Educating Readers on the Benefits of RFID and the Internet of Things

Oct 04, 2021RFID Journal has long invited members of the academic, industrial and research communities, as well as vendors and other businesses, to submit white papers relevant to the fields of radio frequency identification (RFID) and the Internet of Things (IoT). Topics discussed in our  white paper archive include supply chain, manufacturing, healthcare, retailing, security, asset tracking, privacy, standards and regulations, and more. The white papers we accept for publication are also spotlighted in our email newsletters to maximize exposure to our readers.

White papers are an effective tool for concisely informing audiences about complex issues facing a particular industry or field of study, while providing the issuing body’s viewpoints and insights. They serve as a means of helping readers better comprehend and solve such issues, as well as improve the decisions they make. Companies publish these problem-solving guides to offer education regarding the common problems readers face, and to explain the available methodologies.

While some white papers produced in business-to-businesses communities tend to come off merely as marketing content intended to promote specific products or technologies to partners and customers, we strive to make sure the documents we post offer something more worthwhile for our readers than glorified advertising. RFID Journal’s goal is to help businesses improve their decision-making when it comes to RFID and other Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. With that in mind, here are some recent white papers we’ve added to our archive:

Secure Printing in the IoT Era: RFID Solutions for Print Management and Security
Networked multifunction printers offer productivity and convenience, allowing users to print and fax from a desk across the hall or a workstation on the other side of the country. Sophisticated managed print service software enables better tracking and cost control, but convenience and functionality can come with a hidden price. Today’s networked printers are part of an expanding business ecosystem of Internet of Things devices. As IoT endpoints, MFPs have security vulnerabilities that can create costly headaches. This white paper explains why print security matters.

How NFC Can Help Luxury Brands Grow Their Business
With more than 80 percent of market growth during the past several years fueled by a new generation of consumers, the luxury-goods industry is facing a generational shift. A growing number of shoppers are now buying online, and this trend is expected to increase in the coming years. The growth of online sales offers multiple business opportunities, but it also brings about more counterfeiting, which can lead to sales losses, decrease consumer trust and negatively impact brand reputation. To ensure a competitive edge and long-term market growth, this document explains why luxury brands need to focus more on digitalization.

Secure Self-Service with RFID
This white paper explores contactless user authentication, authorization and access control for the kiosk industry. Standalone, automated kiosks enable self-service access to goods, services or information, and are used to vend goods and materials, process payments, take orders, input information, answer questions, print tickets or documents, and provide Internet access, among other applications. The market includes smart lockers and smart carts that provide secure storage or control access to high-value or hazardous goods. RFID, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and Near Field Communication (NFC) technologies offer a variety of benefits for kiosk manufacturers, as well as for companies that deploy kiosks and their end users.

Connecting the Unconnected: The Unique Power of NFC in IoT Data Acquisition
The IoT promises a future in which businesses and consumers can benefit from dramatic increases in efficiency, productivity, ease and speed. If such predictions become reality, industrial machines will alert companies before they fail, traffic jams will be sharply reduced, homes and offices will be vastly more energy-efficient, chronic health conditions will be better managed and treated, and more. Such benefits will only become reality if companies can effectively capture, analyze and report data from electronic devices, ranging from industrial equipment to smart home appliances. Businesses across multiple industries are deploying IoT solutions to gain insights that can inform the product-development process, identify new revenue-generating opportunities, lower service costs and more, and this white paper explains how NFC technology can play a key role in supporting secure, efficient data acquisition.

Contactless User Authentication, Authorization and Access Control in Cleanrooms and Laboratories
Radio frequency identification is being widely used across multiple industries for physical access control, print security and single sign-on access to computer systems and files. It’s easy to see why: RFID enables secure, contactless user authentication with the wave of an ID badge, token or smartphone. However, most RFID readers are not designed for use in laboratory or cleanroom applications. This white paper explains what you need to know about implementing RFID, BLE or NFC technologies for user authentication in regulated good manufacturing practice or good laboratory practice environments.

Seven Costs of RFID Real-Time Location Systems for Asset Tracking and Management
Every year, companies lose millions of dollars, thanks to the multitude of errors made and the thousands of employee hours spent managing valuable assets, often with very different life cycles. Why? Because they remain wedded to manual asset tracking systems like paper records and digital spreadsheets that require human input, which leads to human error. Organizations of all types and sizes across many industries are moving beyond manual tracking methods to invest in a real-time location system (RTLS), which can improve tracking accuracy by more than 90 percent while increasing staff efficiency by as much as 75 percent. This white paper spells out the seven costs you need to consider when choosing an RTLS—and how to minimize those costs.

If your organization has a recent white paper related to RFID, NFC, BLE, RTLS or other IoT technologies and you would like to add it to RFID Journal’s online library, feel free to email me at the link below. Simply send me a PDF of the white paper and briefly explain the issue the document explores. If it’s something we think would be useful to RFID Journal’s readership, we’d be happy to share it on our website and in our newsletters.

Rich Handley has been the managing editor of RFID Journal since 2005. Outside the RFID world, Rich has authored, edited or contributed to numerous books about pop culture. You can contact Rich  via email.