Barcoding Inc. was featured in the 2011 FL100 from Food Logistics magazine

Each year, Food Logistics magazine recognizes 100 software and technology companies that allow grocery and food service distributors and manufacturers to achieve their business goals. This year, they focused on solution providers that are helping their customers differentiate themselves in the marketplace, while facilitating improved safety and traceability throughout the supply chain.

Barcoding Inc. made the FL100* list, which is featured in the November/December 2011 issue of Food Logistics. Barcoding Inc.’s robust partner network allows for comprehensive supply chain distribution solutions. Many of our partners also made the list, including: Airclic, Descartes Systems Group, Intermec, Lucas Systems, LXE (now part of Honeywell), Motorola Solutions, Psion, Xata and Zebra Technologies.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Barcode of Life’s DNA barcoding was approved by the FDA and will be used to prevent the mislabeling of fish and other seafood to ensure quality.

Earlier this fall, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration officially approved “DNA barcoding” to prevent the mislabeling of seafood, both locally produced and imported. Essentially, the “DNA barcoding” will act as a standardized fingerprint that can identify a species, just as a standard supermarket barcode scanner would read a barcode.

This solution arrived from the Barcode of Life’s DNA Barcode Library and aims to solve the issue of mislabeling in the seafood industry. This widespread issue has cheaper types of fish being sold as a more expensive counterpart, which can pose serious health risks to humans.

The Barcode of Life has over 167,000 species in their database, so by using a short sequence of DNA, a species can be identified within their ever-growing database. By 2015, the group hopes to create a database of 5 million standardized DNA sequences, which could be used to identify 500,000 species.

Seafood lovers and restauranteurs can look forward to these “dna barcodes,” seeing them as a symbol of quality to look for when purchasing seafood. Would you be more likely to order fish at a restaurant if it was guaranteed to be fresh and as advertised? Share your thoughts by commenting below, or on our Facebook or twitter page.

Smartphones have caused consumer purchasing behavior to change. Find out how to protect your brand in the mobile age.

The GS1 recently conducted a report in conjunction with Capgemini that explains how the smartphone is playing a critical role in consumer purchasing behavior, and what companies can do to help influence consumer behavior.

According to the report, “Beyond the Label: Providing Digital Information Consumers Can Trust,” increased smartphone usage has lead to an increase in demand from consumers for more information, which in turn, has lead to an explosion of data from a wide variety of sources.

In fact, over two-thirds of consumers want nutrition and ingredient information and over 30 percent of smartphone users have downloaded a barcode scanning app. However, depending on where their searches take them, consumers are becoming more and more frustrated with incorrect product information.

In some cases, 91 percent of mobile barcode scans returned incorrect product information, so it’s no wonder consumers are getting frustrated. What’s more, is that 38 percent of consumers will not purchase a product if they don’t trust the information they get on a smartphone, and 35 percent might stop using an app if it lead them to the wrong information.

So, what can brands do to prevent this? In some cases, such as third-party or “crowd-sourced” sites, brand managers have little control over the information posted. However, managing your brand should focus on data integrity and collaboration with other companies and sources to ensure an enhanced consumer researching experience. Learn more on how to protect your brand in the mobile age.

Barcoding Inc.’s very own Jay Steinmetz, CEO, recently connected with SupplyChainBrain to discuss how automated identification technology has affected logistics both in and out of the warehouse. Below, Jay answers the questions that matter most:

Jay, you’ve seen quite a few large-scale implementations in the last 14 years. What makes them succeed or fail?
A lot of the failures don’t have top-level buy-in or you have competing resources. Sometimes, these guys don’t really want to see people succeed because it’s not their department. Unfortunately, sometimes you can’t stop that even with good project management.

What kind of preparatory work should precede big implementations like these?
You have to make sure that the people who are to use the technology have some sort of commitment to the system. But you must also make sure the stuff will literally change the process flow. A lot of times people implement these systems but just take their existing processes instead of really understanding the core of why these systems are being implemented to begin with.

Buy-in, prep work – what else is needed to succeed?
Project management is critical. You need a system deployment that’s staged, that’s configured, that has proper device management. We want to look into the devices, see who’s using them effectively, who’s not, who’s entering the information correctly. And you want to create an automation factor, which means you prevent the ability for the customer to make mistakes to begin with.

It’s clear that this kind of technology empowers users. So where does it go from here? What trends do you see?
It will be convergence like we’ve never seen before. A lot of RFID and barcoding, readers with built-in knowledge capability, built-in databases, built-in GPS – built-in GPRS, so I can magnetically attach a device to a truck and know the moment an asset is deployed.

With convergence we’re finding new avenues and new opportunities in businesses that never thought they would utilize automatic identification technology.

Learn More
Other participants in the discussion included Larry Mahan, general manager of Sky-Trax; Ralph Lieberthal, principal, transportation & logistics, Motorola Solutions Inc.; Mike Lee, CEO of Airclic; Chris Sweeney, senior vice president of Lucas Systems; and Chris Schenk, vice president of product marketing at Xata Corp.

Read the full Q&A will all of the participants here.

Don’t see an answer to the question your looking for? Ask it by commenting below, or on our Facebook or twitter pages.

What does Steve Jobs stepping down mean for Apple, smart phones and the tech industry?

Throughout the summer, we’ve discussed the widespread usage of NFC technology being based off of the iPhone 5’s NFC features. While this question is yet to be answered, the resignation of Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs, has investors, techies, mac-elitists and the blogosphere all aflutter. The release of the iPhone 5 has still yet to be given an exact date, and has already been delayed a month. Will Jobs’ resignation further slow the process?

In his resignation letter, Jobs states, “I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.” Assumptions cannot help but look to his declining health due to pancreatic cancer. In his letter, Jobs also states who will replace him: “As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.” But, who exactly is Tim Cook? And can anyone really replace Steve Jobs? In response to this question, Cook himself stated, “No. He’s irreplaceable.”

While the news of Steve Jobs’ resignation has shocked the world, many are left wondering about not only the long-term, but also the short term–how will this affect the launch of the iPhone 5? Some say the launch won’t be changed at all, but seeing as how it’s already been delayed, no one can be too sure. And, when the iPhone 5 is released, will it use NFC technology?

Share your thoughts on the iPhone 5, NFC, Steve Jobs’ resignation and/or Apple’s future by commenting below, or on our Facebook ot twitter pages.

Watch the video below to learn more: