|
|
PowerID Unveils Go-To-Market Strategy
Company Extends BAP Leadership by Expanding Strategic Partnerships
And Sales Channels in North America and Europe
Petah Tikva, Israel – November 6, 2007 – PowerID Ltd., the industry leader in Battery-Assisted, Passive (BAP) RFID technology, today announced the company's go-to-market strategy. With successful deployments of its unique, BAP RFID technology at several major companies throughout the world, PowerID is now extending its leadership position in the category by leveraging its strategic partnerships and expanding its sales channel in North America and Europe. The company will focus on developing robust BAP RFID products for challenging supply chain and asset management applications in vertical markets where traditional RFID technologies fall short.
"We have developed unique RFID labels for tracking high-value assets in challenging environments," said Erez Kahani, CEO of PowerID. "Our proven BAP technology 'fills the gap' for applications where passive RFID falls short in providing sufficient reliability, and active RFID is simply too expensive."
PowerID’s BAP RFID labels, which operate in the 865-956 MHz spectrum, overcome the limitations of barcode technologies and standard passive RFID, as well as the prohibitive cost of active RFID through the use of PowerID’s innovative, flexible battery technology. The onboard, printed micro-power source is environmentally friendly, and provides PowerID BAP labels with greater read range and reliability than those of passive RFID labels, but at a fraction of the cost of bulky, active RFID tags.
Major customers across the globe have already deployed PowerID's innovative BAP labels to track challenging materials such as metals, liquids, and paper. "Our technology is tested and proven in the field," said Lior Rapaport, vice president of sales for PowerID. "Our tags are working in real-world environments and have provided close to 100% reliability in those applications."
Vertical Market Focus and Key Industry Initiatives
Working with an ever-expanding network of strategic channel partners and value-added resellers (VARs), PowerID is targeting freight, chemical, paper, metals, cold chain, and people-tracking applications, and has already deployed its innovative RFID tags for applications that include tracking industrial paper reels, metal aircraft parts, and high-value pallets with RF-challenged (metal and liquid) materials.
Unlike other UHF-based (Ultra High Frequency) technologies, PowerID BAP RFID labels have a much longer read range (60 to 80 meters) than that of traditional passive RFID and can be read reliably in challenging RF environments, including on or near metals and liquids.
"Our BAP technology overcomes the two main obstacles to RFID deployment today: price and reliability," Rapaport said. "By providing the range and reliability of active RFID, but at a price point comparable to that of high-end passive RFID tags, PowerID helps our customers achieve a clear return on investment."
As part of its focus on key vertical markets, PowerID is forming partnerships with leading solutions providers in each market. One such partner is Yedioth Information Technologies Ltd., a leading provider of IT solutions for the media industry, which has worked with PowerID to develop PaperVue, a real-time tracking and visibility solution for paper reels. Combining PowerID’s unique PowerR™ labels and Yedioth Information Technologies' specially-designed software, PaperVue provides end-to-end reel tracking within the newsprint supply chain while reducing costs associated with newsprint purchasing, transport, inventory, production control, and complaints processing.
Israel’s leading daily newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, has successfully piloted PaperVue this year. Following the summer pilot, Yedioth Ahronoth asked its paper suppliers to tag its newsprint reels, and by the end of the year, thousands of PowerR-tagged reels will be delivered and processed by PaperVue.
”Since we had a clear business case for use of RFID, for us it was a matter of finding the RFID technology that could track reels reliably and affordably,” said Assaf Avrahami, CEO of Yedioth Information Technologies. “PowerID was the only one that could do this, and we look forward to ramping up and receiving all of our paper reels with PowerID labels.”
PowerID will also target cold chain visibility applications with its PowerTMP™ label, which integrates RFID and temperature sensor technology. The company is currently working with select partners to develop a thin, flexible sensor that, combined with RFID BAP technology, will provide affordable temperature tracking at the pallet or case level. The company expects to have sample tags available in 2008.
Channel Strategy
In line with PowerID’s expansion within North America, Mr. Robert Kowalik has been appointed Director of Sales, Americas. Mr. Kowalik brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to PowerID with over 15 years of Enterprise Applications experience, with a primary focus on RFID and wireless systems.
PowerID is developing a dynamic sales channel to deliver its solutions worldwide. Moving forward, the company will direct its efforts on expanding its presence through partnerships with leading VARs in North America and Europe that focus on the company's core markets.
"We work in conjunction with strategic channel partners and VARs to provide solutions across all major territories," Rapaport said. "Because our technology works with off-the-shelf readers and application software, our partners are able to utilize PowerID labels for a wide spectrum of customer applications, from large, complex installations, to smaller-scale, turnkey deployments."
PowerID's BAP RFID technology offers VARs and systems integrators a reliable, standards-based solution that provides more robust performance than that of passive RFID, with a lower total cost of ownership than that of active RFID. As a result, PowerID's partners are able to deliver a more effective solution and, ultimately, a better return on investment to their customers.
One example is NBGID, a PowerID VAR based in France, which utilized PowerID's labels for a successful, large-scale pilot for its customer, a leading logistics company. The customer achieved close to 100% read rates tracking mixed pallets that contained metals, liquids and foils. PowerID’s technology was the only UHF RFID solution that met the performance and price requirements which would allow the customer to achieve a return on investment for a possible future rollout.
“We have used tens of thousands of PowerID BAP labels for over two years in a production environment at one of the world’s largest 3PLs to track mixed pallets from distribution center to retail locations,” said Bruno Fabre, CEO of NBGID. “While passive labels failed to provide high enough read rates, PowerID labels showed 99.96% reliability, meeting our customer’s requirements.”
"RFID adoption has been stymied in many cases by end-user frustration with the performance of the technology for most challenging applications," Kahani concluded. "Our UHF RFID technology is the only solution on the market today that can effectively operate in these demanding environments at an affordable price point. With this technology, our channel partners have been able to present customers with a proven, dependable RFID solution and a clear return on investment. Being able to deliver that type of value is extremely satisfying and is what continues to drive us every day."
About PowerID Ltd.
PowerID is the industry leader in the field of Battery-Assisted, Passive (BAP) RFID. The company provides reliable and cost-effective BAP RFID labels for selected applications in industries involving freight, metals, chemicals, paper, people tracking, and cold chain.
With corporate headquarters in Israel, PowerID is a privately-held company backed by first-tier investors such as Partech International, Apax Partners, Amadeus Capital Partners, Infinity Venture Capital, and Bank of America.
For more information, visit http://www.power-id.com/.
Note to Analysts: Erez Kahani, PowerID CEO, will be available in New York City on November 20th to meet with you to further discuss PowerID’s Go-To-Market strategy and some recent and future customer installations. If you are interested in scheduling a time and place to meet Mr. Kahani, contact Kevin Rushalko at specmkt@worldpath.net or 603.924.6692.
|
|
|