OAT Launches Industry’s First RFID Framework Solution and Introduces 3 New Products

Takes RFID out of the Box and Into Production

BALTIMORE, EPCglobal US Conference 2004, Sept. 28, 2004 – OATSystems, Inc., the recognized RFID framework leader, today announced the OAT Foundation Suite 4.0, the industry’s first RFID framework solution for managing multi-site, multi-mandate RFID initiatives.

The OAT Foundation Suite includes industrial-strength RFID data and systems management, best practices, and a walk-up interface to enable businesses to deploy and manage RFID across multiple sites with speed and confidence. The pre-integrated suite of products provides a foundation for building competitive advantage with RFID-centric business processes and applications.

"After a thorough evaluation of the leading vendors, we concluded OAT Foundation Suite is the only product capable of meeting Tesco’s needs for a scalable RFID framework to support our international operations,” said John Clarke, CTO of Tesco PLC. “Tesco plans to capitalize on the benefits of RFID to improve operating efficiency and increase revenues, and OAT delivers an industrial-strength foundation on which Tesco can build RFID-centric applications and business processes.”

Includes Three Major New Products

The OAT Foundation Suite is based on new versions of OAT’s gold standard RFID middleware and EPC number management products, OATmw and OATepc, respectively. The suite also features three new products:

• OATlogic provides standard building blocks for easy configuration of RFID-centric business processes and the capability to configure over 1,800 different scenarios through a drag-and-drop user interface.
• OATxpress packages best practices for deploying standard RFID scenarios with speed and confidence.
• OATaxiom delivers central management of enterprise-wide RFID initiatives with an RFID system of record and data management of all RFID-centric data from internal facilities and trading partners.

The OAT Foundation Suite ensures that an enterprise can capture RFID-specific data, turn it into actionable information with business and operational context, and control dispersed RFID initiatives from Corporate.

A Foundation to Build On

The OAT Foundation Suite is built on OAT’s unique C3 Architecture that is the critical link between real-time RFID activities at the edge of your enterprise and decision-making at the corporate level. Only OAT provides the 3 Cs that are required to make RFID data actionable:

• Capture: Existing systems were not built to capture the richness of RFID data. OAT’s data model includes all the necessary elements to leverage data from internal facilities and from trading partners.
• Context: Aligning RFID initiatives with existing business process requires a highly configurable framework. Only OAT provides rfXML, the first XML-based process definition language for RFID.
• Control: RFID is coming out of the box and into production environments that need to be effectively managed like any other set of network devices and mission-critical processes. Only OAT provides central monitoring and control of devices and business processes across multiple facilities.

“OAT continues to set the standard in RFID with the announcement of the OAT Foundation Suite 4.0, the industry’s first RFID framework solution,” said Marc Osofsky, Vice President of Marketing & Product Management of OATSystems. “RFID initiatives are growing in size and complexity as companies take RFID out of the box and put it into production environments. Companies are faced with multiple mandates, multi-site deployments and demand scalable, production-ready solutions. The OAT Foundation Suite is the first RFID framework designed specifically to address this real world environment.”.

OAT Foundation Suite 4.0 will be available in the fourth quarter of 2004.

About OAT

OATSystems, Inc. is the recognized RFID framework leader, with software that empowers businesses to achieve competitive advantage from radio-frequency identification (RFID). As pioneers in the development of RFID technology, OAT has been setting the standard in RFID for over half a decade and is responsible for industry firsts that include the largest scale and largest scope of deployments, as well as the most innovative approaches to providing enterprise-wide RFID solutions. OAT’s multinational client base, which includes companies such as Hewlett-Packard and Gillette, consists of over 30 customers in retail, CPG, consumer electronics, manufacturing, life sciences, aerospace and defense. Headquartered in Waltham, MA, OAT has offices in Chicago, London and Bangalore and is on the Web at www.oatsystems.com.