RFID skills shortage persists

A skills shortage in radio frequency identification technology is hurting the deployment of RFID, CompTIA reported, following its March 2007worldwide Web survey of resellers, systems integrators, end user customers and others deliverers of IT products/services.

"More than two-thirds (69 per cent) believe there is not a sufficient 'pool of talent' in RFID technology to hire from," stated Dave Sommer, CompTIA vice president of e-business and software solutions and a co-author of the study.

CompTIA also found that 45 per cent of respondents have investigated the technology but have not implemented any projects. Another 42 per cent have neither experienced nor investigated RFID and only eight per cent have implemented one or more RFID pilot projects -- compared to 15 per cent in 2006 and zero per cent in 2005.

"The solution is to get more individuals trained and certified on RFID technology. We are seeing a flow of individuals that are doing that, but the flow is not meeting demand right now. We don't know if we will meet the demand anytime in the near future," Sommer stated.

A little over half of the respondents are resellers and 64 companies replied to the survey, Sommer indicated.

RFID solutions are to be found in the services industry, government, healthcare and communication.

Sommer stated that this shortage of RFID technicians stems from the fact that RFID requires a deep understanding of both radio and IT.

"RFID technology requires a different set of skills than what most IT technology professionals have been trained in. RFID requires knowledge of RFID physics, radio frequencies, interference impact and the ability to read RFID tags. The nature of the equipment is different than what it is in IT departments today."

He noted that many technologists who are deploying bar codes in areas like warehousing are currently being trained on RFID technology or engage in RFID technology.

The actual training in basic skills for RFID only take a week, but it typically takes six months to two years of experience to be fully proficient in RFID, Sommer explained.

Training in RFID can found in community colleges, commercial training companies and trade shows.

All parties involved in RFID including vendors, channel partners and end user customers must commit investment dollars to alleviate the current shortage in skilled RFID technicians, the CompTIA spokesperson stated.

CompTIA has organized a committee made up of the 22 leading companies in RFID to create a formal process to certify technicians with recognized RFID skills.

One problem is that after the "hype" surrounding RFID the technology failed to make inroads in certain markets like retail where expectations were high, Sommer told echannelline.com.

"There was a perception a couple of years ago that there would be a massive boom in the deployment, of RFID technology, mostly associated with the supply chain and particularly the retail chain. The technology has seen a great deal of adoption, in certain aspects like manufacturing closed loop applications, and the like, but the retail supply chain has not exploded the way that it was touted two or three years ago."

In other findings CompTIA found that 66 per cent of respondent's clients have not implemented RFID solutions.

Eighty-four percent of respondents stated their company will or might offer RFID products/services in the next three years

Among those respondents definitely or possibly offering RFID products/services, 89 per cent stated they will focus on hardware installation/maintenance, compared to 46 per cent in software implementation and 39 per cent in other services.

The three challenges that respondents reported facing in offering RFID have remained the same the past three years. These include: gaining new clients for RFID (46 per cent this year compared to 59 per cent in 2006 and 56 per cent in 2005); training and educating staff on RFID technology (44 per cent this year compared to 50 per cent in 2006 and 67 per cent in 2005) and overcoming initial RFID implementation hurdles (43 per cent this year compared to 60 per cent in 2006 and 72 per cent in 2005.