Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags are a great way to track the efficiency of your operations, but the technology demands an entire system to handle the constant flow of data. Now Manhattan Associates has announced two sets of alliances to do it.

One alliance is with Symbol Technologies and Alien Technology . Each company will contribute its specialty: Manhattan's supply chain execution software, Symbol's enterprise mobility expertise, and Alien's low-cost RFID tags. That solution was demonstrated at NRF 2003 (the National Retail Federation Expo) in January, and could potentially move product through a DC without any manual checking or scanning, says Eric Peters, senior vice president of strategy, marketing, and alliances at Manhattan. Then at ProMat 2003 last month, Manhattan announced a similar partnership that will tap Zebra Technologies ' expertise in smart label printers/encoders. Using Manhattan's software, users will be able to print, program, and verify labels embedded with RFID tags.