INDUSTRY

Latest version delivers revolutionary location information system that provides business-aware asset tracking functionality. Includes new support for real-time location systems and active RFID technology, as well as enhanced support for mobile RFID and forklift readers. Sybase iAnywhere today announced the latest version of RFID Anywhere, the company's software infrastructure that provides an extensible environment for developing and managing robust, highly distributed sensor network applications including radio frequency identification (RFID) solutions. RFID Anywhere 3.0 breaks new ground with the delivery of a context-aware Location Information System. Using RFID Anywhere, businesses can not only track assets from a range of data collection points [such as passive RFID, active RFID, real-time location systems (RTLS), barcode, global positioning systems (GPS) and environmental sensors], but also can dramatically enhance the value of this data by associating environmental inputs (e.g., temperature) along with the location data. In addition, the RFID Anywhere 3.0 Location Information System exposes its complete feature set via a rich service oriented architecture (SOA) web services layer allowing organizations to easily transform static business information into business- aware intelligence. "We're seeing that companies are looking for a single solution that gives them the ability not only to track their assets, but also to provide business context to them," said Martyn Mallick, director of RFID and Mobile Solutions, iAnywhere. "RFID Anywhere's Location Information System is able to add location awareness and business intelligence to the sensor network, providing context-sensitive, real-time views of the enterprise." "One of the key areas of concerns for early adopters of RFID is how to make intelligent business decisions based on the massive amount of data created by RFID. The enhancements made to Sybase's RFID software platform address this issue and provides an increased level of value by combining RFID into an intelligent sensor network," said Curtis Price, Program Director at IDC. "Asset tracking is one of the applications that IDC believes is driving early deployments of RFID, and the new release of RFID Anywhere provides a common infrastructure for managing and tracking assets, as well as obtaining contextual information from the data collected in a sensor network. This allows businesses to derive greater value by making better informed decisions." Context-Aware Location Services in Action The ability to enhance location information with business context is desired in applications including asset tracking, asset control and resource management across vertical solutions in healthcare, logistics, cold-chain, and warehouse management environments. Examples include: * A produce distributor can correlate the temperature of its goods along with location and time data to know exactly where and for how long a given item was exposed to certain environmental conditions such as temperature or humidity. This information allows these organizations to make real-time decisions regarding the distribution of the goods to reduce spoilage, thereby increasing profits. * A hospital admission system can be enhanced to allow tracking of patients with contagious diseases and the ability to identify other patients and staff with whom the infected patients may have recently come in contact with. This would help a hospital prevent the transmission of the disease. * A handheld inventory management system in a pharmaceutical distribution center can now not only determine how much inventory is on hand, but can also identify the physical location of the asset and determine which pharmaceuticals expire first. By having the handheld device provide the location element of the data, the system can incorporate location information while leveraging the existing barcode or passive RFID network thereby reducing overall project costs. Key New Features in RFID Anywhere 3.0 * New Location Information System (LIS) -- Integrate and combine a variety of sensor technologies to locate and track assets -- Calibrate locations and associate fixed data sources with coordinates to provide location data -- Store, query and represent location of assets graphically or via reports -- Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) to enable information to be accessed by any application via web services -- Alerting capability so information can be 'pushed' when user-defined alert conditions are met * Support for Active RFID technology including RF Code, IDENTEC SOLUTIONS and AXCESS * Support for real-time location systems (RTLS) including Ekahau and AeroScout * Enhanced mobile device architecture including support for handheld, forklift and PCMCIA card readers * Additional enterprise messaging connectors including JMS and IBM WebSphere MQ * Enhanced printing capabilities including a new label designer and foreign language fonts Partner Support for RFID Anywhere Sybase iAnywhere partners are also excited about the latest innovations in RFID Anywhere 3.0: Ekahau Inc. "Sybase iAnywhere provides a powerful integration platform for combining Ekahau RTLS location information with passive RFID data and other sensory inputs, delivering business intelligence to the location data," said Tuomo Rutanen, vice president, business development, Ekahau Inc. "This enables both companies to satisfy the needs of a very broad customer base, which underlines the powerful synergy of this partnership." RF Code "We are pleased to have worked with iAnywhere in the integration between its RFID Anywhere technology and RF Code's Tavis RTLS Platform," said Dr. Nissim Ozer, Chief Technology Officer, RF Code. "This effort provides our joint customers the real-time location visibility and reporting needed to improve the management and utilization of assets across the enterprise." Availability RFID Anywhere 3.0 will be available in December 2006. To learn more about the new features of RFID Anywhere 3.0, please sign up for an exclusive webcast on December 14th at 10AM or 2PM EST at: its web site. To join the very popular RFID Anywhere developer community and to download a free development copy of RFID Anywhere, visit its Web site.