RFID technology leader to set up India centre

OAT Systems, a US-based company providing RFID solutions and based out of the US, will soon spread its wings in a big way in India.

The company, which is into creating frameworks for RFID implementation through its software solutions, plans on setting up a development centre and make it around 100 strong by the end of next year.

"We plan to move most of the groundwork for our Foundation Suite to the country. This means, the centre will work on future enhancements to the product along with new product ideas. Apart from this, the Indian centre will be involved in professional services like consulting, quality engineering and product support for some of our clients," says Jasjit Mangat, head of Asian operations for OAT Systems.

The company already has a 25-member product development team based out of Hyderabad. According to Mangat, the company will be looking for different locations for it's full fledged centre.

He adds that all plans would be formalised by November 9 to coincide with EPC Global's RFID convention to be held in Delhi. The convention will also bring into force EPC's India chapter. The chapter plans to continue work in the area of establishing standards for RFID, similar to the work it has been pursuing globally.

OAT's Foundation Suite product for RFID comprises of a set of software stacks from middleware to management to enable enterprises to implement RFID and achieve the best benefits out of the same. All work on the suite is being done at the moment out of their development centre in Boston. The suite is itself built on C3 architecture.

"C3 stands for Capture of data on the RFID system, giving Context and business sense to the data received and Controlling the processed information to make the best out of it. This is the skeleton on which not only the technology framework but the entire business enablement will be structured," said Mangat.

While sales of the product is handled by OAT directly, implementation is done by their SI partners. Currently, OAT's SI partners in India include Wipro, Patni and Satyam though Mangat says it will be sometime before the true potential can be realised in the country.

OAT Systems, was formed in 2001 and received $11.5 billion as funding from Greylock and Matrix Partners in September 2003. It counts among its clients 30 out of the Global 500, including the most recent win of Tesco.

They pride themselves on having on their board Sanjay Sarma, one of the original co-founders of the Auto-ID centre in MIT to where most of the modern work in RFID can be traced.

Speaking of the potential RFID has in the retailing space, Mangat said, "A study by Metro estimates that $20 billion is the sales opportunity lost due to items being out of stock or off the shelves. The same study reveals that this is reduced by upto 20 per cent with the use of RFID."

RFID as a technology has recently come to limelight due to mandates such as WalMart's pushing for adoption of it by their top 100 suppliers by January 2005. Explaining the potential for India in the area, Sanjay Sarma, CTO of OAT Systems said, "The Indian potential largely lies in the software and services side. Most of the bigger players, like Wipro and Infosys, are already pursuing the areas."