James Lichtenberg to Demystify RFID at Wi3

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James Lichtenberg

Do you have some vague ideas about Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and what it can do for you? At the Winter Institute session "RFID: What the Heck Is It, Anyway?" James Lichtenberg, president of Lightspeed LLC, will demystify RFID and underscore its benefits to booksellers. Lichtenberg will show how item-level tagging -- putting tags on each book -- has the potential to revolutionize the book industry supply chain at both the warehouse and retail levels.

"The session will give booksellers a practical understanding of how RFID might benefit them as retailers," Lichtenberg told BTW. "It can help eliminate theft. With RFID, shrinkage drops to almost zero, inventory is essentially 100 percent accurate, and you can track a book if it's fallen behind a shelf or moved to another section."

Lichtenberg's presentation will feature the example of Dutch bookstore chain BGN (Boekhandels Groep Nederland), which has used RFID for two years. "I'll not only tell, but show how it worked," said Lichtenberg. "BGN has been incredibly supportive of the American book industry in terms of sharing its information."

A consultant to a range of general businesses as well as many in the book industry, Lichtenberg focuses on how to profitably manage the impact of information technology on business models, processes, and structures. In 1997 he founded Lightspeed, a management consulting practice that has developed over the past decade in step with the evolution of new information technologies. The company advises its clients on how to anticipate, respond to, and profit from technological innovations.

"RFID: What the Heck Is It, Anyway?" will be presented at Wi3 on Saturday, January 26, from 9:00 a.m. - 10:15 a.m.