certificated RFID reader

[Former Member]

Hello experts,

i am new to AII and have some experience with RFID. I heard, that there are some SAP certificated RFID readers, but i dont find anything about on the SAP Websites.

Could you please give me a list of certificated RFID-Readers (vendors +

types)?

Or it is possible to plug any RFID-Reader at the infrastructur of AII?!?

Thanking you in advance.

Regards,

Martin

Edited by: Martin Roth on Feb 9, 2009 12:19 PM

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

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Hello,

There are no SAP certified RFID readers.

SAP has given the responsibility of development of the device management layer in RFID to its certified partners.

This device management layer acts as a middleware between RFID Hardware and SAP AII sitting on a Device Controller which is a physical machine with device middleware(In case of fixed devices)

So any device middleware that can communicate to SAP AII in its desired format which is PML/ALE/Web Services can talk to SAP AII

The SAP Partnership is thus defined for the device middleware and not directly on RFID readers.

The only form of readers that SAP AII directly supports now are the mobile readers (not fixed) and the

vendors for the same are Intermec, Motorola and Zebra. These may be mobile readers or readers having SAP AII embedded into them as applications that enables direct integration.

Find more information on:

http://www.zebra.com/id/zebra/na/en/documentlibrary/misc/rfid_printing_solutions.File.tmp/Zebra_RFID...

http://www.rfida.com/2005/10/intermec-rfid-sap-aii-netweaver-direct.htm

http://www.logcentre.org/events/AutoEventPrague.pdf

It is possible to plug any RFID reader to SAP AII.?

There are two cases:

1) Mobile Devices - Directly possible yes if it can talk XML based messages to SAP AII

2) Fixed Devices - Possible if the device controller middleware can talk XML based messages to SAP AII

Infosys Technologies Limited has a Device Management Middleware which can enable any device to talk with SAP AII by development of Plug In adapters.

It is called the Pervasive Solution (PIXIE) for RFID.

You can find more information on the same on

www.infosys.com/rfid

www.shoppingtrip360.com (PIXIE)

Thanks and Regards

[Former Member]

Some more information:

SAP Certified RFID Device Partners:

1) InSync

2) SkandSoft

3) Bartronics

4) ADTIO

5) AutoScan

6) Omnia Tags

7) Intermec

😎 Motorola

SAP Certified Device Integration Parterns (Device Middleware or Device Controller Layers)

1) Infosys

2) Wipro

3) HP

4) Caritor

5) Cognizant

Thnks & Regards

[Former Member]

Thank you for your fast answer.

The problem by the vendors list is, that i dont know, if e.g. every Intermec-Device is "certificated" or compatible to SAP (or only the IF5 mentioned in the link above).

We have one, but i dont know if it is possible to set up a scenario with it.

I read some integration-studies from the SAP Press, but they dont specify which vendor or type the took.

Are there any experience which vendor or which device is easily to integrate?

Best regards Martin

Edited by: Martin Roth on Feb 9, 2009 4:19 PM

[Former Member]

Hello Martin,

The devices you will choose will very much depend upon the requirements, the type of usage, data requirements and the physical scenario of RFID which you might be looking to implement in your organization.

As i hve already mentioned there are two types of devices:

1) Fixed

2) Mobile

So it also depends on your company budget what devices you implement.

So far Intermec and Motorola are the only companies offering direct supportability for SAP AII.

Different scenarios will have lot of implications and influence on the type of devices you choose.

So if you can mention me your scenario i can give you more inputs.

Note: SAP has also not come out very specifically on what devices exactly have been offered till now with their solution called SAP AII

They only have generalized the things with calling them RFID devices.

And based on SAP scenario that they dont take devices and device management layer into picture

its the responsibility of the device and device middleware to integrate devices with SAP AII and not the responsibility of SAP.

So its better you go with for eg. Intermec and search for your specific requirement because anyways

all these devices mentioned will certainly be integrable with SAP.

But you have to specifically know what devices support what functionality with what type of RFID tags

This again will certainly depend upon your requirement.

So have a good look at your requirements and then map it to device infrastructure, its integrability with SAP AII and its future state..

Thnks and Regards.

Get back to me for more inputs

Thnks

Edited by: Yogesh Bhatia on Feb 9, 2009 8:52 PM

Edited by: Yogesh Bhatia on Feb 9, 2009 8:58 PM

[Former Member]

Hello,

it is hard to say which scenario we make.

I work at a university in germany. So we do a little research about RFID in logistics. But we have different scenarios. From (beer) keg management with metal to pallet traceability to document management. So you see we use nearly every frequency (except microwave) of RFID with different environments.

I got the order to "develop" a list of certificated or compatible RFID-Devices which the university can buy in a couple of month (and do the integration mit SAP AII). We have already a list with the certificated vendors (like Intermec), but the list is not very long ( i think 3 vendors) and especially have no additional information about the types of the "certificated" device. So i read some SAP Press books but I dont get any further information.

Now i am here and i think i getting a little bit smarter with your help

Edited by: Martin Roth on Feb 10, 2009 1:15 AM

[Former Member]

Hi Martin,

If its all about research and study for the RFID fitment to a particular situation then the best choice would be to select only that RFID devices that will be like plug and play devices with SAP AII. This means you will need not do any extra middleware development or use a particular software to integrate devices with SAP AII. For eg. SAP AII direcltly embedded as RFID mobile devices user interfaces.

This will give you the advantage of putting the RFID infrastrucuture in place as soon as possible and concentrate on your main job of research.

Please take care that your scenario incorporates metal kegs. RFID technoology is a little weak with

metals and water being in its close proximity. So please do take special care when chossing RFID tags because there might be a problem in reading these tags when used with metals and your read efficiency will decrease significantly.

But if you are also looking at feasibility of device controllers (device middlewares), you can look into middleware solutions for RFID. Most famous some of them being from Micorsoft called Microsoft Biztalk RFID, Infosys (India) Pervasive solution called PIXIE or solution also from IBM Is available.

You can also raise specific questions to organizations like Motorola or Intermec websites regarding there latest developments with SAP AII

SAP AII is the most powerful tool to support RFID for large organizations till now and SAP have been involved in all ventures of RFID with other organizations like Walmart, DOD, etc

So all devices will certainly will have to integrate with SAP AII. So your problem is solved automatically

Please revert if you have any other specific questions at any time.

Thnks & Regards

[Former Member]

As i have already pointed out SAP Press Books on SAP AII will not help you on devices apart as SAP hardly takes care about it in their SAP RFID Solution suite which forms of three components:

1) SAP AII

2) SAP EM

3) SAP OER

So better look into device manufacturers side rather than concentrating on SAP AII