Independent RTLS & RFID buyer’s guide — free PDF.
How to select RTLS technology and vendors without buying a partnership slide — written for the people who sign and the people who run it. Free, ungated PDF.
- How to choose between UWB, BLE, Passive RFID, GPS, LoRa & SLAM for your use case
- A technology-at-a-glance comparison: accuracy, range and best-fit
- The 10 questions to ask any vendor before you shortlist
- How to run a pilot that actually proves value — and the red flags that it isn't
- Benchmark outcomes to size the opportunity before you spend
Download the guide (PDF) — free, no sign-up
A concise, practical guide · ~10-minute read · keepable as a procurement reference. Prefer it emailed, or want a tailored walkthrough? Use the form →
Eight chapters, written by people who have shipped this.
Use-case discovery
The seven questions every successful RTLS programme answers before the technology conversation starts.
Technology selection
UWB vs BLE vs Passive RFID vs LoRa vs SLAM vs GPS. The decision tree, the trade-offs, the gotchas.
Vendor evaluation
A scoring template covering radio performance, software openness, integration footprint, TCO, and vendor stability.
The RFP
What to include, what to leave out. Sample evaluation criteria with weights.
ROI modelling
The four value drivers, how to quantify them, sensitivity analysis for the CFO conversation.
Programme governance
The four gates between scoping and live rollout. Who signs off on what.
Integration architecture
ISA-95 / Purdue alignment, MES / EMR / WMS plumbing, event schema, security to IEC 62443.
15 common traps
Procurement, technical, and commercial mistakes we've seen consistently — and how to sidestep them.
Why an ungated buyer’s guide still matters
Most RTLS content online is vendor demand-gen wearing a thought-leadership costume. An ungated guide is useful only if it changes how you shortlist: forcing use-case discovery before radio selection, insisting on pilot criteria, and naming traps that burn CapEx.
The eight chapters follow how competent programmes actually run — discovery, technology selection, vendor evaluation, RFP, ROI, governance gates, integration architecture, and common traps — not how booth demos are sequenced.
Read it as a procurement hygiene check. If your current RFP cannot answer the ten vendor questions, pause hardware talks.
How to use the guide with your internal stakeholders
Give operations the use-case and ROI chapters; give IT/OT the integration and IEC 62443 notes; give procurement the RFP and scoring material; give privacy/security the monitoring and data-minimisation themes. Align on gate criteria before anyone books a preferred-vendor PoC.
Pair the PDF with our live ROI calculator and technology picker when you are ready to plug in your numbers. The guide explains the logic; the tools pressure-test the business case.
Competitive substance: we advise across UWB, BLE-AoA, RAIN RFID, LoRaWAN, GNSS/RTK and hybrid designs without selling tags. If a chapter steers you away from a fashionable radio for your physics, that is the point.
What the guide will not do
It will not certify your deployment, replace a site survey, or bless a single SI. It will not claim universal ROI multiples. It will help you avoid buying a partnership slide.
Prefer a walkthrough mapped to your industry overlays (HIPAA, GDPR, IATF, ATEX, DSCSA, Part 11, AS9100)? Book a scoping call — bring the PDF annotations.
Chapter-by-chapter reading guide for busy buyers
Executives: chapters on discovery, ROI and traps. Architects: technology selection, integration, IEC 62443 notes. Procurement: vendor evaluation and RFP. Privacy/security: monitoring minimisation themes threaded throughout.
After reading, run a one-page gap list against your live RFP. If more than three critical gaps appear, pause hardware demos. The PDF is short on purpose — action beats another 80-page ebook.
We update perspectives as markets shift (for example DSCSA timing, UWB security research, VDA 5050 adoption). Use the live site compliance and comparison pages for the deepest regime notes.
Pairing the guide with paid scoping
Ungated does not mean unsupported. Scoping calls apply the same logic to your floor, your unions/IG office, and your system-of-record constraints. Bring annotated pages.
Extended advisory notes around the buyer’s guide
Treat the guide as a shared language across COO, CFO, CISO, DPO and procurement. Misalignment among those roles is a top cause of stalled locating programmes — operations wants speed, security wants segmentation, privacy wants minimisation, finance wants payback, procurement wants a framework supplier. The chapters give each role a place to stand without killing the programme.
Technology selection chapter discipline: force a use-case accuracy and update-rate statement before radio brand. Many sites that 'need UWB' actually need doorway RFID identity; many that 'need RFID only' need zone presence for safety. Hybrids are normal. Single-radio religion is not.
Vendor evaluation: demand production-interference tests, security questionnaires returned by engineers not SDRs, and references matched to your vertical overlay. Stability of the vendor matters — orphaned platforms are real.
RFP chapter: keep lots separable (hardware, software, install, integration) so you can replace an underperforming install partner without ripping tags out. Exit clauses and data export formats belong in the contract, not the hope drawer.
Traps chapter in practice: scope creep into staff productivity analytics; under-scoped surveys; pilots without night shifts; ignoring works councils; skipping OT cyber; declaring victory on average error. Use the trap list as a pre-mortem agenda.
After the PDF: run ROI scenarios, open the compliance pages for your regimes, and book scoping if you want the method applied to your floor. Ungated reading plus gated delivery is intentional.
Why an ungated buyer’s guide still matters
Most RTLS content online is vendor demand-gen wearing a thought-leadership costume. An ungated guide is useful only if it changes how you shortlist: forcing use-case discovery before radio selection, insisting on pilot criteria, and naming traps that burn CapEx.
The eight chapters follow how competent programmes actually run — discovery, technology selection, vendor evaluation, RFP, ROI, governance gates, integration architecture, and common traps — not how booth demos are sequenced.
Read it as a procurement hygiene check. If your current RFP cannot answer the ten vendor questions, pause hardware talks.
How to use the guide with your internal stakeholders
Give operations the use-case and ROI chapters; give IT/OT the integration and IEC 62443 notes; give procurement the RFP and scoring material; give privacy/security the monitoring and data-minimisation themes. Align on gate criteria before anyone books a preferred-vendor PoC.
Pair the PDF with our live ROI calculator and technology picker when you are ready to plug in your numbers. The guide explains the logic; the tools pressure-test the business case.
Competitive substance: we advise across UWB, BLE-AoA, RAIN RFID, LoRaWAN, GNSS/RTK and hybrid designs without selling tags. If a chapter steers you away from a fashionable radio for your physics, that is the point.
What the guide will not do
It will not certify your deployment, replace a site survey, or bless a single SI. It will not claim universal ROI multiples. It will help you avoid buying a partnership slide.
Prefer a walkthrough mapped to your industry overlays (HIPAA, GDPR, IATF, ATEX, DSCSA, Part 11, AS9100)? Book a scoping call — bring the PDF annotations.
Chapter-by-chapter reading guide for busy buyers
Executives: chapters on discovery, ROI and traps. Architects: technology selection, integration, IEC 62443 notes. Procurement: vendor evaluation and RFP. Privacy/security: monitoring minimisation themes threaded throughout.
After reading, run a one-page gap list against your live RFP. If more than three critical gaps appear, pause hardware demos. The PDF is short on purpose — action beats another 80-page ebook.
We update perspectives as markets shift (for example DSCSA timing, UWB security research, VDA 5050 adoption). Use the live site compliance and comparison pages for the deepest regime notes.
Extended advisory notes around the buyer’s guide
Treat the guide as a shared language across COO, CFO, CISO, DPO and procurement. Misalignment among those roles is a top cause of stalled locating programmes — operations wants speed, security wants segmentation, privacy wants minimisation, finance wants payback, procurement wants a framework supplier. The chapters give each role a place to stand without killing the programme.
Technology selection chapter discipline: force a use-case accuracy and update-rate statement before radio brand. Many sites that 'need UWB' actually need doorway RFID identity; many that 'need RFID only' need zone presence for safety. Hybrids are normal. Single-radio religion is not.
Vendor evaluation: demand production-interference tests, security questionnaires returned by engineers not SDRs, and references matched to your vertical overlay. Stability of the vendor matters — orphaned platforms are real.
RFP chapter: keep lots separable (hardware, software, install, integration) so you can replace an underperforming install partner without ripping tags out. Exit clauses and data export formats belong in the contract, not the hope drawer.
Traps chapter in practice: scope creep into staff productivity analytics; under-scoped surveys; pilots without night shifts; ignoring works councils; skipping OT cyber; declaring victory on average error. Use the trap list as a pre-mortem agenda.
After the PDF: run ROI scenarios, open the compliance pages for your regimes, and book scoping if you want the method applied to your floor. Ungated reading plus gated delivery is intentional.
Last updated: 13 September 2026