IBM、微软、Oracle正在与零售商合作，开发兼容RFID的中间件技术。零售商OnDemand使用IBM WebSphere商店整合框架进行试验。Oracle试验对象DHL主要测试RFID如何能提高客户服务及ROI水平，Oracle向其数据库及应用服务器输入RFID功能。微软主要研究RFID数据过滤与识读器管理中间件，比如BizTalk与SQL Server。

　　 The Retail OnDemand pilot is using IBM's emerging, WebSphere-based Store Integration Framework, Jackman said. The framework is being piloted by a number of retailers, but Pepboys Auto, Circuit City and Metro are the only ones that have decided to go ahead with full-scale, storewide implementations.

　　Metro is the sole customer to be taking part in both the Retail OnDemand and RFID pilots. The retail chain, based in the United Kingdom, is working with Active Decisions' BI (business intelligence) application to provide guided self-service at kiosks. And Metro is using other software to spur interactivity with customers through RFID.

　　 Other IBM customers in the Retail OnDemand program, such as Circuit City and Pepboys, don't have immediate plans to test RFID.

　　 Like IBM, though, Microsoft and Oracle are starting to pilot RFID with certain users. DHL, one of Oracle's pilot customers, wants to see how RFID can improve customer service and ROI (return on investment), according to materials posted on Oracle's Web site. Oracle is adding RFID functionality to its database, as well as to its application server and enterprise application suite.

　　 Oracle's emerging RFID capabilities are part of a larger family of Sensor-Based Services that also includes bar-code, proximity and temperature-sensing technologies. "But the promise of RFID is to capture and automate data higher in the supply chain," an Oracle representative said.

　　 Microsoft's pilot customers for RFID include Danish snack-food maker Kims, according to a Microsoft representative. Microsoft wants to develop RFID-specific capabilities such as data filtering and reader management for middleware such as BizTalk and SQL Server.

　　 Microsoft's partners in customer pilots will include RFID implementation specialists such as Manhattan Associates and GlobeRanger, Sharyn Leaver, an analyst at Forrester Research, said in an interview with eWEEK.com.

　　 In the IBM retail trials, Circuit City will start piloting the Store Integration Framework by March 1, 2005, with full-scale deployment likely to follow by March 1, 2006, said Mike Jones, Circuit City's CIO.

　　 "It'd be ideal for us to start piloting in one store, and then take it out to a single region, before doing the full rollout," Jones said in an interview with eWEEK.com.

　　 IBM Global Services (IGS) will help Circuit City to integrate an existing Java-based retail supply chain solution from Commerce 360; a service order application from Yantra; and two different front ends: Windows XP Embedded, now in use at about 100 of Circuit City's 600 stores, and IBM's new IRES (Integrated Retail Embedded SuSE) Linux.

　　 The Pepboys pilot will start next month, Jackman said. Unlike Circuit City, Pepboys will run IBM's AIX on the back end and embedded Linux at the POS. The auto-parts supply and services company has opted to write its own ordering software.

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