Intermec Captures Loyal Partners With RFID And T.L.C.

The Everett, Wash.-based company manufactures POS, mobile-computing, bar-code printing and label-media technologies, including its flagship Intellitag RFID solution.

Intermec caters to the warehouse and distribution, manufacturing, transportation, government and health-care markets, and works with 400 solution providers in its Honors partner program to develop solutions for data-capture needs, said John Osborne, senior vice president of global sales. Aside from U.S. offices in Washington, Iowa and Ohio, Intermec also has operations in Sweden, France and the United Kingdom.

"It's about helping customers collect data, wherever that data is," Osborne said. "There's an awful lot of customization required. ... Central and core to our strategy is partnering with others."

In addition to working with partners to develop custom solutions for clients, Intermec also adapts its channel relationships, support and training, said Annie Neubrech, director of channel programs. "We have had the luxury of being able to be very flexible with partners," she said. "We can take a vanilla program and customize it for a particular partner or vertical."

Partners agree, saying that Intermec's assistance is vital to closing deals.

"Their secret weapon is the way they treat their channel," said Rud Browne, chairman and CEO of Ryzex Group, a Bellingham, Wash.-based provider of data-collection services.

When Ryzex bid on, and then won, a multinational contract, it was able to leverage Intermec's international locations, Browne said.

"We can present ourselves as having a presence in [those] markets because of our relationship with Intermec," he said.

Today, the data-collection market is at a turning point, with RFID solutions slowly gaining acceptance. By 2015, the global market for RFID tags, systems and services is expected to reach almost $27 billion, up from slightly less than $2 billion this year, according to research firm IDTechEx.

To prepare partners for the burgeoning market, Intermec provides certification and training on its products and on technical and sales aspects of RFID. The training is available online and in person at Intermec or at partners' sites, Neubrech said.

Solution provider Nutech Systems, with offices in Grandville, Mich., and Toronto, trained its technical and sales personnel in RFID technology through Intermec, said John Manilla, Nutech vice president. "We really have to speak highly of Intermec: They just do it right," he said.

While Intermec now presents a valuable package of RFID products and assistance, it gained much of its success through acquisitions, and it initially had difficulty melding its disparate units, said David Krebs, director of the mobile and wireless practice at research firm Venture Development Corp.

"If you looked at their product portfolio, it looked as though it didn't all come from one company," Krebs said. "Recently, a lot of the design approach has been much more cohesive across the board."

Intermec's partners say the company has also improved itself through its relationships with industry leaders such as Cisco Systems. Intermec is a Cisco Solutions Technology Integrator, which allows it to guarantee interoperability and engineering integration with Cisco's products.

Intermec is taking its success into new areas and is aggressively pursuing opportunities in verticals such as retail, where it competes with leader Symbol Technologies, Krebs said. The two vendors are competing in court, too, having filed suits against each other for alleged patent and contract breaches.

A bigger fight is brewing, as heavyweights such as Cisco, IBM and Intel increasingly target the RFID space. However, Krebs said Intermec is strong.

"Just because you've got 8,000-pound gorillas doesn't mean they're going to be successful," he said. "Intermec's positioned as well as any other vendor to succeed."

ALISON DIANA is a freelance channel and technology writer in Merritt Island, Fla.