Judge Criteria

Best RFID/IoT Implementation in Retail:

This award will be judged on how much business value the RFID system delivers to the retailer. Among the questions judges will be asking are:

• Has the solution delivered business value?
  • Did it cut costs or increase revenue?
  • Did it improve customer service?
  • Did it make employees more productive or customers more satisfied?
  • Were there any soft benefits?
  • Does the use of RFID go beyond what other retailers have done?
• Did the project have a clear objective?
• Is the objective relevant to the business problem or company’s needs?
• Is the solution scalable, acceptable to the employees affected, and economically feasible?
• Is the solution a significant improvement over alternatives?
• How much time and money was spent on the project? Is this amount reasonable given the solution?
• Does the solution make maximum use of the technology or technologies used?

Best RFID/IoT Implementation in Manufacturing:

This award will be judged on how much business value the RFID system delivers to the manufacturer. Among the questions judges will be asking are:

• Has the solution delivered business value?
  • Did it cut costs or increase revenue?
  • Did it make employees more productive?
  • Did it enable the manufacturer to deliver products just-in-time or provide better service for its products?
  • Were there any soft benefits?
• Did the project have a clear objective?
• Is the objective relevant to the business problem or company’s needs?
• Does the use of RFID go beyond what other manufacturers have done?
• Is the solution scalable, acceptable to the employees affected, and economically feasible?
• Is the solution a significant improvement over alternatives?
• How much time and money was spent on the project? Is this amount reasonable given the solution?
• Does the solution make maximum use of the technology or technologies used?

Best RFID/IoT Implementation in Health Care:

This award will be judged on how much business value the RFID system delivers to the health care provider or how much the system improves patient outcomes. Among the questions judges will be asking are:

• Has the solution delivered business value?
  • Did it cut costs, increase revenue or improve patient satisfaction?
  • Did it make employees more productive or better able to serve patients?
  • Did it enable the health care provider to reduce medical errors or hospital-acquird infections?
  • Were there any soft benefits?

• Did the project have a clear objective?
• Is the objective relevant to the business problem or company’s needs?
• Does the use of RFID go beyond what other health care providers have done?
• Is the solution scalable, acceptable to the employees affected, and economically feasible?
• Is the solution a significant improvement over alternatives?
• How much time and money was spent on the project? Is this amount reasonable given the solution?
• Does the solution make maximum use of the technology or technologies used?

Best RFID/IoT Implementation in Supply Chain/Logistics:

This award will be judged on how much business value the RFID system delivers to the supply chain or logistics organization. Among the questions judges will be asking are:

• Has the solution delivered business value?
  • Did it cut costs, reduced shipping errors or improved on-time deliveries?
  • Did it make employees more productive?
  • Did it enable the organization to deliver products just-in-time or provide better service for its products?
  • Were there any soft benefits?
• Did the project have a clear objective?
• Is the objective relevant to the business problem or company’s needs?
• Does the use of RFID go beyond what other supply chain organizations have done?
• Is the solution scalable, acceptable to the employees affected, and economically feasible?
• Is the solution a significant improvement over alternatives?
• How much time and money was spent on the project? Is this amount reasonable given the solution?
• Does the solution make maximum use of the technology or technologies used?

Best RFID/IoT Implementation (Other Industry):

This award will be judged on how much business value the RFID system delivers to a company in an industry or sector other than those listed above. Among the questions judges will be asking are:

• Has the solution delivered business value?
  • Did it cut costs, increase revenue or deliver other tangible benefits?
  • Did it make employees more productive?
  • Did it enable the organization to improve its operations in other ways?
  • Were there any soft benefits?
• Did the project have a clear objective?
• Is the objective relevant to the business problem or company’s needs?
• Does the use of RFID go beyond what other other organizations in the same sector have done?
• Is the solution scalable, acceptable to the employees affected, and economically feasible?
• Is the solution a significant improvement over alternatives?
• How much time and money was spent on the project? Is this amount reasonable given the solution?
• Does the solution make maximum use of the technology or technologies used?

Best Use of RFID/IoT to Enhance a Product or Service:

This award will be judged on how well the company used RFID to deliver additional value to its customers. Among the questions judges will be asking are:

• Does the solution deliver additional value to the customer?
  • Did it make the product easier to use, easier to set up or easier to maintain?
  • Did it improve customer service?
  • Did it make the customer more productive?
• Did the project have a clear objective?
• Is the objective relevant to the needs of the company’s customers?
• Was the RFID transponder/reader embedded into the product in a way that avoided disruption to the customer?
• Was the design of RFID into the product seamless and cost-effective?
• Is the solution a significant enhancement to the product or service?
• Has the solution been tested for performance under the type of real-world conditions experienced by the customer?
• Where did the company get the RFID equipment? Did it need to be customized to be embedded in the product or service? If so, did an RFID company or the entrant do the customization?
• Does the solution make maximum use of the technology or technologies used?

Best New Product

For this award, judges will select up to 10 new hardware, software and services using RFID technology. To be eligible, the vendor submitting must be an exhibitor at RFID Journal LIVE! 2021, and the product must have been introduced after LIVE! 2019. The editors of RFID Journal will choose the Best in Show winner based on the judges scoring and their own judgement. To select the finalist, the judges will use the following criteria:

• Does the new product or service deliver business value to those for whom it is designed?
• Will it solve a business problem?
• Will it reduce costs, improve efficiencies or increase sales?
• Will it simplify RFID deployments or make it more cost-effective to deploy RFID systems?
• Will it enable companies to comply with regulations more cost-effectively?
• Is the product/service original, or does it simply do what existing products do?
• Does the product/service break new ground?
• Does it offer a significant improvement over existing products in the same category?
• Is the product/service likely to deliver a significant return on investment?
• Does the product/service solve a business problem common in a particular industry?

Special Achievement Award

For this award, the editors of RFID Journal will select one person whom they feel has made a special contribution to the RFID industry. Among the criteria the editors will use are:

• Has the person changed the course of adoption by using the technology in new and innovative ways?
• Has the person changed the public perception of RFID for the better?
• Has the person created a new avenue for RFID adoption by developing a solution that breaks new ground?
• Has the person led the development of new standards or had an impact in promoting the adoption of standards that serve the industry?
• Does the project the person led broken new ground?

Scoring System

Each judge will choose a first-, second- and third-place entry for each category. Fifteen points will be awarded for every first-place entry, nine for each second-place vote and five for every third-place vote. We will exclude the highest and lowest vote to ensure no one vote affects the outcome. The entries with the highest average score among the judges for each category will be declared the winner. In the event of a tie, those with tied scores will share the award. All decision by RFID Journal’s editorial team will be final.

Definition of RFID and IoT

For the purposes of this award, RFID technology will be defined as any system that uses radio waves to remotely identify an object or person. These systems include, but are not limited to, low-frequency (HF) systems, high-frequency (HF) systems, Near-Field Communication (NFC), ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) systems, active RFID systems, Wi-Fi-based systems, real-time locating systems (RTLS), and RF-sensory mesh networks. They can be based on air-interface protocol standards established by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) or other standards bodies, such as the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

Internet of Things technology is defined as any wireless device that connects objects or products to the Internet for the purposes of making the object or product smarter or more effective. Devices can link to the internet via Bluetooth, RFID, Wi-Fi, Zigbee or other wireless air-interface protocols.