Sun Reduces Cost Through New Solutions

September 28, 2004 - (HostReview.com) - Sun Microsystems, Inc. (sun.com), announced the next phase of its support for the growing Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) market through the availability of several new solutions, including: the Sun(TM) RFID offering for iForce(SM) Partners, the Sun RFID retail compliance program, and an RFID warehouse management solution that combines products and services from Sun, SIS Technologies and SSA Global.

"Our first RFID Test Center in Dallas, Texas, supports both partners and customers in getting early access to expertise, technology, and a full test environment to verify solution readiness for actual deployment," said Stephen Borcich, vice president, market and industry development at Sun Microsystems.

Sun will be showcasing its RFID initiatives at the EPCglobal Conference at booth number 212. In addition, as the RFID integrator and key solution provider for Gillette, Sun will be participating in several sessions, along with Gillette, VeriSign and Wal-Mart, to demonstrate how a missing, misrouted, counterfeit or diverted case of Gillette Venus razors can be identified and re-associated with its order.

The Sun iForce Partner Program is designed to help Sun partners drive innovation, speed time-to-market, and to reduce risk through an open relationship model, which ultimately benefits Sun customers. The Sun RFID offering was created as part of the iForce Partner Program to enable companies to develop their own products around RFID using components designed to drive knowledge transfer, technical understanding, solution development, and demand creation.

Companies can use the Sun RFID Toolkit to integrate their RFID readers and other devices with the Sun Java System RFID Software or to build custom device adapters for RFID deployments.

In addition to providing technical resources and marketing information, the Sun RFID offering will enable companies to engage with Sun on customer pilots and deployments using the Sun RFID Test Centers. Additional information on the Sun RFID offering for iForce Partners can be found at: https://iforce.sun.com/partners/rfid/.

The primary component of this joint solution is SSA RFID, which enables all SSA Global products with RFID technology, including their warehouse management solution. SSA RFID is powered by Sun Java System RFID Software, and deployed through infrastructure integration services from SIS Technologies.

"DC Logistics is a logistics management company that operates and manages rail, truck and cross docking facilities in the Dallas, Ft. Worth area. We needed to implement various technologies that would enable our customers in their quest to comply with RFID requirements from Wal-Mart and other companies.

Sun partners also play a key role in the success of the Sun RFID Test Center, which includes the latest warehouse logistics and RFID equipment from Sun along with RFID vendors and manufacturing companies. Based on the exceptional capabilities of the Sun RFID Test Center in Dallas, Texas, Sun is also announcing a unique RFID retail compliance program. The RFID retail compliance program is designed to address the specific requirements of retail suppliers, from the basics needed for the initial phases of RFID analysis and testing, to later stage requirements that suppliers will face once they start shipping to Wal-Mart or other retailers.

With this program Sun is adding a whole new dimension of compliance testing plus reconciliation testing to allow companies to go beyond tagging and shipping to focus on validation and repeatability. Some examples of this analysis include: ensuring that RFID-tagged cases or SKUs will be read accurately on a high speed conveyor and establishing a repeatable test database for later use when tags, readers, or RFID systems change. The Sun RFID Test Center offers the most complete RFID testing environment in the country, with scientific and repeatable testing that will support reconciliation of read rates between supplier and retailer, as well as change management as RFID system requirements and standards change.

The Sun Java System RFID Software, currently available on the Solaris(TM) Operating System and scheduled for November 2004 on Linux, streamlines the management of RFID hardware including tags and readers. The Java System RFID Software represents a key component of the Sun RFID system strategy, which also includes global client services, global RFID test centers, Sun hardware and storage, and key solution partners for RFID. For more information on Sun Java RFID Software go to http://www.sun.com/rfid.

EPCglobal Inc, a joint venture of EAN International and the Uniform Code Council, Inc. (UCC) is a not-for-profit organization entrusted by industry to establish and support the EPCglobal Network(TM) as the global standard for real-time, automatic identification of information in the supply chain of any company, anywhere in the world.

The EPCglobal Network combines Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, existing communications network infrastructure, and the Electronic Product Code (a number for uniquely identifying an item) to enable accurate, cost-efficient visibility of information in the supply chain. The end result helps organizations be more efficient, flexible, and responsive to customer needs.