GS1 Logger for Staff – A new
service infrastructure for GS1 MOs
21 February 2013, Brussels
Once upon a time…
• ’You know David, GS1 is such a lucky company. It is
based on a such a simple business model. You take a PC
and allocate unique numbers to other companies which in
return pay their annual fees! Wonderful! You only need to
make sure that there wont’t be clashes of numbers at the
retailers and that’s all.
(Tamás Beliczay, Former CEO of VRH, market leading AUTO ID company)
• Is this such an easy task? How good are we at
fulfilling this role?
©2007
GS1 US
©2008 GS1
in Europe
GS1 Logger for Staff Statistics
1 January 2012 – 4 February 2013
14% of the scans proved to be invalid!
©2007
GS1 US
©2008 GS1
in Europe
Why should we be concerned?
• The GS1 System is a set of standards enabling the
efficient management of global, multi-industry supply
chains by uniquely identifying products, shipping units,
assets, locations and services (GUM 1.3)
• Can we make such a statement knowing the figures?
• The funding of all MOs to a (very) large extent depends on
providing numbers, notably GCPs which for a (often
substantial) fee is charged. And we claim that we ensure
uniqueness…
• What if it became more widely known that we don’t do
our best to guarantee unique numbers ?
©2007
GS1 US
©2008 GS1
in Europe
Why should we be concerned?
• GS1’s objective to provide a Trusted Source of Data
implies that GTINs and all other ID Keys must be unique,
as well as the value of the attributes which apply to the
product (e.g. allergenic properties)
• Increasingly the number is regarded as the key to the
source of the product. New legislation in the EU (effective
from 2014) requires that relevant product data must be
available for all on-line available products.
• Our creditability could be at stake!
©2007
GS1 US
©2008 GS1
in Europe
Why should we be concerned?
• From financial point of view it’s obvious: the more paying
members we have the better and cheaper we can serve them!
• Lost revenue!
• There is at least 10 000 000 EUR loss in every year due to the
not clarified legal status of GCPs!
• In addition there is a damage to all of our users caused by
the not proper use of our standards (e.g. barcode symbols)
©2007
GS1 US
©2008 GS1
in Europe
The history GS1 Logger for Staff
The beginning of a beautiful friendship…
Project Background Overview
• GS1 Logger Staff is a unique solution, combining the
elements of GEPIR and MobileCom with the aim to
provide an easy-to-use and powerful tool for the
purpose of GTIN Intelligence.
• GS1 Hungary’s successful pilot phase started in 2009
• GS1 Hungary proposes to extend the pilot to other
countries and establish the basis of a global system
for MOs to verify GS1 GCPs
• Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bTT2Pxcxj8
©2007
GS1 US
©2008 GS1
in Europe
What is the aim of the initiative?
• GS1 Logger Staff is a solution, combining the
elements of GEPIR to support the Mos in their
daily work and efforts in the field of GTIN
intelligence.
• The goals are:
• To provide an easy-to-use and powerful mobile
tool for GS1 Member Organizations to validate
GS1 GCPs and perform basic GS1 BarCode
Quality checking
• To create a comprehensive and commonly
agreed reporting system to monitor the follow up
of invalid GTINs
©2007
GS1 US
©2008 GS1
in Europe
Other results of the GS1 in EU project
• A not expected side-effect of the project was to
the call the attention of the weak operation of the
Gepir Network. This issue was addressed on a
sufficient level and hopefully will be resolved by
the Global Office.
• Upon request a process was developed in order
to monitor how MOs actually follow up the invalid
numbers identified by the application (See
appendix!)
©2007
GS1 US
©2008 GS1
in Europe
Facts and figures
Since the kick off of the project, 1 January 2012
• Number of MOs registered: 56
• Number of colleagues using the application: more than
290
• Number of scans: more than 34 000
• Number of invalid numbers caught by the app: more
than 4 900
• Number of faulted scans: more than 2 200 (due to Gepir
error)
11
©2007
GS1 US
©2008 GS1
in Europe
Where are we now?
The introduction of GS1 Logger
for Staff 2.1
GS1 Logger for Staff version 2.1
It can verify all ID Keys in simple or complex
symbol
It scans EAN-8, EAN-13, UPCA, UPCE,
GS1-128, GS1 QR Code, GS1 DataMatrix,
GS1 DataBar Omnidirectional and ITF-14
The identification of competent MO and
reporting works automatically on the
basis of the GS1 prefix and the Root
XML of GEPIR.
13
With the ‘History’ we can list the
previous validations. Users may
expand the list with 4 new pages (a
maximum of 100 records).
©2007
GS1 US
©2008 GS1
in Europe
GS1 Logger for Staff version 2.1
Besides GEPIR checking, the App verify the
symbol itself and the content data according to
the GenSpec v13
All complex ID Keys are decoded, and
checked by the rules of mandatory,
exclude and relation pairs.
Furthermore, each element is verified by
the standards of the corresponding AI.
Symbol and data content are checked by
GS1 standards
14
©2007
GS1 US
©2008 GS1
in Europe
GS1 Logger for Staff - the back-office
http://stafflogger.gs1hu.org/Home
New version 2.0 and new back-office with
extended information and services
History and details available on
the web
• Sign in with your unique password
• Choose language (English,
German, Russian, Hungarian,
Portuguese, Czech and more to
come)
15
©2007
GS1 US
©2008 GS1
in Europe
GS1 Logger for Staff - the back-office
http://stafflogger.gs1hu.org/Home
Making complex
statistical queries
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Status
Code status
Period of time
Hide duplicates
GS1 Organizations
Users
GS1 ID Keys
Scanning devices
Countries
AIs
GEPIR requests
Return codes
©2007
GS1 US
©2008 GS1
in Europe
GS1 Logger for Staff - the back-office
http://stafflogger.gs1hu.org/Home
Comlex checking
according to the
GEPIR and General
Specification v13
 Link to the product
 GEPIR return codes
 Checklist of Logger
status
©2007
GS1 US
©2008 GS1
in Europe
GS1 Logger for Staff - the back-office
http://stafflogger.gs1hu.org/Home
New possibilities
 You can check the
report was sent or
not
 You can see the
picture was attached
to the report
 Automatic image
upload
©2007
GS1 US
©2008 GS1
in Europe
GS1 Logger for Staff - the back-office
Statistics menu on the website I.
Stat1, Stat2, Stat3, Stat4
Stat1 contains the
number of scans from
users
Stat2 shows the
distribution of user
scans amongst countries
©2007
GS1 US
©2008 GS1
in Europe
GS1 Logger for Staff - the back-office
Statistics menu on the website II.
Stat3 shows the
distribution of GEPIR
router return codes
Stat4 shows the distribution of
scans with a specific status by
country.
©2007
GS1 US
©2008 GS1
in Europe
GS1 Logger for Staff - the back-office
Translation and profile menu on the website
Translation allows you
to do the translation of
your own language.
Profile allows you to set your
preferred language and the
display mode of your scanning
location.
©2007
GS1 US
©2008 GS1
in Europe
Serving GS1 MOs and GS1 standards
• The whole infrastructure has two main purposes:
1. Provide a special tool to validate the legal background
of the GCP! (legal aspect)
2. Provide a tool for MOs to check whether a barcode and
its content data are in alignment with Gen Spec and all
the other GS1 Standards (quality aspect) - What do we
mean by that?
©2007
GS1 US
©2008 GS1
in Europe
Barcode and content data verification e.g. 1/1
Figure 5.7.3.2 - 3 Segmented GS1 DataMatrix Symbols: Square and
Rectangular Formats
LVS-Integra 9505
Logger for Staff 2.0
©2007
GS1 US
©2008 GS1
in Europe
Barcode and content data verification e.g. 1/2
Figure 5.7.3.2 - 3 Segmented GS1 DataMatrix Symbols: Square and
Rectangular Formats
LVS-Integra 9505
Logger for Staff 2.0
©2007
GS1 US
©2008 GS1
in Europe
Barcode and content data qualification e.g. 2
Figure A1.2 - 2 Data Encoded in one Concatenated GS1-128 symbol
Price per unit of measure 365
Batch number 123456
Logger for Staff 2.0
LVS-Integra 9505
(8 0
0 5) 0
0
0
3
6
5
(1 0) 1
2
3
4
5
6
No checking by
Nothe
checking
rules ofby
the
rules of
mandatory,
mandatory,
exclude
and
exclude
and
relation pairs
relation pairs
©2007
GS1 US
©2008 GS1
in Europe
Common process to follow up –
We have homework to do
• In order to ensure the core value of the GS1 system
MOs need to do their best to use the report sent by
Logger for Staff app and follow up on the invalid
numbers!
• Common process to use GS1 Logger for Staff and to
follow up on invalid/unauthorized GS1 GCPs
• The paper defines questions focusing on the following
three main aspects:
• Actions taken by the MO after receiving ‘Report’
from Logger for Staff app
• Reason of invalidity
• Latest status of the GCP
©2007
GS1 US
©2008 GS1
in Europe
Follow up surveys
• Sent to 47 MOs
• 22 responded and 22 MOs followed up the
reports received from Logger for Staff
• So far 151 companies renewed its
membership with GS1
• Additionally the status of 367 companies
were clarified which contributed to improve
the data quality in the local membership data
bases and of course indirectly the quality of
Gepir.
©2007
GS1 US
©2008 GS1
in Europe
Serving the GS1 MOs
’Logger for Staff Application is very
useful for us. It helps us to bring our
members back and to collect the
annual fees.’
Galina Birsanu, GS1 Moldova
’Appearance of Logger for Staff was a nice
surprise for me as I felt a need for
something like this since I was busy with
Barcode Intelligence projects.’
Janis Lublinskis, GS1 Latvia
©2007
GS1 US
©2008 GS1
in Europe
Serving the GS1 MOs
’ Logger is from my perspective useful tool for all GS1 MOs and
all companies using GS1 System because it helps to reveal both
intentitonal and unintentional usage of GTINs which could cause
many errors through whole supply chain and affect final
consumer. .’
Cerny Karel, GS1 Czech Republic
’The Logger for Staff application is
working very well and also the Logger for
Staff website. It offers a lot of possibilities
which are very important for our MO..’
Adi Turkovic, GS1 Bosnia &
Herzegovina
©2007
GS1 US
©2008 GS1
in Europe
Benefits and take aways
• The Logger for Staff infrastructure is serving the need
of all MOs
• It is an ideal infrastructure to support GTIN Intelligence
• It is a new, innovative tool for MOs for barcode
verification from quality point of view
• The infrastructure heavily relies on already existing
services run by GS1 GO (Gepir, Gen Spec, other
standards, etc.)
• Cleary an initiative that even the smaller MOs consider
as a useful service helping their daily job
©2007
GS1 US
©2008 GS1
in Europe
Benefits and take aways
• It could be an ideal tool for training and education
purposes
• It could be a potential service that GS1 MOs could
give to their members to check barcodes from validity
as well as from quality point of view
• The infrastructure is there, the application is there, the
know-how is there
• …and are you ready to join?
©2007
GS1 US
©2008 GS1
in Europe
Let’s play with the numbers…
• On global level with Logger for Staff and strong
national activity to follow up invalid GCPs (which
should be part of the core services of GS1 MO) if we
managed to decrease the 5% of invalid GCPs to 4%
that would increase the total revenue of MOs with at
least 2 000 000 EUR/year
©2007
GS1 US
©2008 GS1
in Europe
Thank you for your attention!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TDlicdLdGM
©2007
GS1 US
©2008 GS1
in Europe