FSTC Introduces RFID Standard

The Financial Services Technology Consortium (FSTC), the New York-based organization that consists of financial institutions, technology providers, government entities and members from academia, published RFID (radio frequency identification) Basic Functional and Numbering Requirements for IT Data Center Assets. Over the last six months, FSTC members and RFID organizations have collaborated to produce functional requirements targeted at IT asset vendors for pre-tagging data center equipment in a standard method prior to shipments to data centers. The numbering requirements are based on the EPCglobal Electronic Product Code (EPC) and the GS1 Global Individual Asset Identifier (GIAI).

The FSTC project team documented the functional and number requirements and has made them available on the organization's website. The goal of the project was to assist all data centers, both inside and outside the financial services industry, in creating process to reduce the time required to inventory IT assets. With RFID technology, the entire inventory process is automated, from ordering and receiving, to installation, maintenance, and removal and destruction. According to the FSTC, this will lead to more accuracy, reduced labor and a real-time location capability.

"I am pleased with the agility and speed the FSTC exhibited developing this standard," said Mike Russo, SVP of automated identification technologies at San Francisco-based Wells Fargo, in a statement. "RFID use in our data centers will allow us to significantly improve our asset management and tracking capabilities. Now our suppliers will be able to pre-tag these assets based on the Basic Functional Requirements allowing us to read the RFID tag when the asset arrives at the bank and touching off updates to our internal systems."