Xterprise pilots next generation" RFID in enterprise electronics systems & supply warehouse

ATLANTA, Ga., April 16, 2003 − Xterprise leads a team of industry leaders in the development, integration and demonstration of a breakthrough RFID empowered product receiving and shipping solution for enterprise electronics end products and supplies at Lionize Logistics.

The Xterprise-led team lionized automatic receiving and shipping of enterprise electronics. Team members consisted of Alien Technology (next generation RFID system components); Crimson Software (cost-effective hosted warehouse management systems) and Xterprise (solution architecture/integration and project management).

The pilot demonstrated how enterprise electronics end products (copiers and fax machines), and individual boxes of parts and supplies could be received in a real-time, no hands" mode. The information from the low cost UHF (915 MHz) RFID labels updated the Warehouse Management Systems (WMS). The pilot showed that as many as 20 boxes of supplies could be automatically received using low cost passive RFID labels as pallets pass through the warehouse dock door. Additionally, the pilot showed that product labels mounted on the end products could automatically update shipping event logs in the Crimson WMS. The solution provides a strong value proposition with three major elements: reduces touch labor at receiving greatly; provides product visibilities with real-time update of enterprise systems; and increases accuracy of tote level receiving processes.

Adding these innovative RFID solution elements to our existing data collection modules provides a powerful value proposition to our clients," said Mark Lauser, president of Crimson Software. Our ability to provide accurate inventory visibility to our clients is contingent on the accuracy and timeliness of the data collection infrastructure that reports what is in the warehouse. We teamed with Xterprise and Alien to increase this visibility to new levels," he added.

These are exactly the types of solutions we feel take advantage of our next generation RFID products," said Tom Pounds, vice president of products at Alien. We worked hard to provide low cost RFID components that allow these important business cases to hold together beyond the technology demonstrations stage," he continued.

The industry leading performance characteristics of Aliens low cost RFID products enable the RFID tags to be read with 100 percent reliability from nine feet away on both end products and labeled boxes of supplies. Dean Frew, president of Xterprise said, The advancements of Aliens RFID system components enables much higher read reliability. Their extended read ranges allowed our team to effectively automate supply chain processes that, up to now, have required hand scans for data capture." In the pilot, Xterprise was able to demonstrate automated no hands" receiving of end products and pallets full of supplies in less than 1 second versus the typical 20-30 minutes of staging time before scanning material into the WMS. The operational savings, from the 1000 times faster and no hands" receiving process and data collection accuracy increase, will be significant to the 3rd party logistics provider.

Now that passive RFID labels are available at very competitive prices and customers are being educated on supply chain business cases using RFID, customer demand is building to add these elements of supply chain process automation to their existing enterprise system and processes," Frew added.

Brian Sweeney, managing partner of Lionize Logistics said, Our biggest operations cost element is both the data collection at receiving and shipping, and the reconciliations with our customers of the errors that are induced by less than automated processes. We see RFID integrated with our WMS as a cost differentiator over our competition as we expand. The integration between the RFID readers and our WMS was very easy and went off without a hitch. It was a nice surprise".

About XTERPRISE
Xterprise is a seasoned solution integration team, delivering the next generation in real-time supply chain execution solutions. Xterprise is an expert in warehouse management, transportation management, RFID systems and mobile enterprise solutions. Xterprise is headquartered in Richardson, Texas, and is an Incucomm portfolio company. For more information, please contact info@xterprise.com or visit our web site at www.xterprise.com.

About ALIEN TECHNOLOGY
Alien Technology provides a full array of RFID hardware and capabilities needed to create robust and low cost RFID solutions. The company's unique manufacturing technology, Fluidic Self Assembly, will dramatically reduce the cost of RFID tags, and offers an economic path to assemble the ultra-high volumes of tags that will be demanded for global deployments of RFID in supply chain, logistics, authentication, and other applications. For additional information, visit www.alientechnology.com.

About CRIMSON SOFTWARE
Crimson Software® specializes in providing cost-effective, enterprise level logistics software. Many years of industry specific experience are employed to engineer user-friendly solutions that drive efficiency and provide excellent visibility to information. For more information, email: Info@CrimsonSoftware.com or visit our website at www.CrimsonSoftware.com.

About LIONIZE LOGISTICS
Lionize Logistics, LLC, is a provider of warehousing and transportation services to the high-value electronics manufacturing industry. Headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., Lionize prides itself in providing top of the line service with real-time information to its customer base, enabling them to effectively control their supply chain costs. For more information contact: info@lionizelogistics.com.