Oracle to unveil RFID push

Oracle at its AppsWorld applications conference in San Diego next week will unveil software pricing and outsourcing options and plans to embed radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in its products.

Oracle said in a written statement that it plans to discuss its RFID strategy at the AppsWorld event, due to begin Tuesday. The company also will make other announcements related to its E-Business Suite 11i line of applications, but declined to provide any details. Nor would it say when the RFID technology is scheduled to become available as part of 11i.

Oracle would be the second major applications vendor to embrace RFID this month. Two weeks ago, ERP market leader SAP said it had bundled RFID data management capabilities into some of its applications, including its SAP Event Management supply chain module.

The RFID enhancements being promised by Oracle are of interest to Gary Concannon, manager of the business technologies department at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque and a member of the board of directors at the independent Oracle Applications Users Group.

Sandia runs Version 11.5.8 of Oracle’s financial, manufacturing and procurement applications. Concannon said he wants to use integrated RFID technology to track the billions of dollars’ worth of testing equipment installed in the lab via a wireless network.

He’s also interested in learning more about Oracle’s business intelligence tools at AppsWorld, as well as the possibility of using its software portal as a window for all end users to access the 11i suite.

Joshua Greenbaum, an analyst at Enterprise Applications Consulting in Daly City, Calif., said SAP, Oracle and other ERP vendors accelerated their push to support RFID after Wal-Mart Stores mandated last June that its top 100 suppliers adopt the technology in their supply chain operations by January 2005.

Despite the planned RFID announcement and the other new developments, Oracle’s focus at AppsWorld will likely be on more routine issues, such as upgrade cycles, rather than major technology rollouts, Greenbaum said.

He said Oracle needs to market its applications more, instead of its database and infrastructure software business. The company has also been focusing too much attention and energy on its hostile bid to buy rival PeopleSoft and not enough on developing its own internal strengths and structure, Greenbaum said.