IBM launches Dublin RFID centre

28-02-2006

by Deirdre McArdle

Cementing its commitment to RFID and wireless technologies, IBM has announced that it has opened an R&D centre at its technology campus in Dublin.

The centre, which will be located at IBM's campus in Mulhuddart, will be the base for IBM's worldwide asset-tracking Centre of Excellence, staffed with a 25-person-strong Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology team. In addition, it will provide wireless and RFID support and consultancy services, along with customer test facilities.

The Dublin centre marks the second such IBM facility in Europe; the La Gaude Centre in France focuses on showcasing the business benefits of RFID through end-to-end live solution prototypes. IBM claims the Dublin centre is the largest dedicated RFID facility worldwide.

Jennifer Van Cise, director of the Dublin Technology Campus, explained that Tuesday's development represents the ambition of IBM's Dublin campus to "move up the value chain and be aligned with the Irish government's and EU strategy of shifting from manufacturing-based jobs towards attracting R&D-type investments and knowledge-based jobs."

Colm Shorten, chief technology officer at the IBM Technology Campus, explained that the centre was essentially a solutions development delivery facility, which would work with clients to create customised RFID solutions. "With the adoption rate of RFID catching on now, we have noticed huge growth in demand for RFID solutions among various different sectors," he told ElectricNews.Net.

Two years ago, the retail sector was identified as the forerunner in all things RFID; now more and more sectors are discovering the benefits of this wireless technology, Sebastian Taylor, RFID solution leader, North and East Europe, explained to ElectricNews.Net.

"We expect companies in sectors such as healthcare, pharmaceutical and logistics to launch full or partial roll-outs of RFID technology during the next 12 months, off the back of successful proof-of-concept schemes last year," said Taylor.

For its part, IBM has also been trialling RFID technology; the Dublin campus has successfully completed an internal RFID pilot whereby a number of staff's laptops at the campus were fitted with RFID tags. This allowed IBM to test its own RFID solution for asset tracking, such as WebSphere Premises Server v1.1. So successful was the pilot that IBM said it would be equipping a further 500 laptops with the technology in the coming months.

This is the second Irish-focused RFID announcement is as many days; on Monday GS1 Ireland announced a world-first application of track and trace technology, which will result in safer patient treatment among Irish haemophilia patients. The successfully completed pilot scheme is currently being evaluated by an expert group, including the EU Commission, the FDA and the World Federation of Haemophilia, in order to validate its worldwide adoption.