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Sun Microsystems, Inc. Announces New RFID Industry Solution Architecture to Address Specific Requirements of Consumer Packaged Goods Manufacturers

Posted on: Tuesday, 1 March 2005, 09:00 CST

DALLAS, RFID World Conference, Booth 700, March 1

/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sun Microsystems, Inc. , today announced the release of its newest RFID Industry Solution Architecture (ISA), the Sun RFID ISA for Manufacturing. The RFID ISA for Manufacturing combines Sun's RFID expertise with its extensive knowledge of the manufacturing industry to address the specific business challenges of the consumer package goods industry and help these customers fully leverage the power of RFID.

The RFID ISA for Manufacturing simplifies and accelerates the process of designing and integrating an RFID solution. Consumer Packaged Goods Manufacturers are looking beyond immediate RFID mandate compliance deadlines, such as those from Wal-Mart, Target, Albertsons and the Department of Defense and are looking at integrating RFID into their business processes to increase efficiencies, reduce costs and accelerate business decisions. The RFID ISA for Manufacturing provides the essential guidelines to help these customers deploy RFID to improve warehouse management and automate advance shipment notification processes.

"Customers are continuing to look at how to achieve business benefits from RFID and how they can apply RFID to specific scenarios within their industry verticals. While there are various players in the market who are claiming RFID expertise, with the RFID Industry Solution Architectures Sun has brought together our proven RFID and vertical industry experience to create unique, targeted solutions to address these challenges," said Stephen Murphy, vice president of industry sales for manufacturing, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Sun is packaging its RFID technology, product and service offerings, along with that of its partners to create the RFID ISA for Manufacturing. The RFID ISA for Manufacturing provides detailed guidelines to help manufacturers build an end-to-end RFID solution. It contains everything a consumer packaged goods manufacturer needs to deploy RFID for warehouse management and automating the advanced shipment notification process: Sun Java(TM) System RFID Software, Provia Software's ViaWare Warehouse Management System, a Printronix RFID printer, an RFID reader, and integration middleware.

Warehouse Management Systems are a critical component in an end-to-end RFID solution as they are among the last 'systems of record' in the supply chain. "For consumer packaged goods manufacturers, the ability to have RFID as part of a WMS solution allows for the RFID data to be fully utilized throughout the supply chain," said Paul Crist, Provia vice president of sales and marketing. "Our relationship with Sun, combined with our efforts together at several common customers offers consumer packaged goods companies a powerful solution for RFID throughout a supply chain."

All the technology components of the RFID ISA for Manufacturing are standards-based to help ensure compatibility and eliminate the risk of vendor dependency. In addition, the components have standard interfaces, which provide customers the flexibility of swapping or adding other standards-based components. A subset of the technology components in the RFID ISA for Manufacturing can address immediate RFID compliance deadlines and also establish a foundation to help customers achieve longer term business benefits. The RFID ISA for Manufacturing also supports integration with other enterprise software, such as ERP and SCM systems.

About Sun RFID Industry Solution Architectures

Sun has announced its plans to create RFID Industry Solution Architectures (ISAs) to meet the unique RFID requirements of several vertical markets including: government, manufacturing, pharmaceutical and retail. The Sun RFID ISAs build on the foundation provided by the Sun RFID Reference Architecture, which provides a designed, tested, tuned, and documented proof-of-concept deployment architecture. The RFID ISAs leverage the expertise Sun has gained from working on customer deployments, to create industry-specific RFID solutions.

About Sun Java System RFID Software

The Sun Java System RFID Software, currently available on the Solaris(TM) Operating System and Linux, streamlines the management of RFID hardware including tags and readers. The Sun Java System RFID Software represents a key component of the Sun RFID system strategy, which also includes global client services, global RFID test centers, Sun hardware and storage, and key solution alliances for RFID. For more information on Sun Java System RFID Software go to http://www.sun.com/rfid.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- "The Network Is The Computer(TM)" -- has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that make the Net work. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun.com/ . Subscribe to Sun newswire at http://sun.com/news .

NOTE: Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Java, Solaris and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

Contact: Jacki DeCoster of Sun Microsystems, Inc., +1-415-294-4482, or jacki.decoster@sun.com; or Trisha Cousins of Citigate Cunningham, +1-415-618-8721, or tcousins@citigatecunningham.com, for Sun Microsystems.

Sun Microsystems, Inc.

CONTACT: Jacki DeCoster of Sun Microsystems, Inc., +1-415-294-4482, orjacki.decoster@sun.com; or Trisha Cousins of Citigate Cunningham,+1-415-618-8721, or tcousins@citigatecunningham.com, for Sun Microsystems

Web site: http://sun.com/

Source: PRNewswire-FirstCall

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