ETD: 810 What's the best investment vehicle?; Category 3 hurricane couldn¹t stop Bermuda's e-business; Symbol Technologies Buys Matrics (RFID)

[E-Tailer's Digest]

  E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the  Retailer
  Issue #0810              August 17, 2004
  George Matyjewicz, Moderator         mailto:georgem at gapent.com
  Published by:  GAP Enterprises, Ltd.  http://www.etailersdigest.com
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   CONTENTS

  [1]  Greetings
  [2]  What's the best investment vehicle?
  [3]  Category 3 hurricane couldn¹t stop Bermuda's e-business
  [4]  Symbol Technologies Buys Matrics (RFID)

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  [1]  Greetings.
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Hi All:

With hurricane season upon us, I found it appropriate to post the article 
on Bermuda's e-business.  Not even a Category 3 hurricane (a BIG one) could 
stop them.  Great place to live and work eh?

What do you think will work for those of us independent thinkers?  Should 
we be in business for ourselves?  What about investments?

Continuing on the RFID track, Symbol is in the news with their purchase of 
Matrics.  Symbol is a leader in bar code scanning, and holds most of the 
patents with that technology, including the guns with triggers.  It will be 
interesting to see what happens with RFID now.

Tell us about your business which will remain  for posterity at 
our  "Members: Who Are You?" 
site.   http://etailersdigest.com/resources/members/index.htm And we have a 
form there for you to tell us about you.  As I said when I first proposed 
this idea, we have "known" each other for a long time, yet we often don't 
know anything about each other.   So, tell us who you are and what you do.

Now, let's get to everything for the retailer.

Sincerely


George Matyjewicz, PhD
Chief Global Strategist, GAP Enterprises, Ltd.
mailto:georgem at gapent.com
http://www.etailersdigest.com

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  [2]  What's the best investment vehicle?
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Lately the discussion among many is what is the best investment vehicle for 
most of us.  Is it our own business?  Gold?  Stocks?  Real estate? Poker 
(last year's world champion won $5 million)?

It seems to me that they all have plusses and minuses.  Gold was great when 
it came off the gold standard, and is still good.  From my last venture, I 
still have gold and it is increasing.

The stock market fluctuates, and we all know about the bubbles and failures.

Poker is the hot thing now.  Internet poker is hot, as are the World Series 
of Poker (WSOP) programs where the winner wins $5 million.  And they are 
open to everybody.

Real estate has always been consistent.  It works well if you live in the 
unit or rent it.  The payments go toward the investment.

Which leaves our own business.  Is it really what it's cut out to be?  Can 
we make money?  Does it really take money to make money?  If so, where do 
we get the money?

What do you think?  What may work in the next year?  5 years? 10 years? 
Lifetime?

George

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  [3]  Category 3 hurricane couldn¹t stop Bermuda's e-business
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In September 2003, 155 mph winds raged  and yet it was e-business as usual. 
A first rate, fully redundant communication infrastructure and a 
well-educated, tech-savvy population make all the difference. For years, 
Fortune 500, insurance and reinsurance companies have known that Bermuda is 
a great place to do business. It's a great place to conduct e-business,  too.

95% of Bermuda-based businesses are connected to the internet with 70% of 
them having web-sites

The Department of E-Commerce released research that shows the future of 
e-business is alive and well in both the existing plans and future visions 
of Bermuda-based companies.  In the next two to three years, one-third of 
businesses were thinking that e-commerce will have a 
considerable-to-overwhelming impact on their organizations.  In fact, 81% 
are somewhat or very interested in learning more about e-business 
opportunities in Bermuda. And 95% of companies surveyed have e-mail with 
internet access, an increase of 3% over those surveyed in 2002.

The research, which was commissioned by the Department of E-Commerce and 
conducted by Research.bm, took place in February 2004 to find out 
information on the deployment of e-business techniques within the business 
community, as compared to the results from the 2002 e-business survey.

The analysis of the resulting data will be crucial in the development of 
the e-business action plan, as specified in the E-Business Green Paper 
presented to Parliament in December 2003. The information will assist in 
framing policy and developing strategies to promote e-business adoption 
throughout the community.

http://www.bermuda-ebusiness.com/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_2_1764_238_0_43/http%3B/portalcontent.gov.bm%3B8080/publishedcontent/publish/dept___e_commerce___press_releases/articles/future_of_e_business_is_alive_and_well_in_bermuda_companies_3.doc

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  [4]  Symbol Technologies Buys Matrics (RFID)
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Symbol Technologies, an enterprise  mobility company, has reached an 
agreement to acquire Matrics, a company that designs and manufactures radio 
frequency identification (RFID) systems that are compliant with electronic 
product code (EPC) systems.
Privately held Matrics is based in Rockville, Maryland. The purchase price 
is $230 million in cash.

"The acquisition of Matrics is a significant step in executing our plan to 
be a leader in RFID, and expands our offerings in the advanced data capture 
industry," said William Nuti, Symbol president and chief executive officer.
"We believe that in order for RFID to be deployed successfully, it needs to 
be deployed as a system -- a system that allows customers to capture, move 
and manage critical information to and from the point of business 
activity," Nuti went on to say.

"By incorporating the Matrics EPC-compliant RFID products into Symbol's 
portfolio of industry leading mobile computing, advanced data capture and 
wireless  technologies, Symbol can help customers in key market segments 
gain operational efficiencies in their supply chains and realize 
competitive advantage."

Matrics has focused its RFID technology efforts on EPC standards. Matrics 
provides EPC-compliant RFID systems for retail, defense, transportation and 
other vertical markets.

The Matrics product line-up features RFID systems including multiprotocol, 
EPC-compliant fixed readers; readers designed for embedded applications, 
such as RFID printers  and handhelds; high-performance antennas for RFID 
tag reading; and EPC labels that can be attached to items such as 
containers, pallets, cartons and more.
The RFID tag family includes both read-only and read-write functionality 
that addresses a wide range of asset visibility applications.

Today, Matrics RFID readers and tags are used by customers to help track 
inventory across the supply chain , ensure compliance in regulated 
industries, track the location of baggage throughout airports for security 
purposes and facilitate a more effective logistics process within the 
defense sector.

About RFID

RFID is an advanced data-capture technology. RFID tags can be applied to 
assets moving through global supply chains.
Readers installed at various locations, such as dock doors, conveyors or 
forklifts, can instantly read the unique EPC number from the tags as the 
assets enter the reader's interrogation zone.

Because an RFID reader does not require a direct line of sight to the tag 
for EPC reading, and offers the added benefit that many tags can be read 
simultaneously, data capture is performed rapidly and virtually hands free.

http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/35391.html


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