Microsoft is helping UK RFID SaaS provider Detego further develop its cloud-hosted RFID platform for the retail industry.

The end-to-end platform is used by several global retailers in more than 2000 stores, warehouses and factories. It accurately tracks products and digitises processes from source to store.

Joining Microsoft’s fast-track and co-sponsorship programmes will allow Detego to accelerate the deployment of its smart features such as automated planograms and in-store money mapping.

Detego has been developing and delivering its platform to global retailers for over ten years. It was one of the first platforms to move to the cloud and adopt the SaaS model. In that time, more use cases for RFID have become established, and vendors with reliable products and proven track records have emerged.

Detego will be working alongside Microsoft architects as they continue to build the RFID platform. The aim is to build on the scalable model of the platform as well as develop smart features that leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and big data. Detego is a proponent of the potential of AI and RFID and is continuing to pioneer innovations such as automated store planograms and shop-floor money mapping.

Alongside Microsoft, Detego’s data science team will continue to develop these smart features and push the limits of what RFID can do for retail.

“We are thrilled to be working with Microsoft, both as part of the fast-track programme and the co-sponsorship programme,” said Leonid Sokolovskiy, Detego’s director of software development. “Hosting the platform on Azure has always been vital for us. To be recognised and backed by Microsoft in such a way is fantastic. As software specialists, we have always seen the performance and scope of our platform as our main point of difference, so we are looking forward to working with Microsoft to take the platform even further and build the definitive RFID for retail.”

Detego, founded in 2011 with offices in the UK, Austria, USA and Russia, is an RFID provider focussing solely on software for retail. It says it provides its retail customers with fast RoI through improved stock accuracy, product availability and better decision making gained from the item-level data, combined with its reporting and AI capabilities.

The software is complemented by managed services and financing models. Users include international fashion brands, retailers and department stores, with the platform in use in more than 2000 stores and 15 distribution centres.