Barcoding News

Jay Peak Resort was opening a new hotel location and needed reliable access points for guest and employee Wi-Fi needs. At the time, they had 20 access points deployed in their first hotel. For the new resort, Jay Peak wanted a fast and stable Wi-Fi service at a lower cost of ownership. Barcodes Inc supplied them with Ruckus Wireless access points, the ideal choice – giving them instant configuration and complete control over their stable, secure network.

Sales Engineer: Mark Schweikle

Socket Mobile announced the introduction of a new, low-cost barcode scanner, the Socket Bluetooth Cordless Hand Scanner (CHS) Model 7C. The CHS 7C includes many of the performance specifications of other Socket 1D barcode scanners. The entire family of CHS barcode scanners offers users the ability to add rapid and robust barcode scanning to smartphones, tablets, notebooks and desktop computing platforms.

“We’re very excited about introducing a lightweight, highly reliable and performance rich cordless Bluetooth barcode scanner with an introductory MSRP which is 25% less than our current entry-level CHS scanner,” said Samantha Chu, data collection product manager at Socket Mobile. “We have many current and potential customers whose business needs only require a low-cost 1D barcode scanner, and we wanted to address this market segment with a practical and affordable unit that gets the job done while providing a quick and noticeable ROI. We foresee the technology being integrated into the new low-cost unit as being the foundation for driving higher volumes.”

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Zebra’s next-generation ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) Gen 2 RFID card is the first in the world to provide a read range of up to 50 feet or more (compared to just inches for standard RFID cards and Zebra’s first-generation UHF card’s 26-foot range).

Exciting Possibilities

Able to be read from afar even through badge holders, handbags, pockets and backpacks, the new UHF card creates new possibilities as it promotes efficiency and reliability in your long-range identification/access control, guest/visitor/asset tracking, and customer loyalty applications. And, ultimately, it maximizes safety, security and convenience for their employees, customers and guests—and enables guests to instantly share information with their social media contacts, enhancing the customer experience.

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Believe it or not, in this day and age there are many businesses around the world that continue to use laser printers for their barcode labeling needs. This represents a potentially huge untapped market for partners to sell today’s more effective and efficient thermal label printer solutions. There are many advantages that together make a persuasive case for any organization using laser printers for labels to change to thermal printers. Let’s review the most compelling advantages.

Thermal Advantage 1: No Toner

In both thermal processes, the imaging is embedded in the media. Any time you print with laser, you have to have a toner. There is no option to use some other printing method.

With thermal, if you have a low price point – a low cost target – you can go with direct thermal technology that has the imaging solution in the media. On the other hand, if you need a higher-end solution, you can go with thermal transfer. That ribbon gives you the option of high-quality printed images, but you don’t have to burden every solution with it. So there is flexibility in terms of cost and quality. With laser, there is no similar flexibility.

Further, the handling of toner and toner cartridges can be messy, problematic, or just plain frustrating. They demand special disposal because they represent a material hazard.

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Cook Children’s, Microsoft, Athenahealth, and drug makers Merck and Sanofi Pasteur develop system that allows smartphones to scan vaccine label information into e-health records.

A new 2-D barcode application developed through collaboration between Cook Children’s Health Care System, e-health record vendor Athenahealth, Microsoft, and two large drug makers can help clinicians and parents of pediatric patients to more easily manage vaccination information.

The system developed by Children’s Health Care System, AthenaHealth, Microsoft, and vaccine makers Sanofi Pasteur and Merck enables the nation’s first use of the 2-D barcodes on vaccines, allowing information about the drug to be automatically added to patients’ personal EHRs using 2D barcode scanners or smartphones.

The use of 2-D barcodes on vaccines is allowed under a recently published guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that exempts a requirement to use 1-D or linear barcodes on vaccines.

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Freeman Brothers Ensures Accurate and Efficient Product Delivery with Motorola MC75 Scanners, Zebra QL420 Printers, and Customized Mobile Route Accounting Software.

Executive Summary

Freeman Brothers was looking for a way to effectively track the distribution of their products at local retailers across their region. Their pen and paper process required them to take note of what was taken from the truck, maintain accountability if it was moved to a shelf, and provide a handwritten invoice to each store owner as a billing confirmation. Freeman Brothers wanted to move away from an antiquated system to something more in line with their competitors.

The Business Challenge

In today’s market, handing over sloppily handwritten invoices was becoming time consuming and left a lot of room for manual error. Freeman Brothers wanted to stand out to their customers with a more sleek and established Solution that would provide a positive return on investment. With only a handful of drivers doing the stocking in the field there wasn’t a need for a larger networked Solution but rather something that could work independently and be updated at the office after the completion of a shift.

Freeman Brothers wanted to give their customers the option of providing electronic invoices, as well as emailing bills to save on paper costs while also collecting valuable customer information. This would also eliminate the time that was spent printing and shipping bills from the office.

The most critical piece of the Solution was still the ability to track items from the delivery truck to the store shelf. It was a challenge having to supply over 20 different locations, each with different discount levels and products.

Solution

Barcodes Inc developed a customized route accounting software that was capable of tracking pricing, stock levels, and customer information. Additionally, Barcodes Inc developed specific features for Freeman Brothers that allowed them to have pricing tiers for different customer levels, which ultimately allowed them to provide deeper discounts to customers based on the amount of product that was ordered over time.

This customized Solution also made the process easier for Freeman Brothers’s customers by allowing them to receive an electronic copy of their invoice and an email of their receipt upon purchase. The Zebra QL420 still afforded the customer the option of receiving a printed receipt at the point of purchase, while the Motorola MC75 mobile computer provided signature capture and asset tracking capability.

Benefits

Being faster and more accurate are both showing immediate returns for Freeman Brothers who have already seen their profit margins increase with an increase in the number of stops a driver can make during a route. Additionally, they now have the critical data at a single touch of a button in the palm of their hand, thus saving them valuable time to allow them to get to the next customer in a much more efficient manner.

The company itself isn’t the only one reaping the benefits. Freeman Brothers is also seeing a benefit to their end users who are now seeing an increase in fresh product being delivered and more accurate and easy-to-read invoices being produced. With this Solution both sides are seeing the benefits immediately.

The Future

While the short term benefits are already showing potential, the long term benefits are limitless. As the company grows, their tracking system can handle the load now whereas in the past they were buried beneath messy paperwork and hard-to-read inventory checks. Now they will be able to add customers, products, and revenue to their already booming business without too much additional effort. This Solution should take care of their needs for years to come and Barcodes Inc will be there with them as their needs grow by providing them with the right products as they go forward.

Industrial Dynamics / filtec created a Filler Management System that would allow plant personnel at any bottling company (currently covering the brewery, beverage, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, spirits and wine industries) to monitor their average fill levels and limit the amount of product they placed in their bottles to meet regulatory standards. However, Industrial Dynamics needed the hardware to make this happen. They chose to partner with Barcodes Inc who recommended using ELO touchscreen monitors. Now, Barcodes Inc supplies them with these monitors at the heart of their systems wherever they implement them, worldwide. The touchscreen interface solution helped increase the efficiency and ease of use of their system, benefiting their end-users.

Sales Engineer: Mark Schweikle

Motorola Solutions, today unveiled the ET1 tablet, the first in an emerging category of enterprise-class tablet computers designed for a variety of vertical markets. The ET1 brings the familiarity and popularity of a consumer-class user experience to a true enterprise-class device that includes enhanced durability, an optional barcode scanner and magnetic stripe reader, hot-swappable battery packs, and secure system software. Key industrial-strength accessories such as secure multi-slot recharging stations are also available.

Intended for demanding day-long use, the Wi-Fi-enabled ET1 is password-protected so it can be easily shared and instantly provisioned for each employee according to his or her level of responsibility and access rights. Based on log-in information, managers can automatically control and monitor use of approved applications to help ensure on-the-job productivity is not compromised.

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Upco Inc., located in Claremore, Oklahoma, has the second largest factory in the world for the production of sucker rods. Sucker rods join together the surface and downhole components of a reciprocating piston pump installed in an oil well. With a total capacity to produce over thirty million feet of sucker rods per year, Upco is the only domestic supplier of sucker rods owned by employees.

To improve the efficiency of the plant, Upco required a system to identify quickly and easily the grade the quality of scrap in their plant. Having 7 or more different grades, employees were required to read black only labels which could create confusion and potential errors.

To reduce the potent for errors, Barcodes Inc of Chicago, IL recommended Upco purchase an Epson TM-C3400 SecurColor on-demand color label printer as well as recommended media for their application. To complete the solution, the Information Technology group in Upco wrote an application in Visual Basic to automatically select the correct color based on the grade of scrap and to print the label on the TM-C3400.

By adding a band of color, employees can easily identify the quality of the scrap, saving time, reducing errors and saving money.

Demand Continues to Be Driven by Focus on Healthcare and Hospitality Markets

Socket Mobile, today announced it has shipped its 50,000th SoMo 650 handheld computer. Sales are being driven by the needs of the hospitality and healthcare market segments for a durable and lightweight device and continue to show growth.

Introduced to the market in 2007, the SoMo 650 handheld computer is a durable, high-performance, enterprise-class Windows Mobile PDA that enables businesses to increase the productivity of mobile workers, improve visibility in the field and automate manual processes anywhere. The SoMo 650 has become an essential business tool for mobile workers in a wide range of industries, and is available in both standard and antimicrobial case options.

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