You can read details at http://www.ibtimes.com/prnews/20081018/american-apparel-to-pilot-retail-solutions-from-xterprise.htm

American Apparel is one of the fastest growing apparel retailer. I have visited their store, their stores are young and vibrant. American Apparel is also a leader in using new technology like RFID as strategic advantage in the industry. They are growing fast and they need a partner that can help sustain and increase the growth.

We at Microsoft and Xterprise(Microsoft RFID partner of the year) were able to share our ideas and solutions with American Apparel. I think with this announcement American Apparel has chosen us as the partner that will help them grow. We know there is long way ahead for us together.

Microsoft + Partners have a great advantage over any competitor. The reason why we are hands down the best choice for retailers or anyone else is we divide and conquer. Following is how we do that

Microsoft

1. Provide plug and play capability to various RFID devices hence providing choice for our customers
2. Provide RFID event processing, filtering and intelligence at edge of enterprise.
3. Provide scaleable RFID platform for companies like American Apparel who want to grow their RFID deployment from 4-5 stores to 200+ stores.
4. Provide enterprise manageability of the RFID infrastructure which is critical when the deployment grows
5. Gathering RFID events is not end but beginning of the process and Microsoft provides additional capabilities like Enterprise Integration(BizTalk Server), Business Intelligence(SQL BI) and Collaborative reporting(Sharepoint) for customers.
6. Finally we provide RFID edgeware at fraction of the cost of anyone else in the industry.

Partners

1. Provide solutions built on Microsoft platform to solve unique problems of customer across industries. Xterprise Clarity-ARS solution for retail is a great example.
2. Provide deployment and services capability to make RFID projects successful.
3. Provide innovative RFID readers and printers that work seamlessly with Microsoft platform and partner solutions.

This divide and conquer strategy allows Microsoft + Partners to keep costs low and help large number of customers at same time. I hope other retailers and companies looking at RFID will look at this and give us an opportunity to talk to them and share our ideas.

Please feel free to send me an email at sudhirh@microsoft.com.

Couple of weeks back we arranged a webinar for our automotive customers titled "Manage anything that Moves: Real-Time Visibility via RFID". This webinar is now available on demand for everyone. We focused on Continental AG deployment of RFID. Microsoft RFID partner of the year Xterprise was responsible for this great success for us. Xterprise has been doing some phenomenal work with BizTalk RFID. They are one of our primer ISV partner in RFID space. To know more about Xterprise please visit(www.xterprise.com).

Speakers include John Fontanella, Jane Barrett, Gokhan, Carlos Mathews, Ingo Heel and David Sedgwick.

On Demand Webinar is available here.

This is a great article by Claire Swedberg on RFID deployment at Continental. It is one of the key deployments based on BizTalk RFID. They have deployed Xterprise solutions for automatic the receiving process and for tracking returnable transport items(Totes). They use Motorola and Alien devices to enable the whole system.

Continental Automotive uses an Xterprise RFID system on a Microsoft BizTalk platform to track incoming electronic parts in reusable totes as they pass from third-party logistics providers to the manufacturer

Complete story: RFID Journal - - RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) Technology News & Features

IAITAM, HP, Microsoft & Motorola recently came together to host a Webinar, RFID for IT & Data Center Asset Management which was held on September 24, 2008.

If you were unable to attend the original broadcast, or would like to review the On-Demand version, please follow this link. If you are not directed to the Lobby Page, enter your email address to login.

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