Overly Optimistic RFID ROI Expectations A Very Bad Sign
Written by Evan SchumanFebruary 11th, 2009
ABI Research on Monday (Feb. 9) reported that, according to its latest RFID user survey, 36.7 percent of respondents expect to see a clear return on investment (ROI) from their RFID efforts in "less than 12 months." An additional 25 percent see 18 months as a better target.
Some 13.3 percent of respondents say 18 to 24 months, and only 6.7 percent assume it will take "more than 24 months." The respondents who "do not know" account for the remaining 18.3 percent. Those are some very sobering numbers. Do IT managers truly believe these goals, or have they convinced themselves to believe? Or were they forced to say what they really need to get their CFOs' spending authorization and now need to be consistent?
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2 Comments | Read Overly Optimistic RFID ROI Expectations A Very Bad Sign
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-Christine
February 12th, 2009 at 9:45 am
What the IT managers are saying is that RFID does not work. If they come out and say that, they will be branded as RFID Skeptics, RFID Deniers, Shortsighted, etc.. Top management has bought into the RFID hype, which intimidates middle managers.
How do you tell your boss he made a BIG mistake?
You start off with “Please don’t get us wrong. RFID is a very exciting and profitable technology, with huge potential. But…â€.
Laird says “companies are very hesitant to share good experiences”. Ordinarily, you cannot stop people from trumpeting their successes. The reason they are not sharing experiences has more to do with the failure of their efforts, and not their success.
How do you tell the boss you spent a million dollars on a pilot that failed?
February 26th, 2009 at 1:35 am
I haven’t seen any cases where RFID makes a supply chain much more efficient than just good management by itself would have done. This means that you may be able to get almost all of the efficiency gain that RFID promises without actually using RFID!
I would also be concerned about RFID causing the same sort of rigidity that using ERP software can cause. ERP software may work fine once you have it set up, but it can also be very expensive to change. When I worked for a Big 4 consulting firm, we loved ERP software. Would you care to guess why?