Guess what’s 
common between digital audio tapes, Iridium, push technology, DIVX and Web TV? Well, before you hop on to a conclusion let me tell you that all of the above mentioned names were one of the biggest technology flops of the last century. In fact, promising more and delivering less has always been one of the biggest drawback of any technology platform. However, if there is one technology that has delivered more than it promised, it has to be the Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) technology.
Moreover, apart from the commercial feasibility of RFID, the burgeoning retail sector has also contributed to the overall success of RFID in India. Now, with corporate honchos like the Tata’s, Birla’s, Ambani’s and Biyani’s competing in the retail sector, RFID has emerged as one of the biggest aid to the retail revolution in India.
In order to stay ahead in this retail race, all the competitors are implementing the RFID technology to boost their respective prospects. One of the pioneers of the retail revolution in India, Kishore Biyani has roped in software majors Wipro and Cisco to implement RFID in its retail outlets.
Biyani is making an incredible investment of Rs.2000 million to possess the largest RFID implementation mandate in Asia.Explains Mayur Toshniwal, Head Operations, Pantaloon Retail, “We want to implement RFID as it makes the maintainance of stock and accounts more systematic” Even Reliance Retail is pledging to have a well-tech structured retail management. This year itself, Reliance has charted out five RFID-deployment scenarios, which would enable them to track reusable fresh food and level crates of high-value goods with proper tagging. “This saves time and specially with to survive in the competition, you have to be error free and a full pledged RFID program takes care of error management right from the shipping level,” feels Ajay Baijal, President, Consumer Durable, Reliance Retail Ltd. The group has conducted proof-of-concept tests by using passive EPC Gen 2 UHF RFID tags.
Apart from RFID, Point of Sale (PoS) Solutions are also providingmore value added services to the customers. Shoppers’ Stop became one of the early adopters of the IBM i550 performance servers and deploy the PoS application. Cashing on these techniques, it has become the first company to set up a hypermarket with more than 35 PoS machines.
Well, RFID and PoS solutions seem to be the sure shot success mantras in the fiercely competitive $300 billion organised retail market. Well, the question is, why aren’t the unorgansied or small retailers resorting to RFID? “India’s infrastructure is such, that using RFID for most of the small retailers and shop owners, it’s a luxury. So it’s only big retail giants who can afford it and specially when they will have to compete with global players, they should implement RFID,” replies Gibson G Vedamani, CEO, Retailers Association of India.
Well, the need of the hour is to make these technologies more affordable so that their benefits could be extended to the smaller players, empowering them to tackle the global competitors which are constantly knocking on India’s doors.
Angshuman Paul
For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
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