Zebra Technologies Corporation, provider of technologies that extend real-time visibility into business operations, and Checkpoint Systems announced they have entered into a cooperative relationship and licensing agreement. It combines Zebra’s active location solutions with the passive radio-frequency identification (RFID), auto-identification (auto-ID) and sensor capabilities of Checkpoint division OATSystems. This combination is designed to give customers in key industries—including retail, industrial manufacturing, automotive, aerospace and process—increased visibility of their assets across the enterprise.
The agreement, which is a non-exclusive contract, provides Zebra with an OEM software license for OATxpress, which is part of the OAT Foundation Suite, an RFID middleware platform. The platform is designed for capturing, filtering and managing high volumes of auto-ID and sensor data from a single manufacturing plant, distribution center or retail store, and deploying it to an enterprise across hundreds of locations.
“This relationship is an important part of Zebra’s RFID and real-time location solutions strategy,” said Anders Gustafsson, chief executive officer at Zebra Technologies.
Phil Gerskovich, senior vice president, new growth platforms at Zebra Technologies, added: “While Zebra’s active RFID location solutions today provide organizations with real-time visibility into their business operations, the addition of OAT’s passive RFID and other auto-ID technologies capabilities will enable Zebra to play a larger and more meaningful role in helping organizations to make smarter decisions in managing their operations. We selected OAT as our partner based on its mature, well-architected platform, enterprise capabilities and the experience of its team, which has deployed hundreds of RFID solutions over the past decade.”
In the coming months, Zebra will announce details around its first product with the capability to implement applications that combine both active and passive RFID.