ScanSource Wants Partners RFID-Ready
RFID is poised to revolutionize the technology landscape, providing new opportunities for vendors, solution providers and their customers. RFID can increase the efficiency of businesses in many different industries, from retail to health care to government agencies by allowing a fast, seamless and error-proof method of tracking valuable assets. Up to point, however, how the channel plays in the game has been unclear.
"We don't want to wait until RFID is channel-ready because by then it's too late," said Bobby McLain, vice president of marketing at the Greenville, S.C.-based distributor. "We want to be ahead of the curve."
To that end, RFID was a major focus of the distributor's partner conference Tuesday in Memphis, Tenn. The conference included breakout sessions by vendors Intermec and Symbol Technologies that highlighted the opportunities for solution providers to sell RFID solutions, services and hardware from these vendors.
At the conference, ScanSource also touted its new RFID Edge initiative, launched last week, which provides an extensive six-month reseller education program with a series of six Webinars, a focus on the Solution City Web site, RFID Bootcamp workshops and participation in RFID road shows.
"At the end of the process, solution providers can go out and talk to customers about the technology in a sophisticated way," said Mike Baur, CEO of ScanSource. "We can make sure our resellers are experts on [RFID], even if they don't sell it right away."
ScanSource is already going to work with in-house training. "We already have programs in place for internal pre-sales support, our tech-support guys are already trained, and we're having conversations with customers today," Baur said.
Some solution providers, however, are already taking advantage of the burgeoning market.
"We actually have live customers doing RFID," said John Rockeman, senior vice president of the Wireless Solutions Group at Data Systems International, Overland Park, Kan. "In El Paso County, Colo., the government offices implemented an RFID system to tag all their fixed assets, like laptops," Rockeman said. "So if [an employee] leaves the building with [a] computer, they know where it is and who took it. They are really excited about it because it gives them a much tighter control over their assets than they had before."
Data Systems was the first RFID-certified partner of Everett, Wash.-based Intermec, a major vendor of RFID products. The solution went live 30 days ago, and the solution provider is already discussing similar solutions with other customers.
"People see the benefits of it, but it's expensive," Rockeman added. "We are able to do this because it's a module built onto our proprietary software. We resell the hardware."