Simple Cost Analysis for RFID options

Simple Cost Analysis for RFID Options

Not surprisingly, lately I’m being asked more and more about RFID, and wanted to write a simple cost analysis for RFID options. As prices drop on this technology, its benefits become more and more attractive. I’m a strong advocate for RFID. I’ve written about its value in comparison to other tagging methods (see a summary here). I also produced a webinar titled “Finding the Sweet Spot with RFID,” where I present ROI models for combinations of different tagging and detection technologies.

I thought it might be helpful to for those interested in making the leap to RFID, to present a brief summary of the options available, including current pricing and applications.  

[Feb 2021 – UPDATE: you can find an updated version of the simple cost analysis for RFID options here: Cost Analysis for RFID]

Tags:

  • Basic passive RFID: 10¢ USD each – Good for paper or other non-metal, liquid material.  Will not work for IT or metal assets.

  • Metal passive RFID: $1.50 USD each – Larger passive tags that work on metal surfaces.  Required for servers or metal-equipment, especially in a data center.

  • Active RFID: $15-$20 USD each – Powered RFID tags that emit their own signal every 30 seconds. Active RFID is fully automated and highly accurate. No human involvement and nearly 100% read rates. Immediate notification as things move around or disappear.

Readers:

  • Handheld – Passive RFID handheld readers. A human being waves the scanner near assets. Great for manual auditing of a location, data center rack, etc. About $3,000 each.
  • Fixed Position passive RFID:  Portal readers installed in a doorway that detect assets moving through. Figure $10,000–20,000 per portal for hardware, installation and configuration
  • Active RFID readers: Zonal readers that cover about 3000 square feet detecting active RFID tags in their zone. Fully automated, notifying administrators and updating the database in real time. Figure $1,250-$1,500 each.
  • Active RFID Rack/Room Locators:  Work in conjunction with Active RFID readers to report the precise rack or room location of the active RFID-tagged asset.  Figure $150-$200 each.

Integration

  • Virtually any RFID system can be integrated by publishing CSV file asset updates of asset information that has changed. Our software, AssetTrack, will export asset update to a format that can be scheduled to import into systems like ServiceNow or HP Asset Manager.

Read more about the “simple cost analysis for RFID options” in the article: To RFID or Not RFID

Bottom line:  The more you pay up front, the more automation you get.

The ROI of RFID depends on your labor costs and the value of real-time data accuracy. If you don’t need real time data and labor is cheap, use passive RFID and handhelds. If labor is expensive and real time data is critical, invest in active RFID.

This is quite a complex topic, but I hope the above gives you a high level view of the decisions you need to make. AMI helps companies build the business case and evaluating the correct RFID choice.

AMI offers all tagging technologies – barcode, passive and active RFID – so we can present all the choices together. Other RFID companies are selling either active or passive, so they will tout the benefits of one over the other. This is why you should work with a company like ours that can help you compare and contrast all the options.

 


Thomas Watson, President & CEOAuthor: Tom Watson

Tom Watson is AMI’s President and CEO. He began his career in high tech in 1996, as a software engineer for his own software company, Market Matrix. After joining IT Asset Management firm Micropath as senior architect for that company’s asset tracking system, he founded AMI to develop hardware asset tracking technology solutions for enterprise IT Asset Management customers to maintain complete, current and accurate data on their own.

12 Comments

  1. SNIPE-App_Team on June 16, 2015 at 8:25 pm

    This helped with me a lot! I couldn’t figure out the average prices of active and passive RFID tags and what they did – no matter what I did on the Web, digging into all sorts of wacky things. This helped a lot! I’ll be sure to visit again!

  2. Tim on August 17, 2015 at 8:44 am

    Thank you so much doing this! I wish other providers of emergent technology were so clear with the costs.

  3. Liam on May 31, 2016 at 7:06 pm

    Thank you heads. Didn’t realize that there are so many different types of readers and tags, though it was just 1 generic type.
    This information will help heaps in my up coming projects :D

  4. Michelle Echlin on June 7, 2016 at 4:50 pm

    Thank you so much for this breakout!

  5. Mario P Elias on June 9, 2016 at 9:00 am

    I have a couple of questions.
    Do you integrate GPS in your product.
    Can you send me a brochure for laptops, desktops inventory control.

  6. Billy on June 16, 2016 at 9:15 am

    This helped me as well. I can see the article is from Oct 2013. Do you have updated info (2016) on the same?

  7. Gregory D. MELLOTT on July 20, 2016 at 8:18 am

    What if someone desires to put an RFID on equipment for the purpose of getting a greater assurance an item is theirs should it be stolen and found with a suspect by police. Does one need the reader device? Are they common enough to that other reader devices would be able to get a valid response from the RFID chip?

  8. Samantha Aguilar on October 26, 2016 at 7:56 am

    Do you have an electronic brochure? Doing some research for my company and would like to have something to present to them.

  9. Daniel Harvey on November 23, 2017 at 1:07 pm

    Hi

    I’m looking into rfid as a possible business opportunity and I like the way you integrate the system. Just wondering how much does it cost to integrate the system with asset track (roughly) and how much would it cost to integrate with another open source system? At minute I’m just looking for a rough figure.
    Thanks
    Daniel

  10. Zi Hao on August 20, 2018 at 4:28 pm

    Hi,

    I’m looking to implement RFID tracking for my company and would like to know the rough figure for implementation.

    Thanks
    ZH

  11. MAID GANESH on September 28, 2018 at 9:20 am

    HI ,
    I AM LOOKING FOR RFID THAT CAN BE FIXED IN UNDERGROUND UTILITY SERVICES WHICH BURRIED IN DUE COURSE OF TIME TO IDENTIFY THEM FOR REGULAR MAINTENANCE WORK PLEASE SUGGEST THE PRODUCT FOR IT .
    THANK U

    • AMI on October 23, 2018 at 9:14 am

      Thank you for your inquiry, AMI focuses on enabling our enterprise customers to track Information Technology assets from receiving through end of life retirement. So this use case seems outside of our core business, you may want to contact our partners at SLS for more information on technology that could help you achieve your goals. Here is their website: https://slsrfid.com

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