Purpose - The purpose of the paper is to show that smart item technologies, like RFID and sensor networks, are considered the next big step in business process automation. Through automatic real-time data acquisition, these technologies can provide benefits to a variety of industries by improving the efficiency of their operations. A service-oriented infrastructure is proposed that enables the integration of RFID, wireless sensor networks and embedded systems technologies with existing business processes. Design/methodology/approach - This paper discusses the system requirements of a smart items infrastructure in detail. Based on these requirements, the overall infrastructure and the constituting components are introduced. Also, using two real-world scenarios, it is shown how the proposed infrastructure can be used. Findings - The paper found a set of technical requirements for a smart items infrastructure. The research resulted in the architectural design presented. Originality/value - To the best of one's knowledge, this paper is the first to identify and explain the technical requirements for a holistic smart items infrastructure. The service-oriented system architecture provides a new approach to a flexible/adaptable infrastructure for ubiquitous computing. By pointing out requirements and open issues, the paper identifies interesting topics for future research in this area.
