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RFID Journal Awards 2024: Recognizing the Best RFID and IoT Deployments and Products

Rules for Entry

  • Only entries submitted electronically at rfidjournalawards.com will be accepted.
  • Products submitted for the Best New Product Award must have been introduced or significantly enhanced since the previous year’s RFID Journal LIVE.
  • Systems integrators, hardware, and software companies may enter on behalf of their customers, but customers must sign the release form indicating they have approved the submission and the use of the information in the submission for an article should they win.
  • The same entry may be submitted in only one category.
  • The same company can submit multiple entries.
  • The editors of RFID Journal reserve the right to reassign products to other categories if they deem entries a better fit for a different category than the one entered for.
  • Entries must be submitted before midnight, January 31, 2024, to be considered.
  • Entries may include additional materials, including online case studies, electronic photographs, online videos, or links to such materials.

Jury

Entries will be judged after the entry deadline has passed by a panel of RFID, AIDC, and IoT experts. At least five judges will judge the entries in each category.

Award Categories and Judging Criteria

Best Retail, Manufacturing, Health Care, Logistics and Other Deployments:

These awards will be judged on how much business value the RFID or other IoT system delivers to the user. Among the questions judges will be asking are:

  • Has the solution delivered business value?
    • Did it cut costs or increase revenue?
    • Did it make employees more productive?
    • Did it enable the company to deliver products to the right place at the right time or provide better service for its products?
    • Did it reduce errors, mistakes, or other problems?
    • Were there any soft benefits?
  • Did the project have a clear objective?
  • Is the objective relevant to the business problem or company’s needs?
  • Does the use of RFID or IoT go beyond what other companies have done with?
  • Is the solution scalable, acceptable to the employees affected, and economically viable?
  • Is the solution a significant improvement over alternatives?
  • How much time and money was spent on the project? Is this amount reasonable, given the solution?
  • Does the solution make maximum use of the technology or technologies used?

Best Use of RFID or IoT to Enhance a Product or Service:

This award will be judged on how well the company used RFID or IoT to deliver additional value to its customers. Among the questions judges will be asking are: 

  • Does the solution deliver additional value to the customer?
    • Did it make the product easier to use, easier to set up or easier to maintain?
    • Did it improve customer service?
    • Did it make the customer more productive?
  • Did the project have a clear objective?
  • Is the objective relevant to the needs of the company’s customers?
  • Was the RFID transponder/reader or IoT device embedded into the product in a way that avoided disruption to the customer?
  • Was the design of RFID or IoT into the product seamless and cost-effective?
  • Is the solution a significant enhancement to the product or service?
  • Has the solution been tested for performance under the type of real-world conditions experienced by the customer?
  • Where did the company get the RFID or IoT equipment? Did it need to be customized to be embedded in the product or service? If so, did an RFID or IoT company or the entrant do the customization?
  • Does the solution make maximum use of the technology or technologies used?

Best New Product

For this award, judges will select up to 10 new hardware, software and services using RFID or other IoT technology. To be eligible, the vendor submitting must be an exhibitor at RFID Journal LIVE!, and the product must have been introduced after last year’s LIVE!. The editors of RFID Journal will choose the Best in Show winner based on the judges scoring and their own judgement. To select the finalist, the judges will use the following criteria:

  • Does the new product or service deliver business value to those for whom it is designed?
  • Will it solve a business problem?
  • Will it reduce costs, improve efficiencies or increase sales?
  • Will it simplify RFID/IoT deployments or make it more cost-effective to deploy RFID/IoT systems?
  • Will it enable companies to comply with regulations more cost-effectively?
  • Is the product/service original, or does it simply do what existing products do?
  • Does the product/service break new ground?
  • Does it offer a significant improvement over existing products in the same category?
  • Is the product/service likely to deliver a significant return on investment?
  • Does the product/service solve a business problem common in a particular industry?

Scoring System

Each judge will choose a first-, second-, and third-place entry for each category. Fifteen points will be awarded for every first-place entry, nine for each second-place vote, and five for every third-place vote. We will exclude the highest and lowest votes to ensure no one vote affects the outcome. The entries with the highest average score among the judges for each category will be declared the winner. In the event of a tie, those with tied scores will share the award. All decisions by RFID Journal's editorial team will be final.

Definition of RFID and IoT

For the purposes of this award, RFID technology will be defined as any system that uses radio waves to remotely identify an object or person. These systems include but are not limited to, low-frequency (HF) systems, high-frequency (HF) systems, Near-Field Communication (NFC), ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) systems, active RFID systems, Wi-Fi-based systems, Bluetooth beacons, real-time locating systems (RTLS), and sensor or RF mesh networks. They can be based on air-interface protocol standards established by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) or other standards bodies, such as the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

Winners Announcement

There are no monetary prizes. The winners will be announced during the awards ceremony at RFID Journal LIVE! and featured on the RFID Journal website.

Entrants agree (a) to be bound by these Official Rules and (b) that the decisions of the judges and RFID Journal are final on all matters relating to the RFID Journal Awards.