The global market for RFID systems in the government vertical market reached an estimated US$269 million in 2005, with hardware accounting for nearly 53% of the market, according to Venture Development Corporation''s ''Government Vertical Market'' report, which also predicts a CAGR of some 34% until 2010, with revenue shipments being expected to exceed US$1,155 million within five years.

     The report, part of VDC''s annual RFID Business Planning Service, noted that global shipments of RFID systems for the government vertical market included US$140.8 million in hardware; US$19.3 million in software; and US$108.5 million in services. 116.30.142.201 This article is copyright 2006 UsingRFID.com.

Forecast to 2010
     By 2010 those figures are expected to reach US$587.5 million in hardware; US$69.4 million in software; and US$499.4 million in services.

     Governments throughout the world are increasingly citing the implementation of RFID as a top automatic identification and tracking priority, with agencies at both the national and local level playing a major role in facilitating RFID adoption. From animal identification to container tracking to e-passports, RFID applications in the government sector are numerous and diverse, with a staggering number of RFID projects planned and underway.

Open-loop growth
     RFID systems in the government industry have historically supported closed-loop applications such as asset management, animal ID, and security/access control; however, future growth will predominantly be driven by increased demand for open-loop supply chain and asset management solutions.

Key applications
     Key end-user applications driving the current and future RFID market include:

 

Active (UHF 433 MHz) RFID systems for tracking shipping containers and high value assets. Active tags are the preferred technology for tracking high-value mission-critical assets (including people), given their longer read range and ''tag-talk-first'' communication capabilities;
 
Passive (LF) RFID systems supporting livestock and companion (pet) animal identification. Adoption of RFID for animal identification and tracking is being bolstered by mandates within multiple national markets (e.g. USA, UK, Canada, Venezuela, Portugal (pets), New Zealand, Australia, Korea, etc.);
 
Passive (13.56 MHz) systems for security/access control applications. RFID is increasingly being deployed for building and personnel access, employee identification (e.g. the US Common Access Card programme), law enforcement (e.g. prison inmate ID and commissary), and electronic passports (e-passports);
  
Passive UHF EPC systems supporting the US DoD supply chain. Adoption is being mandated by the DoD for case and pallet level tagging of shipments from its 60,000 suppliers.

Longer-term value
     Much of the longer-term value of RFID will come from recreating/redesigning processes that are more automated, intelligent, and agile. As supply chain partners, livestock handlers, government employees, and citizens become compliant with RFID mandates and programmes, government agencies and institutions must re-engineer their own processes and applications to support the technology and a "new way" of doing business.

     According to Michael J. Liard, director for VDC''s RFID practice, "The US federal government is expected to continue to evaluate RFID as a replacement/upgrade to legacy systems.

     Current pilots and installations are expected to expand throughout the next 3-5 years as the technology advances in terms of performance, capability/functionality, and scale."

 

 

 

 

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