At last week's Microsoft RFID Member Council meeting, a consortium of resellers for the Axapta, Great Plains, Navision, and Solomon software programs gathered to hear about Microsoft's RFID strategy and discuss integration and time-line issues surrounding the well-publicized delays of the company's next-generation enterprise-resource-planning software. The delays could undercut Microsoft's efforts in the radio-frequency identification market, considering that rivals Oracle and SAP released RFID capabilities in their software packages last year.

Microsoft in January said its release of Axapta 4.0 has been postponed until 2006. Originally due the first half of this year, Axapta had been scheduled as the first of Microsoft's ERP platforms--which also include Great Plains, Navision, and Solomon--to receive upgrades for RFID integration. The next versions of Great Plains and Navision with RFID support remain scheduled for 2006.

When Axapta 4.0 is released, it will accept tagging and shipping data that identifies the retailer, distribution center locations, and product lines. This data could help companies determine where RFID tags need to be affixed to the product. Axapta 4.0 also will include the ability to filter RFID data, configure specific setups, monitor devices throughout the network, and set rules and alert policies to notify someone in the IT department when a reader fails. The ability to generate an advanced shipping notice will be included, too.

"Many companies will not have the ability to embrace the scope of features we are providing in this first version simply because you can't do a lot of business-process integration and business-process reengineering given the limited penetration RFID will have by that time," says Alex Renz, RFID program manager for Microsoft's enterprise applications division.

The delay of Axapta means Microsoft won't have a widely released RFID application for small and midsize businesses that may be gearing up to meet Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s second-phase deadline to ship RFID-tagged cases and pallets by January. But most of the midmarket companies that use Axapta 4.0 won't have to comply with Wal-Mart's RFID project until January 2007, Renz says.

Also, Axapta and Navision each have development environments that let system integrators easily set up RFID platforms, even though the ERP systems don't have off-the-shelf RFID capabilities.

	Giant Bicycle wants to use RFID between its sales and manufacturing sites, such as this factory in China. Photo by Michael Reynolds/EPA

Giant Bicycle USA, which runs Axapta, is looking into using RFID in its global supply chain between manufacturing sites and sales and distribution facilities. Microsoft's ERP delays don't concern Mike Forte, director of strategic information systems at Giant Bicycle, which sold approximately 350,000 bikes in the United States last year through about 1,200 dealers. Giant rolled out Axapta 3.0 in Europe two years ago and in the United States last year. China, Japan, and Taiwan sales facilities are scheduled for 2006, and the four manufacturing sites are next. Four out of the seven sales sites are running Axapta 3.0 today. "There's no critical update or improvement that we're anxiously waiting for," Forte says.

Axapta 4.0's delay is counterproductive, but Microsoft's reasons are sound, Nigel Montgomery, research director at AMR Research, wrote in a report. "By opening up the application programming interfaces so other products can interface with Axapta, Microsoft is reducing the hurdles for its partners when trying to bid and implement systems."