Twelve Lucky Wal-Mart Suppliers to Get RFID Tracking Service for $25,000

March 1, 2006
A radio-frequency identification (RFID) consulting company is about to make a nightmare turn into a dream-come-true for 12 lucky Wal-Mart suppliers. Almost

A radio-frequency identification (RFID) consulting company is about to make a nightmare turn into a dream-come-true for 12 lucky Wal-Mart suppliers.

Almost 70,000 Wal-Mart (Bentonville, Ark.) suppliers have been mandated by the retail giant to use RFID chips so that Wal-Mart merchandise can be tracked from the time it is loaded off the supplier's docks to when the customer takes it out the retail giant's door.

The cost for suppliers, according to Forrester Research, can be upwards of $9 million to set up an RFID tracking system. RFID, LTD (Denver) is offering its Black Box compliance service for only $25,000 to the first 12 suppliers who sign up.

Nicholas Chavez, president of RFID, LTD, will personally supervise the 12 implementations of Black Box RFID for Wal-Mart suppliers.

In 2005, Wal-Mart reported doing business with more than 68,000 suppliers worldwide, all of which are required to comply with RFID requirements. RFID, LTD's Black Box RFID solution provides all that is needed to comply with the RFID mandate including hardware, software, middleware, implementation and knowledge transfer.

"This unprecedented offer is a very important example of how our RFID implementations are affordable and beneficial to small to medium sized retail suppliers," Chavez says. "The first movers for RFID compliance mandates were large companies with billions in revenue. We have taken the knowledge gained from those large implementations and have streamlined it for businesses doing less than $10 million to $100 million in revenue."

The offer, that begins Wednesday, March 1, 2006, is limited to the first 12 Wal-Mart suppliers who apply, accept terms and are subsequently approved for implementation of the Black Box RFID program. To be approved, a supplier must agree to have the multi-day implementation process filmed for a documentary and for marketing purposes.

Participants will be announced by April 1. For more information visit www.rfid-ltd.com or call 800-961-6125 and ask for Jim Nolte or email [email protected]

Source: RFID, LTD