Fujitsu And ThingMagic Form Alliance For RFID Technology
Fujitsu Transaction Solutions, Inc. and ThingMagic, Inc., a leading developer of radio frequency identification (RFID) sensing and embedded computing technologies, today announced a reseller and support agreement for RFID technology. The Fujitsu and ThingMagic contract outlines Fujitsu's agreement to resell, deploy and support ThingMagic's Mercury4 RFID readers.
Fujitsu and ThingMagic will continue to evolve their offerings to include the most innovative and cost effective RFID solutions available. Today, many companies are piloting RFID technology on a case and pallet level to improve the efficiency of receiving cases and pallets of merchandise and tracking the flow of goods from the loading dock to sales floor. With RFID readers that automatically identify product movement in real-time, stores improve the accuracy of data and the speed-to-shelf. The improved efficiency and reduced labor cost help stores relentlessly reduce costs.
"As RFID becomes more pervasive and eventually moves to the item level, it is critical that we offer the most advanced and proven RFID technology to our customers," said Steve Beecher, customer marketing for network solutions, Fujitsu Transaction Solutions Inc. "ThingMagic's leading Mercury4 RFID reader is a great complement to Fujitsu's portfolio and has the potential to be integrated with multiple devices and applications with Fujitsu's Pervasive Retailing Framework."
"By forming an alliance with Fujitsu, we offer a powerful combination of global IT retailing expertise with our RFID leadership," said Kevin Ashton, vice president, marketing, for ThingMagic. "This reflects ThingMagic's aggressive expansion of its alliance program, which provides reliable and advanced end-to-end RFID solutions. Leveraging the reach of Fujitsu's field sales force and strong relationships in the retailing industry, Mercury4 readers will become more available to retailing companies."
ThingMagic's Mercury4 RFID reader platform, the only reader available that can read any RFID tag, is designed with a unique Software Defined Radio architecture. Mercury4 is certified by EPCglobal and MET Labs for all three Generation 2 RFID modes, including the complex Dense Reader mode. As a result, Mercury4 readers are easily and remotely updated for any future Generation 2 variants and other new RFID standards, ensuring that customers will always have the latest RFID technology available.
Demonstrations of ThingMagic RFID technology will be conducted in Fujitsu's Booth #1613 at the National Retail Federation's Annual Convention and EXPO in New York City on January 16-17, 2006.
About ThingMagic, Inc.
Founded in 2000 and based in Cambridge, MA, ThingMagic is a leading developer of radio frequency identification (RFID), sensing and embedding computing technologies. Mercury4™, ThingMagic's fourth generation agile RFID reader, builds on and substantially enhances the company's original platform created for early field tests of the Electronic Product Code (EPC). Designed to meet the business needs of a future where networked objects are pervasive, the Mercury4 line of RFID readers also includes an embedded reader, Mercury4e, and a handheld reader, Mercury4h. Mercury4 RFID readers are the only intelligent, network-ready RFID readers, and the only devices that can claim to read any tag. For more information, see http://www.thingmagic.com.
About Fujitsu Transaction Solutions
Fujitsu Transaction Solutions Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Fujitsu Limited (TSE: 6702), collaborates with retailing companies to relentlessly reduce their costs and facilitate consumer interactions that drive improved profitability for its customers. Fujitsu's Pervasive RetailingTM approach enables companies to minimize the time, cost and risk of creating interoperability between disparate applications and devices that support a multitude of consumer touch points. Fujitsu's offering includes solution software, point-of-sale store technology, U-Scan self-checkout systems, self-ordering systems and multi-vendor lifecycle services. Customers include Canadian Tire, Chevron Corporation, Hannaford Bros., H-E-B, Kroger, Loblaws, Nordstrom, Payless ShoeSource, Regal Cinema, Ross Dress for Less, Staples, Stop & Shop and The TJX Companies, among others. The company also has a 50/50 joint venture with Retalix Ltd. (NASDAQ: RTLX) in StoreNext Retail Technologies LLC, the No. 1 supplier of retail technology to independent grocers and regional chains. Web site: us.fujitsu.com/retailing.