HP, Sun Launch RFID Test Centers.

The article reports on the launch of radio frequency identification test (RFID) centers by Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) and Sun Microsystems in May 2004. Sun opened the doors to its 17,000-square-foot RFID Test Center in Carrollton, Texas, where companies can test and evaluate equipment in an environment that simulates the warehouses where they will deploy RFID tags and readers. Sun also plans to show users at the center how to get long-term business benefits by integrating RFID data with their back-end systems. Meanwhile, HP announces the launch of its RFID Center of Excellence in Palo Alto, California, where customers can learn more about the vendor's RFID vision, build RFID road maps and conduct proofs of concept. HP plans to share lessons it has learned as a participant in the pilot that Wal-Mart launched in April 2004 with eight product manufacturers at select stores and one regional distribution center in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas area. HP is affixing RFID tags to pallets, cases and boxes of computers, printers, scanners, ink-jet cartridges, and other products it ships to Wal-Mart. The services of HP unit also introduced a trio of new offerings: an RFID Discovery Service to help companies that are developing their own RFID strategies, an RFID Readiness Assessment that calls for a review of business processes, applications and infrastructures to produce a deployment road map, and an RFID Adaptive Starter Kit to help companies justify their investments through proofs of concept conducted at their own sites or at the HP center.