I have decided that over the next 30 days of April I will write about the general sales enquiries that we receive from customers wanting to implement barcoding into their business. Most potential customers that contact us have no idea where to start, generally they don't have barcodes on their products, but all know that barcoding can help with automating processes and improve business work flows.

The first decision that you the customer will need to make is are you requiring GS-1 barcodes to be on your products such as GTIN - 13, and you would need to contact GS-1 to enquire further about this. Are you supplying major retailers with your products who are demanding the GTIN - 13 (formally EAN-13) barcodes are on your products? If you are not, are the barcodes you going to be putting on these products for internal use only? The main reason to use the GS-1 standard barcodes is to ensure conformity to standards including uniqueness of barcodes across the world of suppliers.

When using GS-1 barcodes there is the ability to have serial number, batch number and expiry dates all within the barcode. By using our scanning applications we can decode the barcode and populate the information into the ERP system such as MYOB EXO, SAP B1 or Ostendo. Are you wanting to capture serial numbers or batch numbers?

Once you have decided whether you will need GS-1 Barcodes or barcodes to use for internal use then you will need to decide whether you are printing these barcodes internally. For over 12 years we have helped customers using a range of ERP systems print barcodes for their products whether it is GS-1 Barcodes or barcodes for internal use. We have also helped customers implement SSCC barcodes for pallet labels, TUN barcodes for carton use and eParcel labels for eParcel integration.

So the first decision is are you going to use the barcodes internally or is it for your customers to use? This will immediately give you the decision of whether you have to register with GS-1 or not. Secondly decide whether you are going to print the barcodes internally, or are you going to use the barcodes already on the products which are printed on by the supplier. Thirdly what are the functions you will be using the barcodes for? Is it for scanning for incoming or outgoing goods, or is it for stocktaking, or is for capturing serial or batch numbers?

When these decisions have been made then you need to contact a partner such as The RIC Group who can then help these barcodes into your business for the applications you want use.