SEVT-RFID Meeting Notes 2107-03-08

 

 

Agenda:  

 

DISCUSSION TOPIC.. What's happening in RFID

Actions:

Action - RFID Journal Live (Arizona)- interested in attending? go thru account mgr..  Need to know by EO March

Action - White Paper contains the strategy on how to talk about RFID.  get the paper

Action - how to best channel ideas to Tom Bianculli

FX9500 - Ability to continue supply

Altaf and others working on finding parts to make more units.

found some parts.. currently CAN build  2,000 units.. looking for 3k more..

  it is taking some work to ID the parts on the grey market..

  Altaf is doing the search

Rosatom (Nik), UPU, NEC (Shridhar) are priority Zero ..

1st batch is set to be ready on 3/20 ..

Nik - really appreciate efforts , Rosatom needs 25 units ASAP (8 port only)

   total 500, need 25 asap.. 225 Q2 and 250 more

Chris - I want everyone to know Altaf and Eric doing weekly calls with RPMS in each region,

  they have complete lists of all these deals (been a long 2 months)

  Eric and Altaf have been working really hard..

REPLACEMENT FOR FX9500

so.. the FX9500Z (or whatever the successor model will be called) moves from 3m board to our own ASIC.

  anyone using RFID3  API will have minimal work

  anyone using SIRIT 3M API will have to rewrite
    -- some people were using 9500 to replace Sirit readers.

  new reader will come with 4 or 9 potts, 4 gpio's 

like 7500, it will have POE and POE+, Wi-Fi and BLE

-- will be monistatic not bistatic

    and support the APIs from the 7500 ..

    but have higher RF output than the 7500

Nik - will we support IOT networking protocols on the next 9500 reader?

Altaf - nope not supporting IOT protocols ..

Chris - also on 9500 we did not support embedded apps,
    but new one SHOULD support embedded apps so..
        standalone operation with and embedded app should be possible

  trying to fit into existing housing to reduce engineering time,

     and increase compatibility in field..

Arnold - support cloud management? ..

Altaf - it will be like the 7500.. auto discovery, etc. like current readers..

  should be software compatible w 7500,

  also,  power of new units should be around  32.5-33 dbm 

  again, it will be monostatic only ,  we think bistatic is not needed

      with the new,  more sensitive tags.

Considering the integrated antenna with phased array

   which could be helpful for location or directional gates, for example..

   BUT .. no business case yet - mostly R&D at this stage,

FLYING RFID ..

Peter - DAIMLER and DHL have requirement for "SmartSense with wings"..

   want us to make reader compatible with a DRONE..

   so it can fly using RFID to check inventory indoors or in a yard,

      (and maybe include fixed RFID tags as navigation point verification)
    Tom Bianculli has talked to them about it 

Shridhar - the same idea had actually been shown in Bangalore ..

Altaf - we have looked at flying them ..

Pete - DHL is serious about doing this they are reaching out to Companies like Zebra for help

Bill Ferguson - have Partner in US called PINC - yard management - may also be interested in doing this

Chris -- Major deals
   disconcerting to hear SEVT has not seen the activity..

  there is really a lot going on..

  some action is product based and some is account based << NOTE

We have some big deals Pankaj is doing internally

  big Retailer H&M in Sweden
    - pilot expanding in Denmark, Belgium and France

-  rollouts tend to go slowly ..
     There are always partners and services involved

    but they continue to roll out.. they have another chain (named "COS"?)

also big continuing engagement with INDITEX fashion retailer ..

   originally helped develop the RFD5500

   .. they have been looking at mobile strategy for next step

   but .. PIDION got engaged and for them Inditex is HUGE>.

     Pidion has people living in Spain to do this

   Zebra has often been siloed ..
       Inditex CONCERNED about Zebra SILOs and lack of internal cooperation

   so 6 months ago we lost initial deal to PIDION
        Pankaj and Altaf and Leo Greely in EMC worked together on that..

ALTAF .. working on new Sled "Trapper",  purpose built for Hawkeye

  (Get it? Hawkeye Peirce. Trapper John McIntyre)

   developing for Inditex in order to beat PIDION

   .. coming out really nice because we are working closely with EMC

   uses physical serial connection .. small and concise..

    will be ASIC based (at last)

    INDITEX LIKES the design

    .. have committed to initial volumes of several thousand units.

    Program slated for end of this year.. (Hawkeye will be out first)..

Chris - so not only will we have a new industry fixed reader
    but also a new slick sled for TC20 Hawkeye

   matches 8500 for read capability
    (will be some perf compromises, i.e. not replaceable battery,

       touch screen no buttons, etc.. )  

sounds like hits sweet spot .. we are seeing customers noticing the Pidion units and we will be competitive if not better.

Another big deal going on in India is the Delhi-Mumbai Infrastructure Corridor.. focus on tracking vehicles.. may expand later..

couple thousand fixed readers now, maybe 15k or more later.. 

    Pankaj just came back from mtgs..

Also, there are tons of channel partners driving smaller opportunities,
   Carrie on my team works with them.   << Larry invite Carrie here

Sue Flake and Michael Fein working on AMAZON

  .. largest retailer now in US..

  looking at RFID as enabler, COMPETITIVE SITUATION..

Michael Fein -- yes, spent 3 days with AMAZON RFID team..

  they sent 3 people RFID meeting in EU

  their goal is to ELIMINAGE MANUAL Barcode scans..
       estimate it costs 10cents per scan..

      lots of scans in their end to end process..
       estimated 6 or 7 scans per item .. Mostly pallet level..

     developing mobile printer/rfid encoder for Amazon.

package level .. to put RFID label on each package..

today Sue Flake is starting a pilot on delivery end as well..

  it is a "delivery station" on each Amazon truck
     (Amazon building own truck fleet to not use FedEx.

objective of RFID portion is to ensure all packages are on van before leave,

  using RFD8500 sleds

SHOW PRESENCE

   at RFID Journal Live (Arizona),  we have 30x30 ft. booth..

    partners helping pay for it..

    will have a select number of exhibit and customer passes we can distribute -- PLEASE SEND CHRIS info on who is interested in attending  !!!!

  go thru account mgr..  Need to know by EO March --> Action for Team

 

NOTE -- SMARTSENSE can Damage Handheld Sales

   you know about SMARTSENSE - RFID is a big part of that.. 

  one of the challenges is that the overhead changes the dynamic
   and how we sell/implement

  it makes them stop and think, may add a year to sales cycle..

    and it pauses/postpones or kills handheld sales..

Sue Flake has encountered this.

  the overall GTM is taking longer

and SLEDS replacing integrated handhelds, 

  so overall RFID revenue is dropping..

SmartSense has separate team for marketing to counter sales suppression

Chris's team did a paper on HH vs fixed readers showing overhead is "Next Phase" after Handhelds

The LAST THING you want is to cannibalize HH sales..

White Paper contains the strategy on how to talk about RFID. --> Action- get the paper

All marketing tools for SmartSense are still in progress.

Still engaged with Brendan McKenna and SmartSense team. think their slides speak to Handheld value not being eroded,
but we ARE seeing some erosion.. challenge is PERCEPTION...

<< Larry to get paper on HH vs Fixed readers

Round table:

Arnold: good

Arsen:  good

Nikolay: good

Jiri:  couple RFID demand in region, nothing special

Shridhar:  Is Chris point of contact for co-innovation?

Chris- BU can only implement/justify portfolio of existing market today, Chris can be an ally, but need to be escalated to Tom Bianculli  -->Action, how to channel ideas

Altaf- BU wants also to see new features for future products, wants to hear and be involved.

Next innovation for smart sense is to make it mobile.

Is RFID BU planning to have a symposium or similar kind of meetings for SEVT team? maybe this can be followed MCD/Android SEVT which is getting planned during last week of April 2017.

Jesse: good

Peter: focus on selling what we have today, but co innovation becoming a serous area for some big customers

Eric:  robotics is also an area we have looked at..

Pete .. next innovation for smart sense may be making it mobile, so this is great discussion

Eric - reason we have SS and phased array project with FedEx is exactly this.. they started 5 yrs. ago

Pete - saw Tom Bianculli in EUR .. James Morley-smith was there,..   we need a close link with them--> Action

Charles: 

Working on a retail project GSTAR (Dutch); Approached by Siemens HC to deliver surgery rooms worldwide, at the HC event last week in NA;

RFD8500- need more protection from dust/moisture, any plans to improve IP rating?

Altaf- No plans. Next generation (Aurous) most likely candidate for HC applications.

HC and RFID- Disinfect instruments by steam, humidity is very high.

Issues with HC cleaning products?

Michael Fein:

Update on Silverline (AIT); 3 new tags (sizes, thickness) under development, expect release in May. Silverline portfolio doing very well. 

Continue with media expansion plans, portfolio to be announce soon, present in future meeting;

New printer, not public yet- Mobile RFID printer based on ZQ520, tested by a few pilot customers like Amazon (mobile pallet label), Facebook (label assets), Decathlon (store tagging), Delta Airlines (bag tags), Kohler (forklift mount), looking for more pilots. Use case- datacenters, asset tagging, in store tagging, mobile bag tagging.

Schedule Mike for next meeting- 30 min.

Chris- Merging this group with DCS SEVT-  it may not find time to talk about RFID topics, different markets, technologies. Suggest to do calls once a quarter, or have some calls dedicated to RFID specifically.

EMERGIN MKT NEEDS different discussion..

Not fair to say all SEVTs are failing (Peter Walsh)- RFID is working.

Very important to communicate globally, on the RFID business

Attendance:

From	Name	Attendance
APAC	Arnold Ballesteros	x
APAC	Shridhar Shanbhag	x
EMEA	Charles Worm	x
EMEA	Jiri Novotny	x
EMEA	Nikolay Isakov	x
EMEA	Peter Walsh	x
NA	Arsen Bandurian	x
NA	Bill Ferguson	x
NA	Chris Schaefer	x
NA	Dino Gregorich	x
NA	Eric Malmed	x
NA	Jesse Spence	x
NA	Michael Fein	x

Guests:

1. +1 (301) 661-3341
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3. +1 (301) 733-3100
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5. +31263653530