Industry Support Grows for CompTIA RFID Certification Initiative; Six more organizations will contribute RFID expertise to skills development effort.

OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. -- Six organizations with leadership positions in the radio frequency identification (RFID) market are contributing their expertise to efforts by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) to develop a vendor-neutral RFID certification, the association announced today.

Organizations working with CompTIA to develop the certification for the RFID workforce include:

--Briljent, LLC, a provider of technical writing, curriculum design, learning assessments and training facilitation services to national trade associations, governmental agencies and corporate clients;

--ODIN technologies, the recognized leader in the physics of RFID infrastructure testing and deployment and publisher of the RFID Benchmark Series scientific research;

--RFID4U (a division of eSmart Source, Inc.), a worldwide leader in vendor neutral RFID learning solutions;

--RFID Journal, an independent media company devoted solely to radio frequency identification and its many business applications;

--Sparkice, the China Hub for Global Commerce, China's leading B2B trade facilitators and an active participant in the promotion and training of RFID technologies; and

--Symbol Technologies, Inc., The Enterprise Mobility Company(TM), a recognized worldwide leader in enterprise mobility, delivering products and solutions that capture, move and manage information in real time to and from the point of business activity.

CompTIA previously announced six other organizations that are engaged in the development of the RFID skills certification. They are the Association for Automatic Identification and Mobility (AIM Global), FC Business Systems, Intermec Technologies Corporation, OTA Training, ScanSource, Inc., and Texas Instruments Incorporated.

Representatives of these organizations and other are scheduled to convene at CompTIA world headquarters in Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., April 20 to begin the RFID certification development process. These organizations will help to determine the content of the certification: its scope, the target audience and job skills an individual needs to be proficient in RFID system installation, maintenance and management.

A February survey of CompTIA members found that 80 percent of companies do not believe there are sufficient numbers of professionals skilled in RFID to hire from today. In addition, 53 percent of companies said this lack of talent will have a negative impact on the adoption of RFID technology in the next two to three years. Some 60,000 businesses are facing RFID usage mandates from their trading partners in the next 3-5 years, according to industry estimates.

"Customer adoption of RFID solutions has been relatively modest to date, but quite a few companies are starting down the path," said David Sommer, vice president, electronic commerce, CompTIA. "Because of the mandates from customers and trading partners companies are beginning to see the need for RFID talent. A vendor neutral, foundation level certification will be a valuable tool to help develop the RFID workforce; and a reliable method for employers and their customers to measure individuals who are knowledgeable, skilled and proficient in the implementation of RFID technology."

The CompTIA RFID certification is expected to be available in late 2005 or early 2006.

About CompTIA

CompTIA is a global trade association representing the business interests of the information technology industry. For more than 23 years CompTIA has provided research, networking and partnering opportunities to its 20,000 members in 102 countries. The association is involved in developing standards and best practices, and influencing the political, economic and educational arenas that impact IT worldwide. More information is at www.comptia.org.