A new solution developed by a Canadian consortium makes Walmart's suppliers able to comply with RFID requirements under 5000 dollars.

The solution created by an alliance among three Toronto-areas firms, including Banyan Commerce, GAO RFID, and Toshiba TEC Canada, demystifies and simplifies supply chain compliance such that small and medium enterprises can easily adopt the technology with minimal efforts and expense.

As part of the alliance GAO RFID provides their GenTop Standalone RFID Reader/Writer. It supports both EPC Class1 GEN 1 and GEN 2 Protocols operating in the UHF 860-960 MHz band, supporting both North America and the EU. GAO RFID also provides their rugged Toshiba TEC BSX4 RFID Printer. With a wide variety of connectivity options including wireless LAN 802.11b and internal Ethernet, the B-SX4 is the perfect combination of performance, quality, and value. Banyan Commerce provides the robust Banyan Commerce SAAS (software as a service) application framework which is currently used by hundreds of customers worldwide.

The Supply Chain Solution currently services companies ranging from small and medium businesses to Fortune 500 corporations. Retail suppliers are shielded from the complexity of dealing with their retail customers in terms of EDI, Data Synchronization and Bar-Coding. The Banyan RFID Express Software ensures retail suppliers, especially small and medium ones, meet compliance requirements-including RFID, and are taken care of from a single Web-based interface. The Banyan RFID Express solution provides 24/7 support and has a guaranteed uptime of 99.99%.

A Wal-Mart supplier from Calgary, Alberta remarked "We have spent much more than $5,000 on conferences and training sessions and we have nothing in place to show for our RFID compliance deadline of January 2008. This Supply Chain RFID Solution is definitely something that all suppliers should have on their list of prospective solutions especially since implementation time is a guaranteed fifteen days."