A new survey announced this week at the Retail Systems trade show in Chicago suggests that many companies are still struggling to figure out how to deploy RFID.

Even companies that have already begun investing in RFID pilots and tests are struggling.

The survey, covering 90 companies, was carried out by Deloitte, the ePC Group and the Retail Systems Alert Group, a research and events company.

Highlights of the survey:

• Most companies have not set target dates for RFID deployment.


• Most companies have not established significant budgets for RFID deployment during 2004 -- unless they are meeting a customer mandate.


• Most companies expect to ramp up their RFID spending for next year.

In my mind, this survey simply confirms that we are on the upward curve of the RFID adoption cycle in business -- and still early in that curve.

I have not yet found a link to survey results. But RFID Journal has an in-depth article about the survey. As they say, read the whole thing.