DULLES, VA – January 8, 2004 – MARC Global, the leading provider of supply chain execution solutions for the world’s most demanding companies, today announced the expansion of the MARC Global product suite with the addition of two comprehensive and proven Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) offerings: MARC RFID Compliance Kit™ and MARC RFID Enterprise Edition™. Additionally, the company has entered a strategic alliance with OATSystems, Inc., the developer of the world's most widely deployed standards-based RFID solutions.
MARC Suite™ RFID Solutions
Additionally, today announced the expansion of the MARC Global product suite with the addition of two comprehensive and proven Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) offerings: MARC RFID Compliance Kit™ and MARC RFID Enterprise Edition™.
MARC RFID Compliance Kit is an easy-to-implement and affordable solution aimed directly at fulfilling Wal-Mart and Department of Defense (DoD) requirements. The MARC solution is standards-based and complies with Class 0 and Class 1 reader support as required for full compliance. The Compliance Kit delivers printing of RFID Electronic Product Code (EPC) tags in-line or at shipment and allows verification of content and delivery. It meets the requirement for EPC management, tag quality assurance (including the situation where different form factor tags are required for different product characteristics), case-to-pallet linkage and EPC-enabled Advance Ship Notices (ASNs). Scalability has been proven to over 6,000 transactions per second and can support 100-plus readers on a low-cost server.
MARC RFID Enterprise Edition goes far beyond mere customer compliance to deliver more value from RFID. In addition to the functionality offered in the MARC RFID Compliance Kit, Enterprise Edition delivers the following key value:
• Reduced costs
- Reduces need for manual inspection and RF data entry
- Reduces capital expenditures through improved asset utilization
- Reduces need for safety stock via more efficient supply-chain management
- Minimizes expenses associated with theft and loss
- Provides better regulatory tracking and tracking alerts, and keeps regulated materials under tight control
- Reduces counterfeiting through tight real-time tracking
- Reduces perishable spoilage through product status alerts (including temperature sensing)
• Greater efficiency
- Ensures optimal production and inventory levels through "self-regulating" supply chain
- Eliminates time-consuming and error-prone manual processes via automated data capture
• Improved service
- Results in fewer stock-outs due to better inventory regulation
- Reduces pricing and shipping errors due to more accurate data capture and management
• Increased profitability
- Increases profits through better inventory and production management
- Provides better, more profitable decisions via real-time visibility
- Results in more profitable operations through streamlined processes and automation
“Our MARC Suite RFID solutions are unique because they are field proven. With the flurry of RFID announcements and continuously evolving standards, it is only too easy for companies to choose an RFID solution that boxes them out of future value and potentially the very compliance they seek,” said Oliver Cooper, CEO, MARC Global. “At a time when companies are trying to get a return on their RFID investment, they need assurance that their solution will work right the first time and have the integrity to scale to the more complex applications the technology will deliver in the future. Our offerings are simple to deploy and use, and they offer the comprehensive capabilities and configurability that our customers are accustomed to, while eliminating risk through proven implementation performance. Based on our success in this area, we guarantee successful implementations of all of our offerings to our customers.”
MARC Global and OATSystems Partnership
MARC Global’s expanded RFID offerings are built upon OATSystems’ Senseware™ middleware platform. MARC Global and OATSystems have formed a strategic partnership to jointly pursue the emerging market for RFID-enabled supply chain execution solutions. Since 2001, OATSystems has been at the heart of standards and technology development at MIT’s Auto-ID Center (now EPCglobal), having deployed the middleware for the Center’s initial field trials. OATSystems has successfully completed over 20 comprehensive RFID implementations for pharmaceutical, CPG, retail, logistics and DoD clients.
“Like the entire MARC Suite, MARC RFID is designed to offer maximum configurability and adaptability to the ever-changing needs our customers have in their warehousing environments. Partnering with OATSystems to incorporate their Senseware RFID middleware, which provides sophisticated data filtering and robust device management and monitoring in order to abstract the complexity of RFID for enterprise applications, enables us to focus on the value-added applications of RFID technology throughout our product suite," said Ronald Riggin, CTO, MARC Global.
“MARC Global is an excellent company to partner with as they have solved many of the complex challenges that very demanding customers have faced,” said Prasad Putta, CEO, OATSystems. “The MARC Suite product line is highly functional, well proven and very easy to configure allowing it to be adapted to the ever-changing needs these companies have. Both of our companies’ products are proven and designed with agility, ease of deployment and use, and low cost of ownership in mind. It is a strong combination that provides synergy for our customers.”
