Why retailers should prepare for Sunrise 2005 global barcode standards
It`s time for U.S. retailers to get on board with the Global Trade Item Number bar code system already widely used by their European counterparts, Fred Geiger, senior vice president of UCCnet, tells InternetRetailer.com. In the Sunrise 2005 project, the Uniform Code Council and its international counterpart, EAN International, are urging companies to meet global data synch standards by January 2005. This involves synchronizing product codes with the 14-digit Global Trade Item Number, or GTIN, which many companies outside the U.S. have used for years instead of the barcodes found on U.S. goods.
Under the Sunrise 2005 program, the UCCnet GlobalRegistry of product data-–an electronic directory of basic product descriptions and information on where to get more information from buyers and sellers–-will begin to accept GTINs from companies throughout the world. The UCC and EAN groups are urging all U.S. retailers and manufacturers to synchronize with GTINs in order to support global trade. If a U.S. retailer doesn’t comply, it won’t be able to scan GTIN-coded products. “If you’re not ready, you won’t be able to sell GTIN products at the POS terminal,” Geiger says. UCCnet is a non-profit unit of the UCC that helps retailers and manufacturers synchronize their product data for Internet-based data integration, which enables trading partners to electronically share commerce information.
The GTIN synchronization process requires companies to use new forms of barcodes with 14 digits instead of the 12-digit barcode used in the U.S., to accommodate multiple variations of international product identifiers. To get GTIN synchronized, U.S. companies need to insert additional digits at the beginning of their UCC-provided company prefix, an I.D. number that provides their products with a unique tag for global trade.
Although that may appear to be a simple project, the level of work varies greatly depending on a company’s number of SKUs and product categories and the kind of legacy systems they operate. But because many companies are also updating their product definitions to synchronize with their trading partners` definitions, a move that supports sharing information in the Global Data Synchronization Network of Internet-based trading exchanges, Geiger says, now is a particularly good time to also move toward GTIN compliance. The Global Data Synchronization Network, which includes data pools of company products hosted by the U.S.-based trading exchanges WorldWideRetail Exchange and Transora and the Germany-based SINFOS, are on course to become interoperable within the next year or two, Geiger says.
Geiger says it makes sense for companies planning to work on GTIN synchronization to simultaneously clean and synchronize their product data to participate in the Global Data Synchronization Network. “It may be cheaper to do both synchronizations at the same time,” he says. He adds that there is no shortage of service providers available to assist with GTIN compliance, including major consulting firms and the retail industry trading exchanges.
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