New RFID standard responds to demand for secure, real-time data exchange

Brussels, 16 April 2007: EPCglobal Inc announced a groundbreaking industry standard providing the capability for unprecedented visibility of the movement, location and nature of assets, goods and services throughout the world. The new EPCIS (Electronic Product Code Information Services) standard allows for the seamless, secure exchange of data at every point in the lifecycle of goods and services. It will be used to enhance supply chain processes such as tracking of goods, product authentication, promotions management, returns management, electronic proof of delivery and operations management.

EPCIS provides a standard set of interfaces for EPC data, offering a single way to capture data from RFID tags and then share this information, while still allowing the flexibility for industry and organisation-specific implementations.

"The EPCIS standard is a major step in the greater adoption of RFID and sensors that can help protect us from counterfeit drugs, secure our ports and provide food traceability," said Craig Asher, IBM WebSphere Product Manager and EPCglobal EPCIS Software Action Group Co-Chair. "This standard has already been deployed in real business scenarios around the world and will facilitate revenue-enhancing and cost-saving collaboration among supply chain trading partners."

“With the EPCIS industry standard, the technology supporting visibility into the movement and whereabouts of goods and services is coming of age, “said Chris Adcock, president of EPCglobal Inc. “In terms of industry significance, I believe that the EPCIS standard may have much more of a transformational impact on the industry than the [2004] release of the UHF Gen2 Passive RFID standard. Capturing EPC data has proven, well-defined advantages for businesses and consumers, but the technology’s true potential will be realised when enterprises begin to share that data about products using the EPCIS standard to improve efficiencies in a controlled setting throughout the supply chain.”

“As global supply chains become more extended so the need for greater visibility within the supply chain increases. EPCIS enables this,” said David Lyon, EPCglobal Business Manager, GS1 UK.

In October 2006, EPCglobal successfully completed interoperability testing of the platform along with 12 other large and small solution providers from Japan, Korea, and North America, including Auto-ID Labs, Avicon, BEA Systems, Bent Systems, IBM, Globe Ranger, IIJ, NEC, Oracle, Polaris Systems, Samsung, and T3Ci. The interoperability test marked a significant milestone in the development of EPCIS, which is the result of years of effort by more than 150 companies and organisations participating in the EPCIS working group. The positive results of this test and solution provider support have led to the ratification of this standard.

Notes to the Editor:

About EPCIS:
EPCIS is used to track the progress of objects as they move through the supply chain. The data shared at each read point in the supply chain provides the WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE and WHY of each EPC event. The EPCIS Standard provides the foundation necessary for the capture, communication and discovery of EPC event data. It enables standard event capture and query interfaces for obtaining and sharing data about unique objects in the supply chain within and across organisations.

About EPCglobal:
EPCglobal Inc is a subsidiary of the global not-for-profit standards organisation GS1, and supports the global adoption of the Electronic Product Code as a global standard to enable accurate information and visibility about products in the supply chain. More information about EPCglobal Inc. can be found at http://www.epcglobalinc.org.

About GS1 UK

GS1 UK has driven innovation in the supply chain for over thirty years. It is part of the global GS1 organisation, dedicated to the development and implementation of global data standards and solutions for the supply chain. GS1 standards are the most widely used in the world. GS1 UK helps industry to implement these data standards through the use of bar codes, RFID, Global Data Synchronisation (GDS) and electronic business messaging.
www.gs1uk.org

For more information contact:

Lisa Henshaw or Kirsty Sewter
Fourth Day PR
+44 (0)20 7403 4411

Tom Beston
GS1 UK
+44 (0)20 7655 9000

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