Daily Archives: April 25, 2021

By Shira Ovide, The New York Times Company

Lets talk about relatively simple technology and a change in government policy that could unleash more innovation for Americans who have difficulty hearing.

I have been speaking with audiologists, consumer advocates and technology companies about what could be a revolution for our ears hearing aids at a fraction of the cost and hassle of conventional devices.

Heres how things stand now: Hearing loss is a pervasive and serious health problem, and many people are reluctant or cant afford to get conventional hearing aids. Nearly 38 million U.S. adults report some degree of hearing loss, but only a minority of people who could benefit from hearing aids have ever used them.

Hearing aids typically cost thousands of dollars, require multiple visits to specialists and often arent covered by health insurance. Untreated hearing loss is associated with cognitive decline, dementia and other harms. Overcoming barriers to hearing treatment may significantly improve Americans health.

The federal government is poised to help. Congress in 2017 passed legislation that would let anyone buy hearing aids approved by the Food and Drug Administration without a prescription from an audiologist. The FDA has missed a deadline to release draft guidelines for this new category of over-the-counter hearing aids.

Experts told me that when the FDA moves ahead, its likely to lead to new products and ideas to change hearing aids as we know them.

Imagine Apple, Bose or other consumer electronics companies making hearing aids more stylish and relatively affordable with people having confidence that the devices had been vetted by the FDA. Bose told me that its working on over-the-counter hearing aid technology.

Barbara Kelley, executive director of the Hearing Loss Association of America, an advocacy organization, told me that she cant wait for more affordable and accessible hearing help.

Im really excited for the market to open up to see what we got and see how people are reacting, she said.

It is already possible to buy a hearing helper they cant legally be called hearing aids without a prescription. These devices, called personal sound amplification products or PSAPs, vary wildly in quality from excellent to junk. But when shopping for them, people often cant tell the difference.

(The Wall Street Journal also recently wrote about hearing helper technologies, including earbuds that can amplify quiet sounds. And Consumer Reports has a useful guide to hearing aids and PSAPs.)

Nicholas Reed, director of audiology at the Johns Hopkins Cochlear Center for Hearing and Public Health, told me that the FDA process should provide a path for the best PSAPs to be approved as official over-the-counter hearing aids. He expects new companies to hit the market, too.

You may doubt that a gadget you buy next to the toilet paper at CVS could be a serious medical device. Reeds research, however, has found that some hearing helpers for $350 or less were almost as good as prescription hearing aids for people with mild-to-moderate hearing loss.

Reed described the best lower-cost devices as the Hyundai of hearing help. (This was a compliment.) They arent flashy, but they will get many people safely and effectively where they need to go. He also imagines that the FDA rules will create the conditions for many more people to buy hearing aids both over the counter and by prescription.

Over-the-counter hearing aids wont be able to help everyone, experts told me. And the traditional hearing aid industry has said that people are best served by customized devices with expert help.

There is also more technology brewing at the luxury end of the spectrum. A Silicon Valley startup called Whisper has a novel monthly payment option for its hearing aids and says that its software learns over time based on an individuals hearing deficits.

Health care in the United States can often feel as if its stuck, and technology is usually not the solution. But with hearing aids, technology and a change in government policy could bring helpful health innovation.

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Hearing aids for the masses: How changing technology and government policy can help - The Denver Post

Every once in a while I like to remind folks of the need to wear safety belts in motor vehicles.

Lately I have been noticing more and more reports of people being ejected from vehicles, with fatal results.

Which almost always results from not wearing a safety belt.

I installed one of the very first safety belts in this region back when I was a correspondent for the Bakersfield Californian newspaper and a teenager.

The California Highway Patrol began installing lap belts in their patrol cars around that time, in the middle 1950s, when the Air Force discovered that they were losing more troops to auto crashes in the US that to combat in Korea.

Ford jumped on the bandwagon by building safer cars and installing the belts, with other manufacturers soon following.

Adoption was slow with the usual fear of and antipathy to change.

When shoulder belts were introduced, some drivers complained of claustrophobia.

There are always people who just refuse everything new and different.

Two things happen with not wearing safety belts you can get a traffic citation or you can die.

Which continues to occur.

Reading crash reports it appears that very young and older drivers seem to be the demographic most averse to wearing safety belts.

There seems to be a similar situation with COVID shots.

Kern County is at the bottom of the list in folks in California declining the COVID vaccine. I got my shots in the first week or two when they became available. At age 85 it seemed to be a good idea.

Aside from a sore arm for a couple days following the second shot, Ive had no problems.

What is interesting (and reassuring) is that for several weeks following the last shot I received a weekly short and voluntary questionnaire from the Centers for Disease Control checking to see if I had any problems.

To me its comforting that they are doing this tracking.

Since I am not one of those people who thinks the government is out to get me, I responded to the queries, which took all of about 30 seconds.

My experience working in government at several levels has convinced me that they would have a really tough time trying to get me even if they wanted to.

I have more problems with AT&T than I ever do with the guvmint.

Speaking of AT&T, it has one of the worst websites that I have ever tried to use, especially for a communications company.

I also would not have a problem with a COVID Passport, which seems like a good idea to everyone except the Republicans who seem to be opposed to just about everything these days.

This would be along the lines of something I have been advocation for eons, a health care system with a universal card that would eliminate much of the time wasted when seeking medical care.

Anytime I need to visit a specialist or have tests, etc., I spend more time on the paperwork than on the procedure.

My docs send me to have semi-annual blood tests, etc. I always go to the same lab but I still have to wait to have my records checked and then wait for the lady with the needle.

Which takes about two seconds, a little longer if she hands me a small bottle and sends me to the restroom.

Im a great believer in the adage that every cloud has a silver lining.

The latest example is the door to the Mojave Post Office.

Some mentally deficient criminals recently caused expensive vandalism to the post office, resulting in it being closed on Sundays, which was the day I usually visited it. (I also get mail at home.)

One of my silent complaints about the local PO has long been the doors.

I wont go into detail, but new doors have been installed and they are a big improvement over the existing ones.

My next complaint about the Mojave Post Office is its lack of adequate parking for the handicapped, a category I have joined due to the onset of what some jokers call the Golden Years, that great crippler of young adults.

Despite the large number of we elders, the post office has only one handicap spot.

Not only that, but the sidewalk at the PO is a bit of a high step for us old gals and guys.

Which means that wherever I park I must walk over to the ramp into the post office that is at ground level.

Since handicap parking rules originate with the Feds, you would think that a federal agency would follow them.

Yes, I know the USPS is a federal corporation in name only.

I spent time running the office of a member of Congress who was on the Post Office and Civil Service Committee, and at OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration when we were in DC.

One of my jobs at OSHA was working with federal agencies to get them, like the rest of us, to observe OSHAs regulations, something many of them (including the Postal Service) chose to ignore.

On the plus side, snail mail is slowly disappearing as a way of transmitting information and stuff.

Speaking of change, when does the Mojave Public Utility District plan to join the rest of the world and allow its customers to pay their bills online? I was told about a year ago that they were waiting for a server.

I have only one other bill that requires me to write a monthly check which is, no big surprise, the Congressional Federal Credit Union in our nations capitol.

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Safety belts, the postal 'service' and using technology - Antelope Valley Press

The 62nd annual Western Kansas Technology Education Fair at Fort Hays State University is set for this Friday. The event is Friday, April 30th, from 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

According to FHSU, the technology fair features junior high and high school students in technology education classes bringing their projects to be displayed and judged at Gross Memorial Coliseum. Students in schools all across Kansas participate in the fair.

The coliseum is open to the public for viewing the projects, which range from wood furniture and metal works to CAD drawings and drafting.

Doors open to the public at 8 a.m., and an awards ceremony is set for about 3:30 p.m.

Each entry is awarded a ribbon or medal. Awards also are given for winners of several live competitions that take place during the day, including communication, metric 500 racing, tech challenge (quiz bowl) and problem solving.

We are excited to be able to host the annual technology fair this year.Having this event means area high school and middle school students and their technology teachers will be on the Fort Hays State University campus and that is good news!, Kim Stewart, chair of the department of applied technology.

Students in FHSUs Technology and Engineering Education Collegiate Association run the entire fair.

Due to COVID-19 policy, when present on University property, all employees, students, and visitors must wear face coverings over their mouths and noses and practice social distancing.

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FHSU Hosting Technology Education Fair - KSAL

There are a few key trends to look for if we want to identify the next multi-bagger. Amongst other things, we'll want to see two things; firstly, a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an expansion in the company's amount of capital employed. Put simply, these types of businesses are compounding machines, meaning they are continually reinvesting their earnings at ever-higher rates of return. However, after briefly looking over the numbers, we don't think New Oriental Education & Technology Group (NYSE:EDU) has the makings of a multi-bagger going forward, but let's have a look at why that may be.

For those who don't know, ROCE is a measure of a company's yearly pre-tax profit (its return), relative to the capital employed in the business. The formula for this calculation on New Oriental Education & Technology Group is:

Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)

0.035 = US$230m (US$9.8b - US$3.2b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to February 2021).

So, New Oriental Education & Technology Group has an ROCE of 3.5%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Consumer Services industry average of 7.5%.

View our latest analysis for New Oriental Education & Technology Group

roce

In the above chart we have measured New Oriental Education & Technology Group's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

On the surface, the trend of ROCE at New Oriental Education & Technology Group doesn't inspire confidence. Over the last five years, returns on capital have decreased to 3.5% from 14% five years ago. On the other hand, the company has been employing more capital without a corresponding improvement in sales in the last year, which could suggest these investments are longer term plays. It may take some time before the company starts to see any change in earnings from these investments.

Story continues

In summary, New Oriental Education & Technology Group is reinvesting funds back into the business for growth but unfortunately it looks like sales haven't increased much just yet. Investors must think there's better things to come because the stock has knocked it out of the park, delivering a 313% gain to shareholders who have held over the last five years. But if the trajectory of these underlying trends continue, we think the likelihood of it being a multi-bagger from here isn't high.

New Oriental Education & Technology Group does have some risks though, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for New Oriental Education & Technology Group that you might be interested in.

While New Oriental Education & Technology Group may not currently earn the highest returns, we've compiled a list of companies that currently earn more than 25% return on equity. Check out this free list here.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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New Oriental Education & Technology Group (NYSE:EDU) May Have Issues Allocating Its Capital - Yahoo Finance

The American military is entering an era of great power competition, where agility and quick adaptation matters more than ever. For too long, emerging capabilities failed to bridge the valley of death and get integrated into Department of Defense programs of record. In recent years, the DoD has launched groups aiming to change the tech insertion reality, such as the Defense Innovation Unit, Joint Artificial Intelligence Center and Army Futures Command, which accelerate adoption of innovative technologies across the department.

Even so, disruptive innovation in the commercial sector still struggles to enter the federal market, including at the Pentagon. The recent trend toward the defense industrial base consolidating down to a handful of large system integrators tuned toward winning contracts that require custom-developed solutions must cease. Their hold on DoD means innovative software startups and small businesses find the federal government market increasingly complicated, lacking transparency and fraught with misaligned incentives, which further supports the incumbents.

Thankfully, it doesnt have to be this way. DoD is primed to accelerate digital innovation through procurement and governance transformation enabled by cloud software marketplaces. Last years NDAA contained Section 834, which allows for pilots of consumption-based technology and provides an opening to think differently about buying services for the war fighter. Cloud software marketplaces offer the government the potential to simplify the approach for procuring independent software vendors (ISVs) through the growing number of cloud contracts, which can fundamentally change the paradigm on tech insertion.

The Biden administration can leverage new DoD acquisition authorities and make long overdue shifts in the DoD IT and software budgets to accelerate the departments cloud transformation. Budgetary realignment offers the government an opportunity to open the door to innovation from third party providers, cutting edge software and cloud-based workloads. Such an approach would streamline tech insertion, increase government access to new solutions, mitigate concerns about vendor lock in, and level the playing field for small vendors that struggle to navigate the complicated process of selling into the federal government.

In particular, cloud marketplaces provide DoD an opportunity to successfully execute its software pilot mandate as required by Section 834. For instance, software marketplaces enable utility software consumption models, by providing scalable usage on demand, and at established commercial catalog prices. Marketplaces ensure that once new capabilities are launched and accredited, they are available for use under the program, while also enabling flexible and as-needed teaming arrangement to enable the software channel to participate in the ecosystem to support the mission. A strong 834 pilot can allow government to test and validate new technologies prior to making time-intensive investments in meeting security certifications required for production workloads.

By aligning tech delivery with its existing cloud service provider relationships, DoD can offload tech insertion to commercial industry via a cloud marketplace aligned to existing contracts.

In August 2020, Bessemer Ventures and Alliance for Digital Innovation member Tackle.io released their first State of Cloud Marketplaces report. In it they note, Fundamental shifts in the enterprise software industry come around very rarely, but when they do, most of us tend to underestimate how large of an impact they will have All we know in the near term is that Cloud Marketplaces will likely exceed all our expectations most large software buyers are just waking up to the opportunities that these Marketplaces afford them to save precious time and money on the procurement of cloud software that they are already buying.

DoD is the type of large enterprise that must embrace this opportunity and, thanks to some recent developments, is well positioned to unleash innovative software solutions across every inch of the Pentagon.

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As DoD moves the Cloud Computing Program Office from the Pentagon to the Defense Information Systems Agency, now is a perfect time to examine the role of cloud software marketplaces, establish software-as-a-service pilots consistent with Section 834, and remove friction to allow easier procurement and integration of ISVs into the DoDs agile acquisition framework. This approach will save time and money on procurement, create opportunities for small businesses, and enable DoD to deliver the best solutions for the war fighter faster.

Matthew T. Cornelius is the executive director of the Alliance for Digital Innovation. ADI is a coalition of innovative technology companies focused on improving mission outcomes in the public sector through the adoption and use of modern commercial capabilities.

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Cloud software marketplaces are linchpin to driving innovative technology solutions into DoD - C4ISRNet

Michigan has a diverse fruit industry with an economic impact of $7.5 billion on the state.

The way fruit is produced is quickly evolving, and growers are adapting to address a myriad of challenges. A key focus of the MSU Extension Fruit Team is to provide programming to help growers make pest and disease management decisions.

In particular, invasive insects and disease resistance management strategies have been a couple of top educational priorities in recent years.

Our team also develops programs with a focus on maximizing orchard productivity and/or fruit quality in order to remain competitive in a global marketplace. Orchard modernization, precision agriculture, and adoption of new technologies are a few areas Michigan growers need to thrive in to remain competitive.

With the novel coronavirus and the shelter-in-place order in spring 2020, the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Center staff and the MSU Fruit Team continued to address these priorities through research and extension programming in new and different ways.

On April 13th, 2020, the two groups kicked off a daily, two-week webinar series to help growers gear up for a successful field season. In typical years, Extension educators host in-person meetings in the different fruit growing regions and cover timely topics, which include updates on insects, diseases and horticulture.

In March 2020, we operated under CDC recommendations to ensure the safety of our staff and clientele, we hosted daily weekday webinars via ZOOM technology. If growers were not able to attend a live session, the webinars were recorded and posted online for later viewing.

The MSU fruit team had been successfully using ZOOM for remote meetings, and ZOOM was a good alternative for continuing to host interactive programs with growers. ZOOM allows participants to view and listen presentations on a computer, tablet, or smartphone. Questions were taken through a chat box feature.

While this system is simple to use, high-speed internet or consistent cellular service was needed for this technology to watch it live, which was an issue to reach some growers in the Grand Traverse region. If growers chose or had to watch video after the live showing, high-speed internet was not necessary.

The webinars featured timely pest management and horticultural topics presented by MSU researchers, Extension educators, and out-of-state invited speakers. Even during a pandemic, the NWMHRC staff and MSU Fruit Team continued to do their best to ensure growers were kept up to date of pertinent information during the growing season just as we do with in-person meetings.

Because of the positive feedback we received from the statewide webinar series early in the spring, we expanded our reach to the regional level and held weekly online educational meetings in southwest Michigan, the Grand Rapids area, and northwest Michigan throughout the 2020 growing season.

We hope things will look different this growing season, but our regions growers and dedicated Extension staff were able to move with the times and keep important information flowing to help growers successfully raise fruit crops across Michigan.

Nikki Rothwell is a Michigan State University Extension district horticulturalist and coordinator of the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Station

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Nikki Rothwell is a Michigan State University Extension district horticulturalist and coordinator of the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Station.

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Technology allowed Extension to keep doing its job - Traverse City Record Eagle

COVID-19 was far and away the headliner of the last year, if not the last decade. It will continue to monopolise the spotlight as it has accelerated the research, development and launch of numerous initiatives that are making healthcare delivery better while optimising patient care to lead to better patient outcomes.

Cardiovascular caregivers generally engage with their patients on an intermittent, reactive basis, meaning they only have contact with patients when needed for individual episodes of care. They tend not to see the whole picture of the patient, nor the patients journey. This fractured view of the patients journey across the care continuum has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Patients have deferred routine appointments and avoided going to the hospital, which has resulted in late presentations of both heart attack and critical limb ischemia and has aggravated the issue of patients becoming lost for follow-up. To address this issue, physicians are meeting their patients using remote patient monitoring and communication tools to increase patient engagement and capture the full patient journey.

These tools will give physicians integrated actionable data to see the whole patient and connect the dots across the care continuum before, during and after any intervention. Whilst the pandemic has accelerated the use of remote patient monitoring, this will continue to be a cornerstone of future personalised patient care.

By directly interacting with patients continuously before and after intervention, physicians can address patients diverse and specific needs, encourage healthy behaviors, and understand what is needed to drive improvements in quality of life and patient outcomes.

Organisations and medical professionals have adapted in a variety of ways to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic; remote webinars, conferences and meetings have now become the norm. Even conventionally, in-person experiences such as hands-on training and proctoring have adapted and are now being delivered remotely with the assistance of new virtual and augmented reality technologies.

The medical community will continue to leverage these technologies to enhance virtual training in 2021, including smart applications and virtual reality systems, enabling increased engagement and better results in less time and at lower costs than traditional training programs.

In the future, such technologies could be envisioned to enhance the value of remote congresses by providing unique in-person experiences. It will now be up to the cardiovascular community to meet the expectations and needs of the medical community. As such, we think organisational agility will be a differentiator in engaging and delivering value to physicians and patients.

In bringing new medical technology to market, the medical device community will continue to expand its enrollment efforts in 2021 to ensure that clinical trials encourage the participation of underrepresented populations who would benefit the greatest from the development of new drug therapies and medical devices. As such, we will see organisations make a conscious effort to be more inclusive when choosing investigators, selecting sites with diverse staff, and treating a diverse patient population, to meet the needs of those in underserved communities.

While socioeconomic factors have been flagged as a driver in the varied care and engagement that patients have received from healthcare providers during the COVID-19 pandemic, the cardiovascular community needs to also address other disparities, like women and non-Caucasian patients being less likely to receive preferred treatments.

The medical community is working to understand and address the diverse inequalities in cardiovascular care, including systematic underrepresentation of women and non-Caucasian patients in clinical trials. The plan is to develop initiatives to improve patient interaction and encourage patient engagement to address this imbalance.

Further, we predict the whole healthcare industry will start taking steps to address inequitable access to and provision of care, as well as the variation in clinical outcomes across racial and socioeconomic groups.

In the cardiovascular space, we will see an increase of visibility in pre-Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) assessment, including imaging-derived physiology and post-PCI assessment (new clinical data). As a result, we will also observe a gradual shift in the proper diagnosis of formerly difficult to diagnose conditions like coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD) to improve patient outcomes and quality of life.

The cardiovascular and medical communities will see continued advancements in the deployment of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to solve challenges related to information and data overload. Healthcare providers will require AI tools to collect, collate and synthesise the abundance of information gathered from traditional medical sources such as labs and diagnostics, and now increased information generated from remote monitoring and smart device usage.

The combination of medical data and lifestyle information will help to personalise patient pathways and determine the best treatment tailored to each patients unique health needs and desires. Overall, data-driven technologies through applications like smart wearables will continue to make measurable impacts in 2021 and beyond, as evidenced by findings from the broader medical community as described in Abbotts recent Beyond Intervention research.

If we have learned anything about medicine in the last yearand life in generalis that it is far from predictable. Living through a global pandemic has taught us about the necessity of flexibility, adaptability and mental fortitude. 2020 was an incredibly challenging year for everyone, especially the medical community, and we know our colleagues will continue to rise to the challenge in the future.

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Abbott Vascular: delivering vascular care in 2021 | Technology & AI - Healthcare Global - Healthcare News, Magazine and Website

Implementing new trends like "buy online, pickup in-store" can both enhance the retail shopping experience and prepare functionality if testing periods continue.

Apr 25, 2021Ed. Note: A version of this article originally appeared at Retail TouchPoints.

Like many other industries, retail is currently in its most testing period, yet "buy online, pickup in-store" (BOPIS) is currently revolutionizing the modern-day retail experience. BOPIS is a hybrid shopping experience allowing customers to buy items online and then pick them up at a physical store. BOPIS helps retailers provide a more accurate stock inventory and better visibility of the stock, keeping supply chains running smoothly.The transition from BOPIS 1.0 to 2.0 is one of the most significant retail technology upgrades. The transformation is best described as upgrading from pen and paper to a modern computer. While the pen and paper works, it might not be the quickest or most advanced option, nor the most organized approach if used continuously.

The Future of RFID and RetailThis has been an exceptionally turbulent year for all, with 2021 somewhat following suit. Suffering from multiple blows throughout the year, the retail industry, in what is usually a steadfast and resilient sector, has been brought to a shuddering halt in most of the world. Overnight, all non-essential stores were forced to shut, and where stores were closing, months of stock were staying put on retail shelves. Even when steps were taken to reopen retail, it was with a vastly different outlook and a dramatically different model from what was needed before the 2020 pandemic hit.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a phenomenon never seen before in the supply chaina total emptying of the product pipeline, then the startup of that massive supply chain again. However, BOPIS 2.0 technology aids the ability to repopulate these emptied pipelines and supply chains. By taking advantage of item-level RFID technology and its drastic improvement in inventory accuracy for BOPIS 2.0, it can be a kickstarter to the retail sector and become a technology "must-have" for the apparel, footwear, home goods, cosmetics, sporting goods and electronics sectors.

No matter where in the supply chain, RFID technology offers retailers the ability to gain full visibility of all stock across their entire estate. RFID solutions allow retailers to experience a level of accuracy of more than 98 percent, showing exactly how much stock they have, what they are missing, where that stock currently is, what needs to be replenished and what may be bloated inventory. What's most impressive, though, is what the technology can do for BOPIS models. Knowing what you have, definitively, allows you to make commitments to customers with confidence not found in today's BOPIS.

New BOPIS operational models are not possible with traditional 70 percent (or less) inventory accuracy. By using RFID, BOPIS 2.0 retailers can effectively ascertain the exact amount of stock they have left, what areas need restocking, what suitable alternatives are for stock that isn't available, and where the rest of the current stock supply is. It can also enhance the customer experience and satisfaction by accurately allowing retailers to locate new stock in busy stockrooms and on shop floors.

COVID-19 and the New Retail RealityWe should not expect our shopping experiences to return to normal for a sizable amount of time. As expected, the COVID-19 pandemic has altered the way we live our lives in almost every way, and the retail sector is no different. The pandemic has introduced an enhanced level of "hybrid shopping." Since the evolution of the Internet, this purchasing method has been readily available for the majority, but not to the levels that we saw since the pandemic struck.

With people adhering to social distancing and lockdown guidelines, more shopping is taking place online, but stores are essential to meet customer expectations and experiences. Stores and retailers have had to limit the number of shoppers in the store at any given time and have had to introduce strict shopping measures, such as time limits and one-way aisles.

To avoid disruption as well enable limited customer contact, an accurate BOPIS system can allow shoppers to quickly and remotely know whether their desired item is in stock in-store. There have also been strict restrictions placed on shoppers' ability to "try before you buy," so many have been buying various sizes and returning those that aren't right. An accurate BOPIS system can help you get these items back into the supply chain as quickly as possible, avoiding unnecessary time delays.

What to Expect in 2021It's difficult to predict what the next 12 months have in store when it comes to retail and the "normal" we were used to. From the unpredictability of 2020, we're expecting to see the shopping landscape evolve and adjust even further than it currently has into 2021. Yet if retailers implement an effective BOPIS strategy, they can look to future-proof their business and be prepared for any future uncertainties.

The most significant trend, moving into 2021, will be the continuation of omnichannel shopping, such as BOPIS and "buy online, ship from store" (BOSFS). With social-distancing measures introduced globally looking set to stay, BOPIS and BOSFS should be expected to be a key trend. We should also expect RFID technology to be at the center of this transformation for the next 20-plus years.

Nothing will be certain in 2021. With a lack of stability within many aspects of everyday life, normality is still seeming to be in the distant future. Implementing new trends like BOPIS can both enhance the retail shopping experience and prepare functionality if testing periods continue. Omnichannel retail has been around for a good amount of time. If 2020 has taught retail anything, it shows that by utilizing these trends, online consumption can withhold another straining time of uncertainty.

Dean Frew is the chief technology officer and senior VP for RFID solutions at SML Group and the founder of SML Intelligent Inventory Solutions (formerly Xterprise, acquired by SML in 2013). With more than 20 years' experience in delivering RFID solutions to retailers and brand owners around the globe, Frew is responsible for SML's overall strategy in driving forward its RFID tags and solutions.

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The Future of Retail: BOPIS 2.0 and RFID Technology | RFID JOURNAL - RFID Journal