Blood Product Supply Chain project (educational panel #9326-TC-IT).

That’s it for this week – more after the show, and if happen to be in the DC / Baltimore area, and would like to connect to learn more, drop me a line!

Cheers!

/a

Today we announced that the Transfusion Medicine RFID Consortium has selected S3Edge’s Spotlight software to deliver a suite of packaged applications for tracking and monitoring blood products across the transfusion medicine supply chain. The Consortium consists of carefully selected and motivated partners – BloodCenter of Wisconsin, Carter BloodCare, Mississippi Blood Services, University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics, Baptist Health Systems, University of Wisconsin-Madison, SysLogic Inc., Mediware, and Hardware Partners such as Unitech, Tagsys, Tracient and Zebra – that, working together, are dedicated to producing a generic Auto-ID based solution that is affordable, useful, and appropriate for blood centers and hospitals of all sizes and operational scenarios.

The culmination of a dedicated, 8 month effort, this solution (vein-vein blood product tracking project for the transfusion medicine supply chain) is a poster-child for solutions utilizing Auto-ID technology (in this case a combination of barcodes, RFID, and sensors) to gain efficiencies and eliminate errors in day-day operations – or put simply, a GIANT LEAP forward for the industry as a whole! As a stakeholder in this initiative, we are extremely proud to be at executing and delivering on this critical initiative in tandem with domain experts and researchers in this field – resulting in the first-ever comprehensive effort to research, develop and introduce innovative application of RFID technology to enhance patient safety, reduce operating costs and strengthen quality in the blood supply chain.

To read the press-release, please click here, and visit the Transfusion Medicine RFID website (click on image below) which provides an in-depth overview of the study. We’ve also created a new page on our website – www.s3edge.com/healthcare that discusses the overall solution

if you are in the Baltimore / DC area this weekend, visit us at Booth #102 at the AABB Annual Meeting & CTTXPO 2010: Transfusion Medicine RFID Consortium to see the solution in action (click on image below to learn more about the event – we are going to be doing an educational talk on the 11th as well) or drop me a line /send us a note at info@s3edge.com

Look forward to speaking with you and sharing more about this ground-breaking, mission critical asset tracking solution for healthcare!

Cheers!

/a

Read more about it here or check out the BizTalk Server portal to learn more and play with the latest release of BizTalk Server, which represents a culmination of Microsoft’s recent wave of platform / application infrastructure technologies investments this year. Along with the releases earlier this calendar year of .NET Framework 4, Windows Server AppFabric and Windows Azure AppFabric, BizTalk Server 2010 makes it easier for customers to build composite applications that span both on-premises LOB systems and new applications deployed onto the public cloud.

So what does this mean for customers looking to build out RFID applications on the Microsoft platform?

From a feature perspective (in addition to being the only enterprise platform to build cohesive, scalable .NET based Auto-ID applications spanning On-Premise and On-Device) the latest release provides built-in components for rapid development of RFID solutions including event handlers that enable removal of duplicate events and filters based on EPC and visibility requirements (the new delivery capabilities send events directly to .NET applications, BizTalk Server and EPCIS services).

But perhaps more importantly this release represents Microsoft’s continued investments and commitment to the RFID space, putting to rest all the FUD that’s been spread by opportunistic elements around ‘Microsoft’s RFID investments and roadmap’. Put more simply, starting with BizTalk Server 2006 R2 and continuing on with 2009 and now the 2010 edition, BizTalk server has had extensive support for creating and deploying RFID aware applications, through the BizTalk RFID component. In addition to being the only enterprise platform that has a well-defined model for abstracting out the differences between the RFID device types, and providing a uniform, consistent programming model across these device types (even the specific kind of RFID technology in use be it on the server or on mobile devices), this release signals Microsoft’s commitment to this space for customers using their platform (unlike Oracle, IBM and SAP who threw in the towel on this a while ago)

Wanna know more about BizTalk can do for your business? Well check out the free training kits that the crew at MS just released – and if RFID is the only game you are, stay tuned for a comprehensive book by SAMS on BizTalk Server 2010 where your truly has had the pleasure of authoring a couple of chapters (one on BizTalk RFID server and the other on BizTalk RFID mobile) with a star-studded cast of authors.

• The BizTalk Server 2010 training kit (that includes labs and training videos) to help you learn about the new features of BizTalk Server 2010 can now be downloaded here.

• These labs are designed to be executed in a BizTalk Server 2010 development environment (which is also free and can be accessed here)

Cheers!

/a

Today was another milestone for our little company – I will now be a part of a WW organization called the Microsoft VTS Program that works with the Microsoft Field Technology Specialists to assist closely with deploying solutions on the Application platform (BizTalk, BizTalk RFID, SQL, and AppFabric), with a specific focus on <you guessed it > RFID-based solutions

To be nominated as one of the new “vertical” market technology specialist for the RFID area is indeed very special and we are honored to be a part of this high-power group of partners, often considered the ‘expert’s expert’ in the areas they specialize in!

Looking forward to adding end-user value and thank you Microsoft for this recognition!

Cheers!

/a

This is yet another example of how an industry leader (Access Solutions) in a vertical market (Energy) is partnering with us to deliver an enterprise-scale RFID solution for their customers leveraging each others industry expertise, and creating joint value for end-users!

Here’s the press release for your perusal, and ping me or Eric at Access (details below) if you’d like to find out more or looking to solve a similar problem.

Access Solutions and S3Edge announce partnership to expand comprehensive Barcode & Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) based Foreign Material Exclusion (FME) solution

The Energy Industry’s first RFID control system built for automating FME processes will now directly address the need for enterprise-scale deployment, while significantly increasing accountability data and reducing the time taken to process workers in and out of controlled work areas.

Portland, OR June 30, 2010

Access Solutions, the leader in FME services for the power industry, today formally announced its strategic partnership with S3Edge, a leading provider of packaged real-time visibility and control solutions. Close on the heels of its field tests, Access Solutions’ focus on FME integrity and tradition of innovation continues through the re-architecting of it’s FME S.T.A.R.trac^(SM) system, designed to exceed enterprise-level demands surrounding multiple read-points, high volume and nuclear-grade reliability.

Comprised of leading edge computer, Barcode and RFID hardware and software, the system is designed to track tools, materials, components and personnel, thereby maintaining FME integrity, identified by the power industry as a critical concern. Central to the systems’ capabilities, is the ability to automate the lifecycle of tool management from warehouse facilities to tool cribs to FME control zones and back, while enforcing FME policies and identifying exceptions as they occur in real-time. These include:

• Advanced tool tagging and tethering services with image capture capabilities
• Tools, material, and components check-in / checkout with personnel verification
• Automated track and trace of tools and personnel through their lifecycle
• Flexible reporting on-demand with site-specific customization options
• Capture of usage statistics to support site-specific metrics
• Reduced storage through electronic archival of FME data

For clients deploying FME S.T.A.R.trac^(SM), the system will result in increased productivity, reduced labor costs, increased audit accuracy, enhanced key-item auditing and the ability to accurately and rapidly track consumables. “We are extremely pleased to team up with S3Edge to put this exciting system development into the hands of our clients. Our unified, best-of-breed approach, which brings together Access Solutions’ deep domain expertise in the FME industry and S3Edge’s Spotlight technology for RFID-based asset tracking, as well as their systems integration bench strength and expertise, will deliver unparalleled levels of efficiencies across the enterprise,” said Kelvin Mann, President & CEO of Access Solutions. “FME S.T.A.R.trac^(SM) truly represents the next big evolution in FME control and we are proud to be at the leading edge,” he added.

“Our partnership with Access Solutions in delivering a commercial off-the shelf application such as FME S.T.A.R.trac^(SM), will shorten time to deployment and increase overall value for enterprises deploying this technology for their FME needs. S3Edge looks forward to working in tandem with the Access Solutions team to deploy domain-specific, scalable technology solutions of value to end-users” said Mark Anastas, President, S3Edge Inc.

For more information and to schedule a complimentary initial evaluation, please visit us at
www.AccessSolutions.net/contact.php or call 503.759.9100.

About Access Solutions
Access Solutions provides the power generation industry’s leading Foreign Material Exclusion services and professional personnel. Leveraging its proprietary methodologies and experiences from over 100 projects nationwide and abroad, Access Solutions offers Total FME Ownership of critical components, FME advisory and site assessment services, advanced tool tethering and an exciting new, game-changing RFID technology platform that substantially increases efficiencies of the FME process. They offer the first, full-cycle RFID-native, Enterprise FME/Asset Management system designed to track tools, materials, components and personnel for fossil and nuclear power generation maintenance cycles.

Learn more about Access Solutions at (www.AccessSolutions.net) or their Blog (http://FMEservices.wordpress.com)

About S3Edge
S3Edge is a software product company that provides packaged, RFID-based asset tracking solutions for automation and error proofing of supply chain operations. Spotlight, S3Edge’s software product enables enterprises to configure and view assets, zones, alerts, and reports and to track and obtain trends on asset movement within their organizations. The S3Edge product and solution suites are built ground up on the Microsoft BizTalk RFID (Server and Mobile) platforms in addition to deeply leveraging Windows Mobile / CE, Microsoft SQL Server, and Windows Server platforms. An integral part of the S3Edge business applications are the device providers for various hardware vendors (fixed, mobile, fork-lift and active RFID readers) that are provided as part of the overall solution.

To learn more about S3Edge, visit their website (www.s3edge.com) and Blog (http://rtvs.wordpress.com)

Source: www.istockphoto.com

Been a while since I posted – it’s been busy with some exciting things coming up (and will  share) over the next few months including (you heard it here first )another book deal with yet another author from the S3Edge stable – but the opportunity to share an ‘aha’ moment that I recently had was too good to pass up and hence the brief post.

In previous posts, we’ve discussed why examples of enterprise-ready commercial off the shelves (COTS) solutions for vertical markets are few and far in-between for our nascent industry – Before you start screaming in protest, I am referring to the lack of ‘total solutions’ (encompassing software + hardware systems) when compared to hardware technology (that’s been around for decades and has matured quite significantly in terms of enterprise-readiness), and how one might go about addressing the same.

To refresh your memories, here are the posts I am referring to:

• Optimizing for Success: The top 5 factors that most influence a successful deployment of RFID applications in your Enterprise
• The Top 5 habits of all successful packaged RFID applications

Now while all of the above address a bunch of areas from a perspective of process, software, and technology, a recent conversation with one of our industry partners (with deep domain expertise in how things are done in a particular vertical market via years and years of ‘doing it’), had me shaking my head in terms of how we missed articulating this simple, yet extremely critical aspect that’s been holding this industry back….Which essentially is this impedance mismatch between vertical market expertise and the technology expertise…. What do I mean by that? Well quite simply put, today you have a fractured, and often a ‘blind men and the elephant’ industry solution landscape that looks something like this:

• RFID solution vendors who offer ‘end-end’ packaged offerings based on 1 or 2 deployments in the vertical market
• Vertical market leaders with deep domain expertise, claiming RFID capabilities that are often no more than a check-box integration of the technology
• <and then you have the hardware ecosystem who continue to blaze their own, often mysterious strategies, but we won’t go there today >

Now, if you are a logical person (like almost all of us are) you would think this is easy to fix – get the 2 parties to work with each other and leveage their skill-sets!! But it’s sadly not that simple – and having been in the trenches myself, I can completely empathize as to why this is hard – quite often you see conflicting, and mysterious agendas from the different parties at work when different parties come together and try and march towards something each one considers it to be his or her own master-piece, or simply put their corner of the workd – And control / power are age old human behaviors that the RFID industry should not and cannot really change

But that does not mean you don’t try – At S3Edge, our core belief has always been that technology works only if it’s an unobtrusive enabler i.e. a tool that can be used to make a business process better, faster, and more efficient vs. replace or worse re-engineer the way things need to be done – and that’s the statement I leave you with today as our “business model” (a term that imo is an oxymoron in this day and age of social computing – and a separate topic for discussion by itself); A model and core belief that has worked (as we saw with the Toll Global Logistics case-study – where they are the 3PL expert and we are the humble RFID technology experts), and is continuing to work as espoused by the title statement of this blog (by one of our industry partners).

And we’ll continue to put more effort into this as this is the only way we know to add real value to end-users at the end of the day.

Stay tuned for more details on the partner and industry solution we are launching – more on that next week!

Cheers

/a