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Results of early RFID pilots point to reduced operating costs and improved operational efficiencies and accuracy. This, along with decreasing costs for tags and readers, will drive widespread adoption and expansion of RFID technology. The need to organize, harness, analyze and interpret RFID data will continue to grow in importance as critical components of any RFID technology infrastructure.

"The ultimate success or failure of RFID initiatives depends on retailers adopting and creating systems to quickly organize and analyze RFID data and make rapid business decisions from this intelligence," said Lori Schafer, vice president, global retail practice at SAS.

At the retail industry focus group at BetterManagement LIVE, executives representing some of the top brand names in global retail met with SAS experts to discuss their RFID strategies and plans. The retailers also explored the current SAS® — platform for data integration and analysis that helps incorporate RFID data into retail operations.

RFID in retail today

RFID tags will likely appear someday on each of the millions of inventory items in a store. This proliferation of RFID will create an explosion of data. SAS can scale appropriately today when RFID is in its infancy and later when the data explosion occurs.

BI and analytics: a solution to the RFID data problem

Retailers are no strangers to collecting data. Whether from point-of-sale (POS) systems, loyalty cards or supply chain management systems, retailers already collect and retain massive amounts of data every day.

The key to RFID success is not merely in tagging, collecting and storing all types of data, but in separating relevant and meaningful data from vast amounts of "noise," analyzing this data and acting upon the insights. A business intelligence platform can enable retailers to store the relevant — and the right amount of — RFID data, integrate and analyze it, and leverage the insights gained across the business.

"Retailers today need to go beyond RFID tags and scanners and focus on creating business intelligence from RFID data," said Schafer. "With its powerful data management and analytical software, SAS can help retailers bring together and analyze RFID and other supply-chain data, and examine and understand the financial impact of RFID. SAS already helps retailers measure and forecast the effectiveness of promotions, pricing and replenishment programs, optimize product assortments, and reduce shrinkage. Extending the application of business intelligence and analytical technologies to RFID data means that retailers can increase profitability through better and more timely decisions and more effective planning."

SAS for retail, SAS for RFID

SAS' data integration offerings (http://www.sas.com/technologies/dw), including software for extraction, transformation and loading (ETL) and data quality, help companies bring together, organize and cleanse RFID and other data. Then SAS' powerful predictive analytics (http://www.sas.com/technologies/analytics) help these companies distinguish what's important from what isn't, uncover patterns and trends, and identify opportunities for improvement. Finally, SAS' broad retail solution offerings (http://www.sas.com/industry/retail) can help organizations analyze RFID data as part of their performance management efforts (http://www.sas.com/solutions/pm).