Fran Foo | November 11, 2008
COMPLIANCE managers at about 20,000 organisations in Australia will be able to sleep easier thanks to technology that uses radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to track and audit documents.
Brambles' Recall unit uses RFID to tag millions of cartons storing customers' documents
The RFID system has been deployed by document storage and archiving company Recall, a subsidiary of ASX-listed Brambles.
Recall business integration global vice-president Russell Skinner said document archival cartons carried passive RFID tags that sped up tracing of documents.
Usually a barcode stuck on a carton would have to be manually scanned in an audit process.
The boxes would first have to be identified, which normally involved physically moving cartons on racks.
"We hold customers' vital physical information, which has to be held for a legal retention period. This includes financial and personnel records," Mr Skinner said.
"These business records, which are usually held offsite or away from the customers' office premises, are typically stored three-deep because of cubic capacity.
"With barcodes on a carton, there is no ability to physically audit, say, a million cartons in an information centre stored three-deep in racking."
The RFID tags used by Recall allow three-deep carton stacks to be scanned without human intervention.
"Physical audits can take days, weeks and even months. RFID technology makes the cartons easier to detect and saves a lot of time," Mr Skinner said.
"Our RFID technology sets new standards in the global information management industry in an increasingly regulated environment.
"It's very exciting for Recall to be leading the way with the introduction of technology that delivers real benefits to customers."
By early November the company had more than 19,000 users in Australia.
Globally, Recall has 80,000 customers, including the Bank of America.
Mr Skinner started looking at the possibilities of RFID in 2000 to overcome compliance challenges facing customers using barcodes.