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RFID Applications in Professional Services

Most RFID technology is either focused on manufacturing or supply-chain applications. But recent personal experiences, coupled with some timely contract announcements, have made me aware of the scope of RFID applications in professional services.

Fields such as law, medicine, insurance, and government contracting, information security is fundamentally a matter of the physical security of paper files. Lost or misplaced files can result in serious financial and/or legal penalties. Therefore, I will use this month's column to explore the way RFID tags can reduce labor and improve accuracy in tracking files and other important documents.

Paper Files -- Stubbornly Resisting the Information Revolution

Those of us who remember the computer industry in the 1980s will undoubtedly have heard many promises about the "paperless office" solving the administrative burden of professional services. The information-technology revolution -- led by the personal computer, flat-bed scanner, database program, and graphical display -- was supposed to eliminate the office file-cabinet and secretarial typing pool. Fortunes were made and lost chasing this idea (think of once-mighty Wang Industries, for example). Although Microsoft Word may have made the typing-pool obsolete, the office file cabinet continued to grow and many of those secretaries were simply re-deployed to enter file-locator data into tracking spreadsheets.

The reasons for the continued importance of paper-based files include human-factors considerations and records-retention laws. From a human-factors standpoint, many service providers work in an environment where mobile computers are impractical or cumbersome. A doctor or nurse, for example, would much rather make a notation on a paper chart that stays by a patient's bedside than log into even the most sophisticated tablet computer.

Where electronic records are practical, such as in accounting or insurance applications, records-retention laws may require the preservation and tracking of supporting evidence such as receipts, photographs, or field damage reports. I worked for one insurance client who had a sophisticated Web-based imaging application for their routine work but still needed to make sure they had all critical documents in a physical archive. They referred to their supporting document packages as "the golden file." If they were sued over a claim, and failed to find the original physical documents requested by the plaintiff's attorney, they could be liable for millions of dollars of damages -- hence the need to treat (and track) every claims file as if it were made of gold.

Similar requirements operate within law, medicine, accounting, and government, thus assuring the continued importance of document retention and tracking. The usual way to track the files is through keystroke entries within a database program. But now the latest RFID technology is attempting to make this task more efficient and accurate by eliminating the possibility of human error in acquiring and entering file locator data.

For Gen2 UHF tags, we generally use a rough estimate of $0.75 per tag to account for the fully-burdened cost of tags and supporting systems within the supply chain. So in considering the use of RFID within the services industry, it is helpful to think, "Which documents are worth spending roughly a buck each to track?" As you might expect, the federal government (which regards document creation and hoarding as a core competency) has asked, and answered, that question already.

Government Services Administration Program

A recent press release from 3M Systems announced that they had won a five-year contract from the Government Services Administration (GSA) to provide RFID document-tracking technology. GSA runs all U.S. Government procurement of common-use items such as office supplies and building maintenance supplies. The 3M systems will be used to track purchase orders and government contract documents. The systems include tags, hand-held scanners, fixed-point readers, and software. With this contract, GSA becomes the most high-profile user of 3M's RFID technology.

3M and a few other companies (such as Dynasis and Magellan) have pioneered in this area of RFID technology. The RFID technology challenges are much different in an office environment than in a traditional supply-chain application. For example, an RFID records-tracking system may have to read many RFID tags stacked on top of each other within a file, whereas supply-chain applications can generally assume that RFID tags have good physical separation. The 3M system relies on proprietary tags and hand-held scanners to assure good tag reads.

Dynasis approaches the problem by embedding an array of readers within a purpose-built filing cabinet. Hardware manufacturer Magellan touts the benefits of high-frequency tags using their proprietary phase-jitter modulation (PJM) technology for reading data from stacked tags. All of these techniques enable office-based RFID to fulfill the same objective as our familiar supply-chain RFID technology, which is the automatic collection and tracking of data without the need for human intervention and subsequent possibility of human error.

Health Care Services

In the same week that 3M announced their GSA contract award, Intermec announced the results of their work to provide Capital Health Systems of Trenton, N.J. with a document-tracking solution for medical records. Intermec adapted their traditional EPC Gen2 UHF products (tags, hand-held computers with embedded RFID readers, and fixed-point readers) to a hospital environment with the help of health-care software company Infolinx Systems Solutions. Capital Health Systems is using the Intermec system to track the movement of approximately 5,000 medical records throughout its 589-bed hospital facility. Their administrative director stated that incidents of misplaced files have "seen a significant decrease" since they began using the Intermec system.

The Intermec system is technically more similar a supply-chain RFID application than the 3M stacked-tag system, since it relies on motion of a tag past a fixed scanner to track files (much as retailers rely on RFID portals to track the movement of goods out of a stock room.) The Intermec handheld computers are used as scanners to quickly search offices and work areas for missing files. Since the life-cycle of a medical file is longer than the typical shipping duration of a retail carton, Intermec is able to build a good return-on-investment case for this unique records-management application.

Conclusion

Most RFID applications have been driven by supply-chain considerations. As the technology matures, we can expect to see new areas of RFID innovation and growth. Services are an attractive emerging market with some key players providing technology and solutions.

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http://www.rfidglobal.org

An internationally oriented online platform for RFID companies and end users.

About the Author

Paul Faber is a Principal with Raleigh, N.C.-based Tompkins Associates, a supply-chain-solutions consulting firm.

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Hoard $73.28 In archaeology, a hoard is a collection of valuable objects or artifacts, sometimes purposely buried in the ground. This would usually be with the intention of later recovery by the hoarder; hoarders sometimes died before retrieving the hoard, and these surviving hoards may be uncovered by metaldetectorists, members of the public and archaeologists much later. Forgetfulness and physical displacement from the location of the hoard may contribute to failing to retrieve it. Hoards provide a useful method of providing dates for artifacts through association as they can usually be assumed to be contemporary and therefore used in creating chronologies. Hoards can also be considered an indicator of the relative degree of unrest in ancient societies. Thus conditions in 5th century and 6th century Britain spurred the burial of hoards of which the most famous are the Hoxne Hoard, Suffolk; the Mildenhall Treasure, the Fishpool Hoard, Nottinghamshire, the Water Newton hoard, Cambridgeshire, and the Cuerdale Hoard, Lancashire, all preserved in the British Museum. Author: Miller, Frederic P./ Vandome, Agnes F./ McBrewster, John Binding Type: Paperback Number of Pages: 102 Publication Date: 2010/04/21 Language: English Dimensions: 5.98 x 9.01 x 0.24 inches

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Hoxne Hoard $95.59 High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles The Hoxne Hoard is the largest hoard of late Roman silver and gold discovered in Britain, and the largest collection of gold and silver coins of the fourth and fifth century found anywhere within the Roman Empire. Found by a metal detectorist in the village of Hoxne in Suffolk, England on 16 November 1992, the hoard consists of 14,865 Roman gold, silver and bronze coins from the late fourth and early fifth centuries, and approximately 200 items of silver tableware and gold jewellery. The objects are now in the British Museum in London, where the most important pieces and a selection of the rest are on permanent display. In 1993, the Treasure Valuation Committee valued the hoard at 1.75 million (today 2.66 million). Author: Miller, Frederic P./ Vandome, Agnes F./ McBrewster, John Binding Type: Paperback Number of Pages: 140 Publication Date: 2010/12/12 Language: English Dimensions: 6.00 x 9.02 x 0.33 inches

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Thetford Hoard $100.37 High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles The Thetford Hoard (also known as the Thetford Treasure) is a hoard of RomanoBritish metalwork found at Gallows Hill, near Thetford in Norfolk, England, in November 1979, and now in the British Museum. Dating from the mid to late4th century AD, this hoard is a collection of thirtythree silver spoons and three silver strainers, twentytwo gold finger rings, four gold bracelets, four necklace pendants, five gold chain necklaces and two pairs of necklaceclasps, a gold amulet designed as a pendant, an unmounted engraved gem, four beads (one emerald and three of glass), and a gold beltbuckle decorated with a dancing satyr. A small cylindrical lidded box made from shale also belonged to the hoard. The find was made under very unfortunate circumstances. Author: Miller, Frederic P./ Vandome, Agnes F./ McBrewster, John Binding Type: Paperback Number of Pages: 160 Publication Date: 2011/01/12 Language: English Dimensions: 6.00 x 9.02 x 0.37 inches

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Vale of York Hoard $93.99 High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles The Vale of York Hoard, also known as the Harrogate Hoard and the Vale of York Viking Hoard, is a 10th century Viking hoard of more than 617 silver coins and other items. It was found undisturbed in 2007 near the town of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. The hoard was the largest discovered in western Europe since 1840, when the Cuerdale hoard was found in Lancashire, though the AngloSaxon Staffordshire Hoard, found in 2009, is larger. On 6 January 2007, David Whelan, a semiretired businessman from Leeds, and his son Andrew, a surveyor, discovered the Harrogate hoard using metal detectors. The Whelans told BBC News they have been metal detecting as a hobby for about five years. They found the hoard in an empty field that had not yet been ploughed for spring sowing. Later the field was searched but no evidence of a settlement or structure was found. About 30 cm underneath the soil the Whelans found a silver bowl and could see coins and scraps of silver. The Whelans reported the find to Amy Cooper. Author: Surhone, Lambert M./ Timpledon, Miriam T./ Marseken, Susan F. Binding Type: Paperback Number of Pages: 142 Publication Date: 2010/08/04 Language: English Dimensions: 6.00 x 9.02 x 0.33 inches

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The Huxley Viking Hoard (Paperback) $64.2 In 2004 an important new Viking silver hoard was discovered near Huxley, Cheshire. This book brings together leading specialists on the Vikings to set out the latest research into Scandinavian settlement and activity in the North West and Wales, including archaeological evidence and the contribution of place names, historical research, and stone sculpture to our understanding of the period. These contributors also provide a definitive account of the objects themselves, their likely origin and date of manufacture, and consider the intriguing questions of why the hoard was buried in England and by whom.

The Tunnel Hoard $4.18 World War II, 1944. Somewhere in the jungle, Jacob Thomas peers out from behind bamboo bars at his keepers. His 16 months of captivity have been spent digging a large tunnel into the side of a mountain. The only thing keeping him alive is the promise he made to his wife that he would come home to her. Almost six decades later in upstate New York, Connor Mason receives a coded message from his missing father's estranged partner, exposing a secret life and a treasure half a world away. For him the adventure is about to begin.

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The Missing Macleans by Hoard, Geoffrey [Paperback] $30.75 This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. Author: Hoard, Geoffrey Binding Type: Paperback Number of Pages: 270 Publication Date: 2011/09/01 Language: English Dimensions: 9.69 x 7.44 x 0.57 inches

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