That seems like a no-brainer statement, but often I find myself talking to customers who are frustrated with their current vendor for a myriad of reasons. An RFID project can require a pretty decent chunk of capital investment so when something doesn’t go as planned people start looking for answers immediately. This usually presents a great opportunity for us to go in and save the day, but it’s hard for me to ignore the time, money and resources that were wasted. Having witnessed this on several occasions I have concluded that there are a large number of RFID companies who are niche suppliers, but there are very few who can qualify as an RFID Partner. The RFID partner helps ensure success from idea to implementation to future expansion. That said, here is a list of things to consider prior to discussing your application with an RFID company:
- Does the partner offer hardware that communicates over USB, Serial, TCP/IP, Ethernet/IP, Profinet/Profibus, CC-Link, Ethercat, etc?
- Does the partner offer a wide range of form factors of readers, tags, and antennae?
- Does the partner build hardware for multiple frequencies?
- Is the partner willing to build custom equipment just right for your application?
- Does the partner offer support before, during and after the project?
- Does the partner have a core competency in the application?
- Can the partner meet application specs such as, high temperatures, high speed reading on the fly, storing and reading large amounts of data, high ingress protection rating, etc.?
- Does the partner develop and design products which are scalable and easily expandable?
If you can answer yes to all of these questions then chances are you are pretty well set. With such a mature technology there are many ways for RFID companies to set themselves apart from one another. However, there are only a few who are willing to do what it takes to be considered a partner.
To learn more about RFID technology visit www.balluff.us/rfid
