OATSystems and IBM Extend Successful Global Partnership to Australia and New Zealand

Partnership Delivers RFID Solutions for Industrial Manufacturers, Retailers and Consumer Products Companies

WALTHAM, Mass. – Dec. 3, 2007 – OATSystems and IBM today announced that they will jointly deliver RFID solutions in Australia and New Zealand. This is an extension of the already successful global partnership, which has seen IBM and OATSystems work together on projects for some of the world’s largest industrial manufacturers, retailers and consumer goods companies.

Effective immediately, this partnership will help Australian retailers, consumer products companies and manufacturers harness the potential of RFID technology to deliver compelling business benefits in areas like inventory availability, promotions execution and asset management.

Since 2005, OATSystems and IBM have worked together to market an integrated offering comprising OATSystems’ RFID applications, IBM’s RFID infrastructure software and IBM Global Business Services’ strategic input on business case development and system design. This partnership provides a complete end-to-end RFID service — from ascertaining the business case for change and identifying business processes that need to be integrated, through to the implementation, roll-out and maintenance of software and hardware systems. Importantly, the service also includes real time process alerts and analytics, enabling customers to continuously improve supply chain performance.

“An RFID implementation should be about more than just the technology,” said Martin Dolce, business transformation consultant, IBM Global Business Services A/NZ. “To be successful, business processes need to be reviewed and changed where necessary. That determination can only be made by engaging stakeholders throughout the organization, such as finance, operations and IT. To maximize the value of RFID technology, organizations need to take a holistic view of their business and their key stakeholders within the business.”

Dolce said that IBM was committed to being technology agnostic, so that improvements or changes to supply chain management were about business benefit rather than technology for technology’s sake. According to IBM, Australian businesses have been taking a ‘wait and see’ attitude to RFID, reluctant to embrace what is perceived to be a relatively immature technology.

“However with greater accuracy rates, lower implementation costs, packaged applications and increasing benefits being derived from supply chain collaboration, attitudes in Australia are shifting to examine the potential the use of RFID,” continued Dolce.

Another barrier to business adoption of RFID in Australia has been the lack of key skills. IBM has made a significant investment in this area, bringing in experts from overseas and upskilling engineers and consultants across ANZ.

“This partnership enables Australian organizations to enjoy the combined benefits of IBM and OATSystems’ strengths: the technology, services and experience of IBM’s organization with OATSystems’ proven and leading RFID solutions that enterprises have deployed on five continents,” said Prasad Putta, Founder, OATSystems.

Customer examples
Customers globally are already reaping significant benefits from solutions provided by IBM and OATSystems. For example, one of South America’s largest retailers is using an RFID solution to track over 7000 apparel products in its department stores. Its initial pilot was developed by IBM, using OATSystems Foundation Suite middleware platform, interrogators from Motorola and RFID hangtags by Paxar. The project resulted in 98.4 percent inventory accuracy and enabled staff to count up to 9000 items in one hour. As a result, the retailer experienced a 25 percent reduction in out-of-stock occurrences of RFID-tagged items.

Another customer, consumer goods provider Pacific Coast Producers, invested in RFID to comply with Wal-Mart’s mandate, resulting in better information about how its products move through the supply chain, improving stock levels in stores and ultimately increasing sales. The company is using software from OATSystems to analyze the data captured and deliver a record of inventory and goods moving across the supply chain.

About IBM
For more information, visit http://www.ibm.com/au

About OATSystems, Inc.

OATSystems, Inc. is the recognized RFID solution leader with software that empowers businesses to achieve competitive advantage and ROI from radio-frequency identification (RFID) enabled applications. As a pioneer in developing RFID technology, OAT has been setting the standards in RFID for over half a decade and is responsible for industry firsts that include the largest scale and largest scope of deployments, as well as the most innovative approaches to providing enterprise-wide RFID solutions. OAT’s multinational client base consists of nearly 100 customers in retail, CPG, consumer electronics, manufacturing, life sciences, aerospace and defense. OAT is headquartered in Waltham, MA, and has a development office in Bangalore and various direct sales offices and resellers around the globe. To learn more about the company’s latest developments, visit the website at www.oatsystems.com.

For further information please contact:
Nancy Kaplan, IBM
914-766-1849
[email protected]

George Cohen (for OATSystems)            
George Cohen Communications       
(617) 325-0011                           
[email protected]