PurposeThe 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/approachThis 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.FindingsThe paper found a set of technical requirements for a smart items infrastructure. The research resulted in the architectural design presented.Originality/valueTo 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.