IBM Offers Free RFID Training Tools

IBM this week introduced free online resources to help solution providers get an edge on the emerging market for radio frequency identification (RFID) technology.

The Armonk, N.Y., vendor has added to its Web-based AlphaWorks developer's portal an array of new tools that can quickly bring solution providers up to speed on RFID, said Chris Spencer, emerging technologies strategist at IBM.

Advanced RFID modeling systems that provide insight into how RFID solutions can help their customers' business have been added to the portal. Best practices for implementing RFID solutions are also now available, said Spencer.

The point of the effort is to increase the talent pool of developers and integrators capable of taking real-world, interoperable RFID solutions to market, he said.

"There are many complex issues RFID developers need to understand when bringing these solutions to market," explained Spencer.Bill Hood, COO of Stratum Global, and RFID solution provider in Littleton, Colo., said the IBM effort will help speed the deployment of new RFID technology into existing RFID-based supply chains.

"I don't think there are enough individuals out there marketing RFID that have enough experience," said Hood, "And when it comes right down to it, we firmly believe there is as much an art (to RFID) as there is a science."