IBM has released the details of a cutting edge System i-powered RFID project in the UK that uses WebSphere RFID Premises Server.

IM Group is the owner of International Motors Ltd, a company that imports Subaru, Daihatsu and Isuzu vehicles into the country. The company recently moved to a new state-of-the-art 37,000 sq ft headquarters at Coleshill Manor, Birmingham, which is part of a wider office campus site developed by its sister company, IM Properties.

IM Group consulted Weston-super-Mare-based IBM Business Partner QED Advanced Systems for help with developing a concept for the new office building that would explore new and exciting possibilities while remaining technically viable.

“We were looking into ways to track the location of staff members within the site,” says Phil Williams, IT Director of IM Group. “QED suggested volunteering for IBM’s RFID programme – giving us access to leading-edge technology and providing IBM with a real-world environment to showcase the latest developments in the field.”

IBM WebSphere RFID Premises Server enables IM Group to track employees throughout the site using keyring-sized RFID tags. The software also logs the times when staff arrive on site in the morning and leave at the end of the day, making it easier to manage time and attendance while encouraging flexible working practices.

“We are also using RFID as part of the security system, to unlock doors automatically when authorised personnel approach,” says Williams. “We are planning to integrate it with our IP telephony system too, so that incoming calls will be intelligently routed straight to the appropriate person, whichever phone they happen to be nearest to.”

For additional security, the RFID solution is integrated with a comprehensive CCTV network, and the whole infrastructure is managed centrally using a combination of System i and System x servers in the International Motors data centre.

“We have been working with IBM System i and its predecessors for more than 30 years now,” says Williams. “It’s a great platform -- highly reliable, high-performance, and flexible enough to support almost any application on a wide variety of operating systems. The System x servers also offer excellent performance for our Intel-based environment.”

IM Group has also been using Lotus Notes and Domino collaboration software for a number of years, and realised that it would be the perfect platform on which to build a scheduling system which would be fully integrated with the new building.

“We have eight meeting rooms, and each has a large LCD screen mounted on the wall outside,” says Williams. “Each screen shows a list of the meetings scheduled for the room that day -- coloured light blue before they happen, red while they’re in progress, and grey when they have finished. Anyone who passes the room can see what’s going on and who’s inside, without disturbing the people inside.”

Even better, employees can book the meeting rooms from their desks, using their Lotus Notes client. If refreshments are required, the Lotus Domino server provides access to a restaurant menu application, allowing staff to relay orders automatically to the catering department, and ensuring that the right food and drinks are delivered to the right room at the right time.

The next step for IM Group is to implement IBM WebSphere Portal to provide personalised access for each user. Williams says: “There is a lot of potential for extending this solution in the future, and we are always looking for new ways to make IM Group a better place to work. Thanks to good advice from QED and some amazing work from IBM -- especially the Wireless & RFID Centre of Excellence in Dublin -- the new IM Group building is a real showcase.”

Seamus Quinn, editor.