For the past few years, radio-frequency identification technology has been at the forefront of many consumer-goods companies' IT initiatives. Things haven't changed all that much this year.

E.&J. Gallo Winery invested an undisclosed amount in an RFID research center at the University of Arkansas so it could research RFID and data-analytics technologies, test RFID readers and tags, and develop business cases for the technology. In particular, the lab is helping Gallo improve the read rates of scanners and tags.

INSIDE CONSUMER GOODS Average portion of 2005 revenue spent on IT 2.5% Companies spending more on IT this year than last 61% Buying directly from foreign suppliers 79% Centralizing control of IT operations in past 12 months 75% Bringing outsourced functions in-house in past 12 months 21%

"Getting the number of passive RFID tags to transmit to readers accurately is where everyone's struggling," says Kent Kushar, the winery's VP and CIO of information services. "Especially if your product is liquid, like ours, the number of tags read is very low."

The facility, which opened in June, is located at the Information Technology Research Institute at the university's Sam M. Walton College of Business in Fayetteville. A Gallo director is part of a committee that meets every three months to discuss the lab's findings.

Eastman Kodak Co. last year built an RFID lab to test equipment and processes, and it began putting tags on cases and pallets that ship to retail distribution centers, warehouses, and stores, says Edward Geisler, a security and business analyst at Kodak. Similar to other consumer-goods companies, Kodak would like to develop a standard infrastructure and software package so it can quickly deploy RFID at many locations with little hassle.

For Kodak, finding ways to best use the data gathered from tags and readers is a major project this year. The electronic product code in the tag is tied to orders stored in the company's databases, and this data can help warehouse personnel verify that purchase orders are filled accurately.

Next year, the focus will turn to finding RFID's still-somewhat elusive return on investment by examining lessons learned in pilots and test sites.

At the beginning of this year, Sunbeam Products Inc., now a part of Jarden Corp. (which bought Sunbeam's parent company, American Household Inc., in January), began shipping RFID-tagged cases and pallets packed with two dozen types of household products from its Missouri facility to Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s Dallas-Fort Worth distribution center. Sunbeam has since added RFID capabilities to sites in Mississippi and California, and it ships about 100 products. "We are collecting information from the tags to ensure it matches our inventory records, but we're not using it to gain efficiencies in our organization yet," says Ed Janowsky, VP of information services. "This is still the beginning."

Despite all the RFID activity, the consumer-goods companies on this year's InformationWeek 500 list are putting other technologies to use. Gallo began testing a graphical project manager its internal IT staff wrote in Microsoft Visual Basic. The software program, called Managed Technology Value, provides a graphical view of proposed projects, making it easier for the winery to assess projects' risks, financial costs, estimated completion times, labor requirements, and more.

Sunbeam is testing voice-over-IP technology on the company's PBXs and telephones. The VoIP implementation will untether employees from their desks by forwarding to handheld devices voice mail left on office phones and E-mail sent to their PCs.

	I.T. BUDGET BREAKDOWN Hardware purchases IT services or outsourcing Research and development 17% 16% 6% Salaries and benefits Applications Everything else 39% 14% 8% Data: InformationWeek Research

Illustration By Paul Watson

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	CONSUMER GOODS   Alticor Inc.   Ansell Healthcare Inc.   Blyth Inc.   Brown-Forman Corp.   Coca-Cola Co.   Colgate-Palmolive Co.   Conair Corp.   Duracell * E.&J. Gallo Winery * Eastman Kodak Co.   General Mills Inc.   Imperial Sugar Co.   J.R. Simplot Co. * Jarden Consumer Solutions   Johnson & Johnson   Levi Strauss & Co.   Liz Claiborne Inc.   Loreal USA Inc. * SC Johnson & Son Inc.   Shaklee Corp. * VF Corp.   Wendy's International Inc.   Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co.   Yum Brands Inc. * denotes a top 100 company