Manhattan Associates Helps Companies Achieve Compliance with Class 1 Generation 2 RFID Technology Standards

Leading supply chain solutions provider, Manhattan Associates, Inc., today announced its offering of Class 1 Generation 2 RFID technology to help companies comply with recent changes in RFID standards.

This latest evolution in RFID technology and standards, commonly referred to as Generation 2, is being adopted by Wal*Mart and Target.  The two retailers plan to have their suppliers begin using these new standards to move goods through their supply chains. Suppliers to the two companies are expected to make this transition by mid-year.

Manhattan Associates supports the migration to these latest RFID standards and can help companies with new RFID deployment.  Generation 2s major goal is to ensure interoperability between all EPC Global Generation 2-compliant devices and tags. In addition, the new protocol provides enhancements to existing technology through:

• A more reliable read and write speed;
• Higher reliability in tag counting;
• More robust performance of many readers in close proximity;
• Enhanced security;
• Extensibility to higher-function tags and systems.
  

We want to ensure that companies are able to efficiently adopt this new technology, said Greg Gilbert, Manhattan Associates director of product management for RFID Solutions and Business Intelligence. Our RFID consultants can confidently and quickly evaluate the impact of Generation 2 to customers RFID processes and infrastructure and guide them through the hardware updates, potential configuration changes and system testing that will be required, as well as provide some education on Generation 2s benefits. 

Manhattan Associates' RFID Solutions are fully integrated and EPC-compliant. These solutions are compatible with leading tags, readers and printers. Delivering a low-risk, cost-effective solution, Manhattan Associates' services teams are experts at the implementation of all these components, as well as at training customers in the real-world use of RFID technology. The solutions highly-configurable Integration Manager platform provides connectivity to readers and existing systems, and the EPC Manager component facilitates the user processes and workflows needed for improved product tracking and traceability.

According to ARC Advisory Groups 2005 Warehouse Management System Worldwide Outlook Summary, Manhattan Associates is listed as the leading supplier of RFID with more than 31% of market share. Manhattan Associates has provided RFID solutions to more than 65 companies in the consumer goods, life sciences, food and grocery, retail, logistics service providers and technologies industries.