Supercom looks to RF tags for revenue
Smart Card maker Supercom's "next generation market" for the coming year will be radio frequency asset and people tracking, the newly appointed chief executive officer told United Press International on Tuesday.
The Kadima, Israel-based company's radio frequency tags will be incoming CEO Eyal Tuchman's main marketing focus in the coming year, Tuchman said in a telephone interview.
The "Pure RF Movement Detection Solution" technology uses license-free radio frequencies to track a small, low-powered RF tag attached to a person or object, according to a company statement. Supercom's software then manages the transmissions and can track several items simultaneously. The system issues alerts when the tag moves in an unexpected way, the company said.
Supercom, which also has offices in McLean, Va., and Hong Kong, will market the RF tags to police, airports and other customers, Tuchman said.
The company employs 60 people worldwide, with a major part of the research and development centered in Israel, Tuchman said.
Supercom launched Pure RF in mid-February.
Supercom operates in three main markets, Tuchman said. Its business core is the design Smart Card systems for national documents such as passports, government IDs and driver's licenses, which the company sells in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Eastern Europe and Israel.
Tuchman said that in addition to designing the Smart Cards, Supercom provides the software and devices to read information stored on the cards' chips.
The company also announced a deal in late February with Green Science International Ltd. The Asian company employs Supercom's Smart Card services as part of its "Retailer-Customer Relationship Management Membership and Loyalty" program.
In addition to these markets, the company has designed and continues to market a suite of software and Smart Card identification for first responders to natural disasters and terrorist attacks.
In this area, the company works closely with homeland security departments in government, especially the United States government, Supercom's vice president for U.S. operations, Moshe Wolfson, said in a telephone interview.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security saw the need for such a system, which enables first responders from different jurisdictions to work together more easily and to quickly identify one another on the scene, in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, and Hurricane Katrina.
"Not only has the system been fully tested, but Columbus, Ohio, has bought one," Wolfson said.
Though the system hasn't yet been used in a real disaster, during tests and drills people who had worked as first responders during Sept. 11 and Katrina "really related to the system," Wolfson said.
Tuchman arrives at the CEO job after three years serving as Supercom's chief financial officer, according to a company statement.
During the fourth quarter of 2005 the company posted a $966,000 loss but increased sales for the entire year, a company statement announced in late February.
At that time CFO Tuchman said via a statement: "Our forecast for 2006 is for revenues to be in the range of $10 million to $10.8 million, with the majority of the growth expected to come in the second half of the year. Thanks to the cost cutting done in 2005 and the anticipated increase in our revenues, we believe that we will reach 'break even' towards the end of 2006."
Copyright 2006 by United Press International
