Think outside of the box
Think outside of the box
Bar codes are not just for supermarket check-outs and warehouses.
Bar codes are no longer restricted to the warehouse and shops. These odd looking symbols have the ability to store a mass of useful data, represented by up to 14 digits and a simple series of lines. As Web services and e-commerce grow, the bar code is set to move away from the supermarket till and warehouse box and into the age of knowledge and information management. It is time to think out side of the box when it comes to bar codes.
The bar code has been used as a major part of information management in the last 12 months, without a tub of butter in sight. The 2001 census, forthcoming elections and the banking and finance industries have all been adopting the humble bar code as a way to register, track and process paperwork as it flows through the organisation.
EAN Australia is the official body for traditional uses of the bar code, such as retail, transport and manufacturing. For instance, Australia has been allocated the 930-939 prefixes under the EAN-UCC system by the Uniform Code Council, the American arm of EAN (the acronym stands for European Article Numbering). The local organisation, part of a global network of EAN chapters, is also promoting the use of the bar code in information management. The Australian branch in Melbourne sees bar codes as a core part of information and records management, enabling the business to react swiftly with tracing and tracking for better management of information.
"Bar coding is the cheapest way to represent data. On one hand you've got the number, and on the other you have the data carrier, and the bar code is one of the main carriers for the purpose of data capture," said Steven Pereira, general manager of e-technology for EAN Australia.
Bar codes can carry varying amounts of data, from a single number to complex information that completes multiple tasks within the database. For instance, Australia Post has converted every address in Australia into bar code form. National Pharmacies in South Australia uses bar codes that update its customer database on what day a product was ordered. The amount of data held within a bar code is purely at the discretion of the business.
"More and more bar codes are appearing on paperwork, especially in banks and government," Mr Pereira said. "Knowledge and paper have become part of the supply chain. Buying a financial service means many documents need to flow through the organisation, and the bar code is a simple way of monitoring this flow." Mr Pereira explained that with the Australian census in 2001, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) had a bar code on every form and each form had a unique number. This system enabled the ABS to accurately count the number of forms collected, cross check that with the number of forms disseminated, and ensure that they counted the correct number of forms. Share certificates are also increasingly featuring bar codes, according to EAN, while imaging service provider HPA will be using a bar code system to count in the electoral roll documents for next year's Queensland state elections.
Tim Bailey, sales manager for HPA, explained that every page of every roll for every district will feature a bar code. HPA will use the bar codes, which they have developed themselves, to track the documents. Using the data held within the bar codes, HPA will be able track the generation, printing, distribution, reception, scanning, data capture and finally the database analysis of the electoral roles. The election has not been called yet, but is expected for early 2003, and HPA is gearing up for full scale tests of the system.
Australia Post is one of the most important data traffickers in the country, and British company QAS entered the Australian market to satisfy its changing needs. QAS's QuickAddress solution applies bar codes to outgoing letters. The bar code ties in with the Australia Post database of 10 million addresses.
Greg Woods, customer connections manager for Australia Post, said that the postal organisation offers a marketing service for private companies and other users of the mail. By connecting bar codes on outgoing printed letters to the Australia Post address database, mail users can ensure they are sending to the correct address. This information can also be passed on to call centres with confidence that the data is correct.
"We would like all our bulk mailers to use bar codes," said Mr Woods. "Some companies have added extra information into their bar codes. This helps them re-process return-to-sender mail. Those businesses that have adopted bar codes for their bulk mailing receive a discount because they help Australia Post sort mail more efficiently."
Joining the bar code ideology does not come without a set of costs. Producing and reading bar codes involves specified technology.
"The key to a bar code is that it's just a symbol, like Morse code. It represents characters. You are simply buying a font," Mr Pereira said.
Modern laser and inkjet printers are quite able to produce machine-readable bar codes. The spike in costs comes in when companies opt to buy their own hardware for bar code readers, which can cost upwards of $400. However, with data integrity becoming increasingly important, bar codes offer a reliable, tamper-proof way of logging and tracking documents.
"The numbers will only mean something to your system. If an outsider scans your bar code they will be able to read the numbers, but without the database it means nothing," Mr Pereira said.
Greater data accuracy will in turn bring about a return on investment. Australia Post can guarantee deliveries because the bar code postal address has been crosschecked with their database, so businesses are not wastefully mailing out documents to old addresses.
Bar code usage is growing, and the EAN organisation believes this is being driven by the Internet. A stated aim of the EAN system is to allow continues improvement in e-commerce supply chain management.
"Companies are realising that information is key, and the bar code is a valuable tool to capture it with," Mr Pereira said. "The benefits are all known; minimal data entry, more timely, error free and it speeds up processes. Businesses are using it for asset management as well as information management." he said.
With little additional cost in upgrading to an enhanced bar code EAN, QAS, Symbol and other interested parties are educating the market on the amount data they are able to manage through the bar code.
"The enhanced bar codes are growing. Companies are getting smarter and using this for billing and mailing," said Glenn Parker, managing director of QAS in Australia. Mr Parker said he believes the Internet is driving up bar code usage. "Understanding that this data is critical is growing here. It links a lot of data about us as consumers and you can return that data for later use in a customer relationship management (CRM) package."