As you probably know, RFID equipment comes with nothing but preinstalled operating systems. Handheld readers contain their own handheld computers, and portal readers are used in conjunction with separate computers, such as laptops. For the software, all you're really talking about is installing an appropriate and effective database system on the hardware. One option for you is the route taken by Fine Art Shipping, which is to develop your own proprietary RFID tagging software. A similar route is to integrate existing RFID software with the inventory database system of your choice.
The RFID-based system here is in a late stage of debugging, and we have been using it with increasing efficiency for several months now. Our programmer designed the software from the ground up for this particular application. The primary database is in the clouds, making it securely accessible from any networked computer; including a smart phone on a 3G network. It is also backed up on our local network in the office, and it can operate remotely on site where there is no network connection by running on a single portable computer and syncing up with the primary database upon its return to the office.
The Barcoding and Radio Frequency Identification for Collections Management session at AAM this past Tuesday included a presentation by Joseph King of Walker Art Museum. Under his supervision, the Walker has been using RFID for collections management for six years. Like any system, it requires human intervention both planned and unplanned. But I think that this is a realistic expectation of a tool, as long as cost benefit analysis is maintained and greater efficiency is continually developed. My impression from Suzan Sengoz's account of Los Angeles County Museum of Art's case study with RFID equipment is that it was anything but extensive. The testing period lasted three days, with half of that time taken up by setting up and breaking down the equipment. It left many of LACMA's questions unanswered. The museum happened to use the same readers that FAS uses, and we are seeing good results with them so far.
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