RFID is most associated with supply chain applications and item level tagging. But over the last couple of years many other applications for RFID have emerged. One area that is getting an increasing amount of attention is using RFID in document management. In many industries, the value of a printed document can be substantially higher than an equivalent weight of currency. Critical media, legal or financial documents can be embedded with an RFID tag so the document can be located and tracked. It allows these documents to inherit a digital identity and gives computers the ability to search for and locate documents as easy as clicking the search button on an Internet search page.

It also increases information security. Important documents such as earnings releases, merger and acquisition memos, health records and legal documents can be linked to specific people or locations, and un-authorized document movement can be identified. Wouldn’t it be nice if an earnings report could message the CFO that it had left their office?

Two events at the recent RFID Live conference highlight the growth of RFID in document management. Lexmark announced a new RFID enabled printer drawer option for their T60, T642 and T644 laser printers. These are regular laser printers that can be equipped with a special drawer that contains a ThingMagic M5e embedded RFID reader. This allows the laser printer to print documents and other media and encode attached RFID tags.

Also at the show, Dan Zinn, Chief Information Officer of the Florida State Attorney’s office, presented on using RFID to manage case files and documents. The Florida Attorney’s office manages thousands of document case files. Using ThingMagic RFID readers as part of system designed with the help of our business partner Innerwireless, they’ve been able to make tracking and locating case files much more efficient.

We expect to see many more examples of RFID being used to track, locate and secure documents in the coming months.