Recommendations for the Practitioner

• Develop plans based on established standards, while staying alert to developments in the various standards organizations. Although RFID standards do exist (such as the published specifications of EPCglobal, ISO, and ANSI), they are continuing to evolve. If you are a supply chain practitioner, subscribe to EPCglobal and remain alert to new developments. Make sure that you select a vendor that has a roadmap to adopt any new standards and upgrade its existing customers. Whether you are in the public or private sector, seek compliance with applicable ISO standards. If possible, participate in one of the working groups or action groups.

• Negotiate with your technology vendor to protect yourself from legal uncertainties related to standards. Because many technology vendors use the standards process to gain competitive advantage, lawsuits related to patent infringement are not uncommon. Although many patent holders avoid taking such lawsuits to end users (typically, they ask the vendor infringing on their patent to pay damages or royalty), you should protect yourself against this threat by negotiating a contract that the technology vendor defends you in such situations and, if necessary, fixes your deployment appropriately.

• Create a time allowance to continually reassess how to utilize the benefits of RFID to improve your investment returns. Stay alert to related pilots conducted by other companies in your industry or government agencies by reading trade publications and subscribing to related newsletters, as you may be able to leverage the results of such RFID technology for your own purposes. Leverage the guidelines provided by standards organizations in your decision-making. As we mentioned earlier in the mixed tag (active and passive) example, a phased approach to deployment may let you achieve compliance or gain the benefits of RFID, while keeping your options open to key developments such as the EPCIS and gen 2.

• Make decisions based on standards, integrating relevant guidelines into your processes. As you redesign your business processes to take advantage of RFID's benefits, make sure that the architecture is standards-based. In addition, depending on your role in the supply chain, adhere to Internet standards such as Java and XML. This will make it easier to create flexible and robust deployment architecture.