Old Process of New Item Introduction:
Step 1: Sales person sells a new product into a buyer
Step 2: Sales person then fills out a new item form (time, errors in data transfer) (May have to gather data)
Step 3: Retailer then has a data entry person key data from form to Retailer system (time, errors in data transfer)
Step 4: Buyer approves item, item is ready

From studies done by myself, the process to set up an item can take about 10 days, from step 1 to step 4. Also, you have 2 points of potential error that exist. Sales people tend to actually put specification data or best guess data into the New Item forms. Also, retailer data entry clerks have about a 2-9% error rate in key stroke errors.

New process with GDS
Step 1: Sales person sells a new product into a buyer
Step 2: Product Sync via GDS
Step 3: Retailer Data Analyst reviews data
Step 4: Buyer approves item, item is ready

The new process now can move from a 10 day turn around to a 24 to 48 hour process.

Soft ROI's
1) Supplier Sales person does not need to fill out full new item sheet and can dedicate time to sales call.
2) Retailer can change process from Data Entry to Data Analysis which would improve their data quality and increases their ROI.

Hard ROI's
1) One real situation I saw as a supplier, a sales person put 12.0 eaches per case. The data entry clerk put 120 eaches per case.
Very quickly the retailer ran out of stock as they were selling the item but were not ordering enough pieces. For example the retailer sold 240 pieces but only re-ordered 2 cases (24). It took 2 weeks to actually find the decimal place was off. They looked in the system multiple times and it looked correct to both retailer and supplier. 12.0 or 120 ?  
2) Another situation occurs when data gets to retailer late due to old process. If the data gets to retailer when product launches, then you will miss days of sales due to the slow data entry process. With the 8 day improvement an item can get pushed through faster, should this situation arise. As I stated it is hard to say how often this occurrence happens but it does.

How do you measure?
1) Establish Baseline: a retailer would need to establish the time it takes from data entry to system completion. Supplier would need to measure amount of time sales person takes to complete form. This would include phone calls etc to gather data.
2) Actual measurement:  progress point of data sent by GDS from supplier to retailer geting into their back end system.


Many people ask "What is the Return on Investment (ROI) for GDS"? I will create a series of areas to look for savings in order to help you calculate what your return may be. In 2004, the Global Commerce Initiative did a study with Cap Gemini, called Project Jury. For basic product data, the ROI for GDS was approximately for every 1 billion in sales would return 1 million in savings. From most of my studies and projects, this is an accurate number. This does not include processes like price sync, or some of the newer GDS capabilities. Link to Project Jury Study


Feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss,
Steve  srobba@sa2worldsync

Food is a delicate balance of exchange of information between supplier and retailer due to regulations and actual packaging statements. With the group looking at Nutrient information on packaging, to Nutritional labeling, to the number of servings, to product specific attributes, growing methods, and certification labels, the Food and Beverage extension is growing. With the onset of more and more food safety concerns, trading partners are requesting more information, not only for the consumer education and food choices, but also for food safety.

Foodservice is also a very big trend in some markets already exchanging information via GDS. This allows suppliers to utilize the same GDS network for their foodservice business. This is very big in the US right now. We are beginning to see trends in the EU following the same programs.

MAJOR RELEASE 3 Work Group
The Major Release 3 work group is forming. This group will help drive the mod item plan, roadmap, GSMP process and such. We are need of more trading partners Retailers and Suppliers. This is a very important work group as this will help improve some of the length of time it takes between releases. It will be a whole new model and come help us define the plan and process. We will be looking at communication plan, executive summaries to help you sell into your business, etc. Click here for more information.
 

Digital Coupons
This group continues to define the business process, and requirements for digital coupons. The group is multi-regional which will lead to a successful standard. When you think about the process what changes: who the right players are, what the current process is, changes that need to be made to accept, redeem, authorize and payment for digital coupons. Once again I do recommend suppliers and retailers join this group as I will not be able to share the actual workings in the group and suggest you join. Click here for more information on how to join.

Level Below the Each
We are currently going through the business requirements on what are the actual business needs by the community. What data is important when you are speaking about the items within an each. Are attributes might prove business value when looking at 1 Pencil out of a package of 4 vs. 1 pill out of a bottle of 100. Are there different data requirements? What improvements and benefits would business processes, or patient safety, food safety, etc, gain by the exchange of information, identification, and barcoding the items? The scope for this project is Consumer Package Goods, Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices. Once again I do recommend suppliers and retailers join this group as I will not be able to share the actual workings in the group and suggest you join. Click here for more information on how to join.

Events
September 26th-30th -- GS1 Industry and Standards Autumn Event –Cologne, Germany
October 4th-6th - GS1 Healthcare Conference Autumn 2011 – Amsterdam, Netherlands

Feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss,
Steve  srobba@sa2worldsync

2 Process changes need to occur in order to achieve benefit
1) Data Accuracy program. When a product comes off the production line, weights and measurements should be updated in the suppliers internal system, or if they prefer to use a 3rd party to do this, the supplier still needs to update their systems. (if this is the only step completed, the retailer does not gain the benefit)
2) GDS - It is important for the retailer to understand the information the first receive is preliminary data. GDS by itself will only communicate the preliminary information. If the data accuracy program and GDS both are in place, once the data is update in supplier system and resent to retailer, then and only then do both parties gain benefits.

How do you measure?
1) Examine key skus and capture preliminary data and final data and determine amount changed.
2) Then determine based upon truck capacity the impact of the incorrect measurements have on truck utilization.
3) Some trading partners use truck tolerances to avoid over weight penalties and delays. These could be potentially removed.

In my studies I have seen a benefit of approximately 0.5% of total sales. So for 100 Million in sales, you could expect a return of 50,000 in reduced transportation costs.

Feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss,
Steve  srobba@sa2worldsync

GDSN
Much discussion has been taking place on the Display Unit Indicator change process. We have found inconsistent usage of the "CORRECT" and "CHANGE_BY_REFRESH" by trading partners and data pools. This issue has now caused trading partners to review all change or corrects as changes. Some trading partners only send CORRECT, therefore retailers can only process them all as a change. The Trade Item Implementation Group will look to give some guidance on how best to use these codes from a process perspective.
CORRECT - A correction allows a Data Source to make changes to Catalogue Item data that would not be allowed by validation rules and as such is outside of normal processing. It is intended to provide a means for errors to be corrected and not as an alternative to the Change Registered Catalogue Item process.
CHANGE_BY_REFRESH - A change that has occurred to the trade item in which the data needs to be communicated. This should not be used when the trade item has not changed and you are correcting information. In addition, this should not be used to circumvent the GTIN validation rules.

Maintenance Release 5 Business Message Standard 2.8
We reviewed the public comments and GS1 has presented us the revisions. We approved those revisions and now the XML schema's are being developed. We are hoping to motion to eBallot the standard before the end of the month. Hopefully we will have a definite date to expect the implementation.

GPC
Beer? Juice? The sub-groups of Global Product Classifications made great progress this week in determining the Classification attributes for Beer. We determined that less attributes made more sense as Style of Beer was looked at many different ways within markets, some by colour, ingredient, process, etc. We also made some recommendations on Fruit Juice and Vegetable Juice and how do you classify blends. Blends we determined should be based upon the characteristic of the blend. For example a juice may be sold as Pomegranate but may contain 50% or more vegetable juice. We stated this should be Fruit as it is being sold as a fruit juice and should be classified as such.

Events
September 26th-30th -- GS1 Industry and Standards Autumn Event –Cologne, Germany
October 4th-6th - GS1 Healthcare Conference Autumn 2011 – Amsterdam, Netherlands

Feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss,
Steve  srobba@sa2worldsync

Step 2: Retailer creates inventory for stores and warehouse based upon this information
Step 3: Supplier begins production and ships.
Step 4: Retailer use the packs to distribute to stores.

Step 5: Item is selling well and some retailers ask the supplier to change the inner pack configuration to 3 inner packs GTIN Pack, of 8 eaches GTIN A
Or
Step 3: Supplier gets request from retailers to change the pack configuration prior to ship to 3 inner packs GTIN Pack, of 8 eaches GTIN A
Step 4: Some retailers never get the notified of the change.

What went wrong?

1) Retailer may never received the change notification from sales.
2) Their Supply chain distribution from a warehouse to store could be to ship packs
3) False Negative Inventory of GTIN A for some stores getting the packs, For stores not getting a pack of GTIN A, out of stocks at the shelf.  

Why does GDSN help?
Step 1: Sales person sells a case of a new product GTIN Case - 24 pieces, it will contain 4 inner packs GTIN Pack which will contain 6 eaches of GTIN A
Step 2: Retailer creates inventory for stores and warehouse based upon this information
Step 3: Supplier begins production and ships.
Step 4: Retailer use the packs to distribute to stores.
Step 5: Item is selling well and some retailers ask the supplier to change the inner pack configuration to 3 inner packs GTIN Pack, of 8 eaches GTIN A
New Step: Supplier synchronizes the new case and pack GTIN, allowing the store to have visibility to both configurations and ship properly to their stores.
Or
Step 3: Supplier gets request from retailers to change the pack configuration prior to ship to 3 inner packs GTIN Pack, of 8 eaches GTIN A
New Step:
Step 4: Some retailers never get the notified of the change.

How do you measure?
1) You need to be able to obtain EDI data from the retailer of Warehouse movement based upon stores or store level POS movement.
2) You need to create a base line and examine each and every out of stock by coding them in a system. You need an analyst to review and collaborate with retailer to determine each out of stock and causes. For example: Product Supply issue, Shipping Issue, Data Issue, etc. Analyst will need to keep track of all causes per out of stock.
3) Begin synchronization
4) Run report and Measure for 6 months for improvements of data errors.

I have seen the data errors reduced by 95% due to synchronization. So the 2.5% error I mentioned for data, you should be able to get that down to 0.13%

Feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss,
Steve  srobba@sa2worldsync

• communicationName - Definition: The name of the company or person associated with the contact type. For example, in case of contact type CONSUMER_SUPPORT, this could be the company name as expressed on the trade item packaging or label.
• communicationAddress - Definition: The communication address associated with the contact type. For example, in case of contact type CONSUMER_SUPPORT, this could be the company address as expressed on the trade item packaging or label.

Add an attribute for social media platforms to the Target Market Communication Channel class:

• socialMedia - Definition: Any social media platform such as: FACEBOOK, TWITTER, YOUTUBE, LINKEDIN. This will be a code list.

Link to CR 11-084 - Simple Level Of Impact 2

11-143 GDSN BRG
Business Requirement:  Add code value to the preparationType attribute. HEAT_AND_SERVE- Prepare the item by simply heating or warming to a desired temperature or visual state prior to serving.
Link to CR 11-143 - Simple Level Of Impact 2

11-145 GDSN BRG
Business Requirement:
Include PEGI (Pan European Game Information) in the standard code list by:
-Adding the code value PEGI to Title Rating Entity Code List in the Electronic Games Extension
-Add the following values to Title Rating Code List for PEGI in the Electronic Games Extension:

• PEGI 3 Suitable for persons over 3 years
• PEGI 7 Suitable for persons over 7 years
• PEGI 12 Suitable for persons over 12 years
• PEGI 16 Suitable for persons over 16 years
• PEGI 18 Suitable for persons over 18 years

Create a separate listing of Rating Content Descriptions to be used for PEGI in the Electronic Games extension. Provides guidelines regarding when to use the PEGI rating contents descriptors (when Title Rating Entity = PEGI):

• Violence - Game contains depictions of violence ranging from cartoon-style or slapstick violence to more realistic-looking violence or blood and gore
• Bad Language - Game contains bad language including mild swearing or offensive language in games rated 12, or blasphemy and sexual expletives in games rated 16 or 18
• Fear - Game may be frightening or scary for young children contains images or sounds that could be frightening to young children
• Sex - Game depicts nudity and/or sexual behaviour or sexual references ranging from obvious sexual innuendo to explicit images of sexual activity
• Drugs - Game refers to or depicts the use of drugs encourages the use of tobacco or alcohol in games rated 16 or depict illegal drugs in 18-rated titles
• Discrimination - Game contains depictions of, or material which may encourage discrimination games rated 18 containing depictions of ethnic, religious, nationalistic of other stereotypes that could encourage hatred
• Gambling - Game that encourages or teaches gambling games rated 12, 16 or 18 that may encourage or teach gambling for money normally played in casinos, gambling halls, racetracks, etc.
• Online - Online Game Game can be played online with or against other players

Link to CR 11-145  - Simple Level Of Impact 2

CR 11-150 GDSN BRG
Business Requirement: Add the 2 new code values to support 2012 business needs of upcoming game technologies to the gameFormat code list by adding:

• NINTENDO_WII_U – Definition: WII U is a stationary console which comes with a controller that has it’s out Output device in a 6.2” Screen for viewing thus eliminating the need for a TV or allowing gamer to have different displays on the TV and Gaming controller.
• PLAYSTATION_VITA – Definition: PSVITA Gaming Platform is a unit of the Portable PlayStation, thus it is a portable handheld device. PSVITA is 3G and Wi-Fi enabled.

Link to CR 11-150  - Simple Level Of Impact 2

11-152 GDSN BRG
Business Requirement: Add the code value of FREE_FROM_TRANS_FAT to the attribute packageMarksFreeFrom code list.
Link to CR 11-152 - Simple Level Of Impact 2