US State Department Selects RFID Solution

Odin is providing a turn-key asset tracking solution for the US State Department. The system will be used initially to track 10,000 mission-critical information technology assets.

The State Department’s IT Asset system, based on RFID, is part of a growing trend within the US Federal Government to leverage RFID 2.0, the latest in transformational technology, says Odin. RFID 2.0 is passive RFID technology that is gaining widespread adoption mainly because costs have declined significantly, performance has improved dramatically in the past 12 months, and a global ISO standard has stabilized.

“The State Department is using RFID technology to save taxpayers money by dramatically reducing administrative burden,” commented Patrick J. Sweeney II, ODIN’s founder. “The added security of having RFID-tagged assets will keep sensitive information where it belongs.”

The State Department started with a trial of the technology to ensure that the business process within their agency would benefit from RFID. Once the technology was proven, they decided to start an agency-wide program by tagging 10,000 critical assets with UHF Gen 2.0 passive RFID tags. The tags are based on the same standard in use by the Department of Defense and other Federal agencies.

“There were many choices of RFID components, but only one or two solutions providers with deep expertise and a complete physics-to-software solution,” commented Kirk Ingvoldstad at the US Department of State.

“After using barcode and thousands of labor hours to track assets for the past 20 years, it is well past time for a new technology,” he added. “Passive RFID was the right choice for a higher level of security and cost savings.”