GS1 Standards & System Development Newsletter

Transcription

1 GS1 Standards & System Development Newsletter N 22 - March 2015 In this issue Innovation Feature Creating the next big things 2 GSMP Update GS1 wants to hear your voice 4 GSMP transformation 4 Connecting products to the web 5 Innovator Spotlight Peter Krogh 6 Industry News GLN commerce in fresh produce and flowers 7 Healthcare standards updated 9 Healthcare exchanges unite! 9 New GS1 application standard in rail 10 Standards & Solutions Operators adopt GS1 digital coupon standards 12 Trusted product data in the digital world th edition of GS1 GPC 13 New release of ecom XML standard 14 Better location identification around the corner 15 GS1 GLN Service in production! 15 Important News A grateful farewell 16 GS1 Global Standards Event in October 16

2 Innovation Feature Creating the next big things GS1 recently announced the GS1 Innovation Network a forum where creative minds can gather and identify the most important business opportunities and technological advances to serve all industries. Innovation can be a powerful catalyst for changing the future, says Steve Bratt, CTO and President of Standards Development and EPCglobal for GS1. With the Innovation Network, we re working to ensure that we are aware of and fully prepared to create the next big things needed by industry. solutions from a global perspective in addition to local vantage points. The Innovation Network is where people with different talents and views come together in an opencommunication environment to discuss, understand and actively explore emerging trends and opportunities. Network, we re working to ensure that we As Bratt explains, We will provide recommendations, prototypes, and even draft standards to help GS1 more quickly develop the standards, services and solutions needed to rapidly and accurately meet industry and consumer needs. Start with ideas GS1 s global Innovation Network was modelled in part on those recently established at GS1 Germany and GS1 Netherlands. Many of our business problems today are global in nature, says Bratt. The Innovation Network gives Member Organisations worldwide, along with our industry partners, the opportunity to explore 2 Innovation can be a powerful catalyst for changing the future. With the Innovation are aware of and fully prepared to create the next big things needed by industry. -Steve Bratt, CTO and President, Standards Development and EPCglobal, GS1 The Innovation Network provides companies with a relatively inexpensive way to collaborate and conduct research on industry-wide, emerging challenges that require a global approach. To solve future business problems, we need to consider using current and new technologies in creative ways, says Bratt. With the Innovation Network, we can be out in front from a planning perspective. For example, knowing about a disruptive technology well before it happens will give us a chance to decide how we will work with it.

3 Innovation Feature To solve future business problems, we need to consider using current and new technologies in creative ways. -Steve Bratt, CTO and President, Standards Development and EPCglobal, GS1 Explore the possibilities To generate ideas, the Innovation Network has recently launched a new Innovation Platform a kind of social network to gather the community for discussion around the most important topics. Bratt recalls that when he was at the World Wide Web Consortium in the mid 2000s, the idea of using the web on mobile phones was scoffed at by senior executives as something that would never happen. Well before the first Apple iphone hit the market, the Consortium organised a workshop to explore how web pages could adapt to work well on phones. As a result, standards were developed and embraced to make web browsing easy just as the smartphone market exploded. Innovation is all about taking risks, says Bratt. Many of the best ideas are born when we bring together diverse experiences and perspectives. At the same time, many ideas have failed to move forward and that s fine. Success for the Innovation Network is about taking a creative, yet disciplined approach to explore the possibilities and take ideas to a decision point. A key part of the Innovation Network is the Innovation Board that plans to call on people with a wide range of backgrounds to get involved throughout the innovation process. Members of the Innovation Board oversee and help manage venues for innovation discussions. They also aim to provide guidance and make investment recommendations to GS1. Do more than talk While ideas may start off as communities coming together around a particular issue, next steps may include analysing those ideas via workshops, prototypes, pilots, hackathons and other research methodologies to provide the needed insights for investment recommendations to GS1. Based on the concept, we may get our Auto-ID Labs engaged in a research project or present the opportunity to developers in a hackathon, explains Bratt. The approaches may vary but the end goal is the same. From these incubators of ideas, the major outcome is an actionable recommendation to GS1. The recommendation could be to start standards work or take a wait-and-see approach. It s important to note that even with a wait-and-see recommendation, we will have a comprehensive analysis of the players, business needs and potential solution for later reference if and when the time is right to take the needed actions in the future, advises Bratt. Go forth, engage, innovate! To kick-start conversations, Bratt offers two meaningful topics for exploration, yet points to the need for new topics to be organically generated from industry as well. I believe the future of identification and capture standards holds real value as a conversation starter. There is also a significant opportunity to explore GS1 s role in the Internet of Things a topic that s very compelling now. Bratt is optimistic about the Innovation Network and what it has to offer. A year from now, I would expect that we would have identified a number of ideas that we ve learned a lot about, understood the landscape and made very strategic recommendations to GS1 about whether to move forward with investment decisions or not for reasons we thoroughly understand. The Innovation Network offers a growth opportunity that can yield significant outcomes for participants, their companies and their industries. -Steve Bratt, CTO and President, Standards Development and EPCglobal, GS1 The Innovation Network offers a growth opportunity that can yield significant outcomes for participants, their companies and their industries. To be successful, we want to engage people who are open-minded and willing to explore ideas that initially may sound... well, a bit crazy; yet these ideas may evolve into something very important for organisations over time. This is the innovative spirit we intend to capture. Interested in learning more about the GS1 Innovation Network? Contact [email protected]. 3

4 GSMP Update GS1 wants to hear your voice Standards development team starting new surveys to improve work group experience The standards development team is launching a new survey program to collect feedback about the GS1 work group experience. The program will survey participants from all active work groups to better understand how GS1 is serving their needs and what it can do to provide a more effective work group experience. Based on feedback received from a survey of active work group participants, all members will be asked to rate their work group experiences on the following: Encouraged participation by all work group participants Aided learning by explaining issues and supporting information Based on the fall 2014 survey results, GS1 found that most work group participants believe GS1 does well in each category, although there is room for improvement. The survey also asked participants to identify one issue that GS1 should focus on in order to improve the work group experience. The results point to two focus areas for the standards development team: project management and document quality. Subsequent surveys will assess how work groups are performing with respect to the five criteria as well as the two areas identified for improvement. Interested in the work group survey program? Contact Michael Sarachman at [email protected]. Kept discussions focused and relevant Brought topics to closure Provided what is needed to actively participate GSMP transformation Enhancements rolling out this summer The GS1 Global Standards Management Process (GSMP) is the backbone of our work to develop and publish globally applicable, royalty-free (to the best of our ability) standards that meet the needs and requirements of our GS1 community. As previously reported in the October issue, GSMP has been making positive strides in improving the process with greater efficiencies through its Bestin-Class Initiative. These improvements include relevant proposals for new work, balanced representation on a new Industry Engagement Steering Committee (IESC), enhanced participation models, and a more efficient workflow. Since October, many of these enhancements have been successfully piloted. The GS1 community can expect to see the full roll-out of the changes this summer. Participate, stay informed, be engaged! Questions or comments about the Bestin-Class Initiative? Contact Bob Bersani at [email protected]. 4

5 GSMP Update Connecting products to the web How do companies connect their product data with consumers on the web? How can we make a company s website more intelligent, so that search engines can more quickly and accurately find products on the web that are identified by the GS1 system of identification? GS1 is developing a standard way for web applications and pages to reference data associated with GS1 identification keys, taking into account the established GS1 identification and capture standards. The existing GS1 system of identifiers and attributes can be used in the data hidden behind the graphics that a brand owner or company creates for its web pages that are consumer-focused. The GTIN+ on the Web project will make significant use of technologies that allow for expansion and consistency over time, to make it easier for mobile applications on smartphones and search engines to extract the intended meaning of the information embedded within web pages. Two documents have been created, which were available for public review (that ended on 27 February), to include: GS1 Web Vocabulary Standard Specification: The initial focus of the GS1 Web Vocabulary is comprised of consumer-facing properties for clothing, shoes, food/beverage/tobacco and properties common to all trade items. Food/beverage/tobacco properties will include properties related to EU 1169, as defined in the Global Data Synchronisation Network (GDSN ) and GS1 Source standards. In addition, the vocabulary will include standard attributes for parties (people and organisations) and trade item offerings (goods or services offered by parties for a price). GTIN+ on the Web Implementation Guideline: This document provides guidance about how machinereadable structured data about a product or product offering can be embedded within an existing web page. Data about a product refers to information that describes the product, such as its name, physical dimensions, ingredients, suggested use and so on. Structured data refers to data that is not just freeform text, but rather is organised into individual units of data, often called data elements or attributes, that are expressed in a consistent machine-readable way to describe many different products. This month, the GTIN+ on the Web Mission-specific Work Group will review comments from the public review to prepare final drafts of the documents for GS1 Global Standards Management Process (GSMP) community review, seeking ratification by the end of June Interested in joining the GTIN+ on the Web Mission-specific Work Group? community/working_groups/gsmp. Need more information on GTIN+ on the Web? Contact Mark Frey at [email protected]. Key standards and guidelines in development Global Location Number Allocation Rules Updates Global Trade Identification Number - GTIN+ on the Web GS1 Source (TSD) v1.2 Standard for EU Cosmetic Regulations Next Generation Product Identification: Mobile Scanning requirements UHF Conformance and Interoperability Requirements EPCIS for Rail Vehicle Visibility Electronic Product Code Information System (EPCIS) 1.1 Guideline and Conformance Event Based Traceability Join the development work groups at 5

6 Innovator Spotlight Peter Krogh Photographer, Author and Digital Asset Management Expert Peter Krogh has been a professional photographer for 30 years and is recognised as one of the foremost authorities on digital asset management (DAM), receiving an Individual Innovation Award by the Library of Congress. GS1 recently approached Krogh to participate in its Digital Asset Management project, working on the creation of metadata standards for digital assets. What excites you most about this opportunity? By connecting and expanding data standards, we have an opportunity to drive some really useful innovation. This has the potential to help everyone from manufacturers and retailers to supply chain operators, to media companies and creators, and, of course, the consumer. Some of the most exciting change happens when you make a mash-up, combining two things to make something new. Integrating media and product codes could be a really valuable combination. When I was originally approached by GS1, it was to assist them in evaluating image standards and the technical underpinnings of images. We quickly saw that there was an opportunity to make the GS1 standard a deeper and more widely adopted standard for media objects and use on the web. I contacted the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC) and we were fortunate that they were in the final stages of an infrequent revision of primary standards for image metadata. They immediately saw the value of the GS1 Global Trade Item Number (GTIN ) and now include it as part of the most widely used data standard in the world. In your opinion, why is it important for GS1 to lead in the creation of standards for the digital world? If we don t lead the way, someone else will. There are many efforts underway to connect media and commerce. But none of the others has the existing user base that the GTIN does. Extending the GTIN allows us to be the leading player in this new area of commerce. Most of the efforts that I have seen to create unified data structures to classify image ownership or image content will fail because there aren t enough people using them. The GTIN is so mature and has such a wide constituency base that it does not have this problem: people are already using it. It s already a key to a tremendous amount of value and information about a photograph. By hooking onto existing datasets in a very clear and easy manner, it can tell you what s in a picture, who might use the object, who might be interested in the object, how that picture could relate to other datasets and so on. What are the challenges in e-commerce today that GS1 standards will help address? To have globally unique identifiers that are not based upon a specific language opens up an area of connectivity for e-commerce. We have the ability with media like photos, videos and audio files to attach this information invisibly and have that linkage remain intact as the file moves from place to place, person to person, service to service. We ve also been working to create a slightly expanded metadata schema that adds some additional fields that will be really useful in the GS1 universe. Now that we have GTIN as part of the IPTC, we have the ability to create a pack of information that can go with that. That could include, for instance, a link back to a manufacturer s product website or a link to a retailer s website for purchase. Who do you believe will most benefit from these standards and how? I think it will power new opportunities. You would not have the retail giants we have right now without this ability to have linked data and connectivity and automation in the digital world. The companies that use GS1 standards are in the best position to extend that into the world of media. People need not create a whole new giant database of every product in the world; that already exists and is in use globally. People need not create a new methodology to attach information to a picture, because that already exists. We made this bridge between two widely used standards. The infrastructure is now there. What would you tell others about participating as an early adopter and/or beta user of these standards? It s really important that people in the GS1 community drive this. There have to be manufacturers, retailers, people in the supply chain who say, Yes, we do want to extend the GS1 standard into the world of digital media and the commerce it will power. In order for GTIN + Media to thrive and be successful, people within the GS1 community need to see this as an opportunity. I recommend they get involved because everyone stands to benefit. Get involved and explore the power of GS1 standards in digital commerce. Contact Owen Strouse, GS1 Digital Data Systems, at [email protected]. 6

7 Industry News GLN commerce in fresh produce and flowers Today, fresh produce and floriculture sectors in the Netherlands have assigned and are managing nearly 18,000 total Global Location Numbers (GLNs) across their industries. Loek Boortman, Chief Technology Officer of GS1 Netherlands explains a major driver for the country s GLN adoption, We work closely to communicate the concept of a GLN to sector organisations, and they, in turn, are well positioned to share the use of GLNs with their industry members. Frug I Com and Floricode are examples of two such organisations driving the use of GS1 standards. Produce puts its trust in GLNs Frug I Com is a collaborative organisation consisting of trading partners across the Dutch fresh produce supply chain growers, packers, traders and retailers. We started Frug I Com about 11 years ago to help our industry with the adoption of GS1 standards, says Johan den Engelse, Senior Consultant at Frug I Com. Using GS1 standards, we are driving the optimal use of information for a faster and more efficient supply chain that provides accurate information about fresh produce for retailers and consumers alike. Retailers have become increasingly interested in getting detailed information about fresh produce to meet consumer demand. European Union (EU) legislative actions have also mandated requirements for greater transparency across the food supply chain; for example, EU Regulation 178 in 2002 addressed the directive for traceability. Before using GLNs, Dutch growers used their own location codes for identifying packing locations. After transitioning to GLNs, this was good for our growers since the GLOBALG.A.P. organisation had decided to require GLNs as part of its independent certification system for Good Farming Practices, says den Engelse. So the GLNs that were already in use by our growers could also be used in support of the government s quality control initiative. Frug I Com has been key to the Dutch fresh produce industry s adoption with more than 1,500 growers of fresh produce, to date, using GLNs to comply with quality assurance requirements in national and European export food markets. Since each grower may assign up to ten GLNs, there is a potential for approximately 15,000 GLNs to be used in the Dutch fresh produce industry alone. Frug I Com gives valuable up-front help and direction for growers and packers who are new to implementing GLNs. We know it s important to provide companies with support to implement GLNs, says den Engelse. We help them understand the possibilities of assigning GLNs not only for their respective role in the supply chain, but also for detailed location identification such as assigning a GLN for each packing station and glass house. As demand for exporting fresh produce increases, so does the need for streamlining processes with GS1 standards. Source: Fruitmasters 7

8 Industry News And as demand for exporting fresh produce increases, so does the need for streamlining processes with GS1 standards. The detailed information contained in the GLN Registry especially the GLN hierarchies is quite important for trade agreements, explains den Engelse. It s important to have this level of detailed information for transparency when it comes to trading with other countries. As registries around the world are joined together in the GS1 GLN Service, this will become very beneficial for our industry. Perhaps one of the most significant benefits of using GLNs and the GLN Registry revolves around the simple concept of trust. Trust has become more and more important in our industry, says den Engelse. By sharing produce information and making the supply chain more transparent, our companies are becoming even more trusted partners. Location codes in the floriculture supply chain Focused on floriculture, a leading sector in the Dutch economy, Floricode works with its growers, auctions, wholesale traders and logistics service providers, helping them use information management systems and GS1 standards for a highly efficient supply chain in Europe and around the world. Since we are dealing with fresh flowers, time to market is very important, says Henk Zwinkels, Chief Information Officer of Floricode. Growers need to sell their products within a few hours, and then traders and transporters must efficiently move the flowers on through the supply chain to retailers in approximately one day. Saving time and associated costs is a major driver for our industry s adoption of GS1 standards, especially the GLN. As early as 2000, Floricode worked with the Netherlands three major flower auctions along with the growers and wholesale traders to implement GLNs for electronic transactions. Using GLNs, traders can now place orders with their favourite growers, deliveries can be easily dispatched, and invoices administered, says Zwinkels. We chose to work with GS1 rather than creating our own codes, continues Zwinkels. And since flowers are a major export for our country, we re glad that GS1 standards are recognised globally. Zwinkels stresses the importance of this industry-wide decision to use GLNs. We didn t wait to assign GLNs since we knew unique identifiers for all trading partners would enable them to conduct business in a much more efficient way. In 2009 and 2010, Floricode launched another major initiative to fully leverage GLNs. With this effort, Floricode assigned and placed GLNs encoded in barcodes on signs at each of the loading and unloading locations at all nurseries, trader locations and all boxes of the auctions. Today, there are approximately 16,000 locations each with its own GLN where growers send and traders receive flowers that they have just purchased. Transport carriers can scan the barcode of the actual location where flowers are handled for transport and delivery, says Zwinkels. And the GLNs may be used on logistical documents at the box level. When orders are placed, a GLN can be included to indicate the location an order should be delivered. Working with other GS1 standards, GLNs also provide floricultural trading partners with track and trace capabilities. With GS1 standards, retailers can now verify by whom and on what dates and at what times their flowers were loaded and unloaded, explains Zwinkels. If a retailer gets a delivery of flowers with unacceptable quality, the trader can pinpoint the grower from which the delivery came as well as the path it took along the supply chain. Interested in learning more? Contact GS1 Netherlands at [email protected]. More information about Frug I Com and Floricode: and Approximately 16,000 locations each have its own GLN where growers send and traders receive flowers just purchased. Pictured L to R: B. IJpelaar, Manager, Supply Chain & Logistics at Waterdrinker; L. v.d. Zon, Managing Director, Floricode; en B. Moria, Commercial Director, Waterdrinker 8

9 Industry News Healthcare standards updated Healthcare AIDC Updates Mission-specific Work Group completes mission The Healthcare Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) Updates Mission-specific Work Group submitted for ratification its final deliverable, a revised Healthcare AIDC Implementation Guideline, completing in February the scope of its mission. The work group took on a number of complex and difficult topics, and developed solutions that ensure patient safety, while improving the ability of healthcare manufacturers to maintain compliance with product identification and traceability regulations. The team introduced new Global Trade Item Number (GTIN ) allocation rules for healthcare kits, medical device software and configurable medical devices. The team also developed new rules for printing human readable interpretation (HRI) text for medical devices and pharmaceuticals as well as rules for medical device direct part marking (DPM). These rules are particularly relevant today, with the FDA implementation of the Unique Device Identification (UDI) regulation and the enactment of the Drug Quality and Security Act (DQSA). The team s work is reflected in the Healthcare GTIN Allocation Rules (issue 9), Healthcare AIDC Implementation Guide v3, and GS1 General Specifications v15. Special thanks go to the group co-chairs, Sue Schmid (GS1 Australia), Peter Tomicki and Tracey Holevas (GE Healthcare), for their leadership in this project. Interested in more information on the Healthcare AIDC updates? Have questions? Contact Michael Sarachman at [email protected] or Chuck Biss at [email protected]. Healthcare exchanges unite! New guidelines for information exchange across the healthcare supply chain According to the latest ecom survey, GS1 ecom standards (EANCOM and GS1 XML) are used in the healthcare sectors by 19 countries. Several GS1 Member Organisations (MOs) have developed implementation guides for local use, but no profiles or guides were developed on a global or regional level, which has led to multiplicity and overlap that is difficult and expensive to follow for global companies active in multiple countries. An initiative was launched with manufacturers, hospitals, pharmacies, solution providers and GS1 MOs in 20 countries to develop a framework to align GS1 ecom standards for use throughout the global healthcare supply chain from supplier to logistic end-user. By using established, harmonised and streamlined business processes in the supply chain, system integration is facilitated and development costs are reduced. Moreover, electronic commerce can be adopted more rapidly. It also enables quicker and easier integration of new business partners, avoiding different solutions for different clients. The following global guidelines are available for download on the GS1 website at GS1 Model for Supply Chain Management in Healthcare Part I Framework outlines a model for harmonised, streamlined processes for healthcare participants. GS1 Model for Supply Chain Management in Healthcare Part II GS1 ecom Processes describes in detail GS1 ecom processes for the healthcare model. The data exchange for the processes described in these guidelines are outlined in Business Document Specification (BDS), a syntax-neutral listing of common data; BDS Summary, a high-level syntax-neutral listing of common data; MS EANCOM, a mapping specification for BDS to EANCOM data; and MS XML, a mapping specification for BDS to XML data. Phase I messages include Order, Order Response, Order Acknowledgement and Despatch Advice. Other business processes and messaging; consignment stock handling; master data alignment and invoicing processes are planned for publication by the end of this year. Access the guidelines: Need more information? Contact Anders Grangard at [email protected]. 9

10 Industry News New GS1 application standard in rail Provides roadmap for rail stakeholders to gain visibility of rolling stock and access to real-time information Scheduled for publication in April, the new GS1 application standard, EPCIS for Rail Vehicle Visibility, has been created by a team of rail stakeholders, solution providers and GS1 Member Organisations. This represents a significant achievement in collaboration and consensus on the use of GS1 standards in the rail sector. The new application standard allows rail stakeholders to leverage EPCIS to obtain complete visibility of rolling stock in real-time. This capability provides significant business benefits for all players, including: Facilitation of preventative maintenance Improved customer service Greater process efficiencies Reduced costs Improved safety Reduced environmental impact of transport With GS1 standards, as an industry we can create more intelligent solutions to achieve greater efficiencies, especially in the areas of safety and maintenance. Yet, this can only be done with industry players adopting a common set of standards to share information. - Karl Åkerlund, Rail Infrastructure Manager, Trafikverket The standard addresses some of the most pressing challenges for rail companies and operators today. Due to limited visibility and information about rail vehicles, it s difficult for rail operators to plan and meet customer demands for timely deliveries and updates. They must also rely on manual, time-consuming processes to track and manage vehicle maintenance activities, often reacting to problems instead of proactively preventing them. For rail companies, the lack of preventative maintenance negatively impacts operational safety and efficiency. Standards are being supported by an increasing number of train operators in Great Britain and across Europe, meaning the same tags can be used on either side of the Channel Tunnel, no matter what system is actually doing the reading, or for what purpose. This saves money in design, and in the long term, increases benefits of sharing data easily. - David Burbridge, Senior Engineer, Technical Services, Network Rail Governments are also adding pressure with mandates and legislation. In the next 35 years, the European Union (EU) seeks to shift 50 percent of road freight as well as a majority of passenger traffic travelling to medium-distance destinations to rail and waterways. These ambitious goals are aimed at reducing the sector s carbon footprint and creating a unified transportation network. In response, some rail stakeholders have adopted an assortment of different technologies with the goal of increasing operational efficiency, but their often proprietary nature can prove extremely problematic for cross-industry visibility and interoperability. With as much as 60 percent of rail traffic in Sweden coming from other European countries, Trafikverket, the Swedish government agency responsible for transport, realises the importance of effectively tracking vehicles and sharing rail traffic data for safe and efficient operations. By using EPCIS in its rail operations, Trafikverket is saving minutes on each train that arrives at the harbour, eliminating extra manual work and improving production. As we add more traffic and faster trains, it s imperative that we care for our existing infrastructure, says Karl Åkerlund, Rail Infrastructure Manager for Trafikverket. We need to understand what vehicles are on our tracks, because if there s a bearing problem or a flat wheel, it affects our rail operations. White Paper on Transport: Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area Towards a Competitive and Resource-Efficient Transport System, European Commission,

11 Industry News With GS1 standards, as an industry we can create more intelligent solutions to achieve greater efficiencies, especially in the areas of safety and maintenance. Yet, this can only be done with industry players adopting a common set of standards to share information. Sharing information for interoperability starts with two applications as the foundation for the use of EPCIS in rail. These applications include tracking vehicles as they travel within and across different countries for improved asset management and associating vehicle data with the Wayside Train Monitoring System (WTMS) data for enhanced preventive maintenance. In any complex organisation or where action of multiple partners intertwine, anything that standardises and simplifies sharing of data holds significant value. EPCIS just makes sense in rail. - Philip Leslie, Business Development Manager, Coriel GS1 identification standards used include the Global Individual Asset Identifier (GIAI), to uniquely identify individual rail vehicles, and the Global Location Number (GLN), to identify vehicle whereabouts. Each vehicle s GIAI is encoded on GS1 EPC/RFID tags, which are mounted on opposite corners of the vehicle. This also allows for the determination of its orientation, which, in turn, makes it possible to associate vehicle visibility event data with individual vehicle components, such as wheel sets. RFID-enabled Automatic Vehicle Identification (AVI) readers at various trackside points along the way identify each EPC/RFID tagged vehicle, simultaneously linking the vehicle s GIAI with its travel direction, axle count, speed and length. Orientation data is also important for logistical operations to accommodate incoming vehicles with single-side loading and unloading. Besides vehiclelevel information, RFID-enabled AVI systems also enable train-level information exchanges, such as a train entering or leaving a yard, and the composition of the train. Standards are being supported by an increasing number of train operators in Great Britain and across Europe, meaning the same tags can be used on either side of the Channel Tunnel, no matter what system is actually doing the reading, or for what purpose, says David Burbridge, Senior Engineer in Technical Services for the U.K. s Network Rail. This saves money in design, and in the long term, increases benefits of sharing data easily. GS1 standards also enhance WTMS systems by enabling automatic collection of measurement results and linking them to specific rail vehicles for safety and preventive maintenance. Where once railway workers, using walkie-talkies and faxes, would need to search the entire train for a defect, the GIAI accurately pinpoints the impacted vehicle, eliminating manual labour and a process vulnerable to error. The GS1 standard EPCIS enables rail operators, infrastructure companies and even cargo owners to share information about the physical location and movement of individual rail vehicles and entire trains as they travel from country to country. EPCIS is capable of supporting additional, rail-specific requirements as implementations grow, ensuring end-to-end visibility for all stakeholders. In any complex organisation, or where the actions of multiple partners intertwine, anything that standardises and simplifies sharing of data holds significant value, says Philip Leslie, Business Development Manager for Coriel, an RFID solution provider. EPCIS just makes sense in rail. Åkerlund agrees. Once the EPCIS rail application standard is published, our objective will be to point out the many advantages to our industry, including a better return on investment by using more relevant information. Learn how you can get on board with GS1 standards, including EPCIS. Contact Audrey Kremer, Senior Manager of GS1 Transport & Logistics, at [email protected] or Craig Alan Repec, Senior Manager of EPCglobal Technology, at [email protected]. Special Thanks to the Guideline Contributors Coriel Ltd. HARTING IT System Integration Havs-och vattenmyndigheten HRAFN AS Jernbaneverket Learningwell AB Network Rail ProRail Schweizerische Bundesbahnen SBB SJ AB SNCF SupplyOn AG Trafikverket Vilant Systems Oy GS1 Member Organisations including Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.K. 11

12 Standards & Solutions Operators adopt GS1 digital coupon standards New white paper outlines proposed solution by GSMA and GS1 to standardise digital couponing Last month, the Groupe Spéciale Mobile Association (GSMA) and GS1 published a co-branded white paper covering the need for retailers and brand owners to mass distribute digital offers that can be more widely accepted across different retailers. GS1 Global coupon standards offer efficiency and security to brands, and enhance the shopping experience and convenience for consumers using smartphones and tablets. The situation The number of service providers and distributors providing proprietary solutions to brands and retailers is increasingly fragmenting the market. A number of these service providers approached the GSMA and GS1 to assist in identifying a harmonised framework that would motivate the industry to provide digital coupons that can be mass distributed and redeemed more widely across merchants. The need has come as a response to consumer demand, consistent with the growing use of mobile devices to search and purchase online. With increased mobile activity comes the increased opportunity for redemption of mobile coupons. Retailers and brands know that digital coupons, supported by loyalty programmes, could make it much easier for them to capture the data they need to build a closer relationship with consumers and offer a tailored experience that fully measures the effectiveness of campaigns. Both the digital coupon and mobile coupon markets have seen the proliferation of solutions with limited interoperability between retailers, coupon clearing houses, point-of-sale suppliers, brands, app developers, distributors and mobile operators. In such a splintered marketplace, it is difficult for retailers and brands to cost effectively distribute and accept digital coupons on a large scale. The lack of consistency and interoperability in the digital coupon sector is ultimately preventing mobile engagement from fulfilling its potential. A proposed solution Drawing on the output of workshops run jointly by the GSMA and GS1 UK, which are actively supporting the development and implementation, the white paper proposes a consistent interoperable framework and related processes for the mass distribution and acceptance of digital coupons via multiple mobile operators and other distributors. To minimise complexity and cost of implementation, the proposed solution aims to leverage the technologies and business processes that have already been adopted by brands and merchants. Four standardised elements and related application programming interfaces (APIs) have been identified that could enable a consistent and interoperable framework for the distribution and acceptance of digital coupons by multiple retailers and brands across multiple mobile operators and distributors. How can other GS1 Member Organisations help enable this ecosystem? The GSMA represents mobile operators globally, just as GS1 supports global brands and retailers. The GSMA is chartered to identify global solutions focusing on specific territories and work with operators that are willing to adopt standards and implement the framework identified in the white paper. GS1 requires a single message and use cases to assist ecosystems in adopting standards to mass distribute digital coupons to consumers via their mobile devices, redeemable anywhere. This is a fantastic opportunity for GS1 Member Organisations to educate and facilitate solutions for brands and retailers leveraging the expertise in mobile deployment that GSMA brings to the table. Read the white paper on mobile coupon standards: Interested in working with GSMA to develop a coupon ecosystem or would you just like to learn more about the GS1 Digital Coupons standards? Contact Cameron Green at [email protected]. Interested in getting involved or just learning more about the implementations planned for the U.K.? Contact Monica Bird at [email protected]. 12

13 Standards & Solutions Trusted product data in the digital world Announcing the GS1 data checker: a solution to help GS1 Member Organisations validate and monitor data quality Data quality has become a strategic pillar for the GS1 Global Office (GO) and, with the growth of global data synchronisation adoption and the need for better business-to-consumer (B2C) information, GS1 is looking for ways to increase and maintain data quality in order to provide a trusted source of data to the end consumer. To support GS1 Member Organisations (MOs), the GS1 GO has launched the GS1 data checker solution, which supports MOs at a local level to check, validate, monitor and provide reports to their communities about the quality of their data. This enables the MO to train and educate its suppliers the initial data source of product information on how best to raise their data quality to the level of trusted product data. With a significant increase in consumers using online shopping for their purchases, this translates into a greater need for building trust among consumers that the available product information is accurate. A growing demand from consumers seeking to make informed purchasing decisions stems from requirements important to them, such as gluten intolerance or nut allergies. Currently, the GS1 data checker supports three modules: Baseline B2B, Food Label (EU2011/1169) and Physical Comparison service. As demands grows, additional modules will be added to support the MO community. For instance, a pre-production validation service module will be added during this year. As demand increases among online shoppers, GS1 will continue to support members by providing solutions in the area of data quality. Along with the GS1 data checker, the Global Office has also produced, with the participation of GS1 Belgium & Luxembourg, GS1 Canada, GS1 Mexico, GS1 Netherlands, GS1 UK and GS1 US, a training video and documentation on best practices on New Item Introduction. This outlines five simple steps of providing new item product data by manufacturers to retailers. Interested in more information on data quality and the GS1 data checker? Contact Mark Widman at [email protected] or Lorraine Knight at [email protected]. Read more: 100th edition of GS1 GPC GS1 Global Product Classification (GPC) continues its unmatched growth Classification is a form of cataloguing or identification involving a process of grouping things into categories based on their essential properties and the relationships between them. The GS1 Global Product Classification (GPC) system has been in existence for fourteen years, giving buyers and sellers a common language for grouping products in the same way, everywhere in the world. In December 2014, GS1 published its 100th release of the GPC standard. This edition brings valuable new content, including new bricks to expand classification in vegetable/plant oils, cosmetics, sugar/sugar substitutes, snacks, ready-made meals, meat and poultry, lottery scratch cards, children s activity-based books, sweet curd cheese and fresh fruits/vegetables. In addition, the GPC June 2014 publication is now in production within the Global Data Synchronisation Network (GSDN). Access both GPC publications (June 2014 and December 2014): Interested in more information on GPC publications? Contact Mike Mowad at [email protected]. 13

14 Standards & Solutions New release of ecom XML standard Announcing the new GS1 XML ecom maintenance release 3.2 In December 2014, GS1 published the new maintenance release of the GS1 ecom XML standard. The most significant change in the new release is the addition of the Attribute Value Pair (AVP), a placeholder that allows adding temporary components to existing messages. The adoption of GS1 ecom XML standards in new business processes often requires changes to message structure or its content to support new requirements. The maintenance releases of GS1 ecom standards are published every two years. Such frequency is believed to ensure the stability of standards, while providing necessary flexibility in supporting new requirements. However, in some cases especially those for users who need to conform to new legislation or government requirements the two-year publication cycle may be insufficient. With GS1 ecom release 3.2, urgent requirements can be supported on an exceptional basis by allowing temporary components to be added to existing messages for use until a newer maintenance release occurs. New components are introduced as the Attribute Value Pair (AVP), a set of pre-defined placeholders within GS1 ecom messages. The actual attributes and values allowed are stored in the Global Data Dictionary. In the subsequent maintenance release, AVPs will be added to the basic message structure. Other changes introduced to the GS1 ecom portfolio by release 3.2 include: Support for traceability of fish and aquaculture products. A new extension to the Despatch Advice message a Despatch Advice Line Item Extension for Fish Traceability that enables tracking and tracing of wild-caught fish and farmed aquaculture products from the point-of-capture to retail sale. The new extension is compliant with the latest European regulations. Enhancements to existing messages, such as Item Data Notification, Invoice and Despatch Advice to support the transport and logistics sector. The expansion of functionality of logistics messages to support the communication accompanying the transport of cash money. Modification of the invoice message for compliance with the newest European Union directive for invoicing. The next GS1 ecom maintenance release will be published in December New business requirements must be approved by April 2016 to be included in release 3.3. New set of messages available on the GS1 website: latest and in the Global Data Dictionary at Implementation of release 3.2 is supported by the Functional User Guide: Questions regarding GS1 ecom standards? Contact Ewa Iwicka at [email protected] or Jean Luc Champion at [email protected]. 14

15 Standards & Solutions Better location identification around the corner Global Location Number Allocation Rule Updates transition to solution development The GLN Allocation Rule Updates Mission-specific Work Group (MSWG) has completed the requirements development phase, and is now developing updates to the GS1 General Specifications and GLN Allocation Rules. The group is reviewing the general GLN application standards, and has drafted a number of changes to make the GLN identifier more understandable within the user community. The team held a two-day workshop at GS1 Global in Brussels to identify changes to the GLN Allocation Rules in a move to address all of the use case scenarios presented during the requirements phase. The use cases involve the healthcare, agriculture, retail and logistics industries. The team is meeting during the GS1 Global Standards Event in Jersey City to finalise and test these allocation rules by applying the rules to both original and additional scenarios submitted by work group members and other community stakeholders. The work group will compile this information into a new GLN Implementation Guideline for publication in For information on GLN Allocation Rule Updates MSWG: community.gs1.org/apps/org/workgroup/ gsmp_gln_aru_mswg/ For questions regarding GLN Allocation Rule Updates, contact Michael Sarachman at [email protected], Coen Janssen at [email protected] or Jean Luc Champion at [email protected]. GS1 GLN Service in production! Connecting GLN registries, users and GLN master data As the need for the identification of legal entities and locations grows, so has the need to store and retrieve information for Global Location Numbers (GLNs). In response to local members requests, many GS1 Member Organisations (MOs) have developed local GLN registries as centralised locations for storage of GLN information as well as mechanisms for suppliers and buyers to have one-to-many communication of their GLN data. As local registries are becoming quite popular, GS1 endusers requested they be interconnected to provide a single point of access to all GLNs and their master data worldwide. Thus, the GS1 GLN Service was created and is now in production, connecting local registries via a central Global Index to enable the efficient search by GLN number, company name or country. For example, if a local GLN registry needs to find all GLNs associated with a specified company name: The local GLN registry sends a message to the GLN Global Index. The GLN Global Index responds with basic master data and a list of pointers to local GLN registries that have additional master data for the GLN. The local GLN registry may then contact each of those peer local GLN registries to obtain the desired data. The search and response is performed via a set of pre defined messages between the local registries and the Global Index or between the two registries. A GS1 MO that wishes to offer the service to its members can take advantage of a local registry hosted by the GS1 Global Office. The GLN master data for member companies can then be loaded into this hosted GLN Service through an Excel spreadsheet and an upload feature within the Service Graphical User Interface. The hosted service supports all required functionality as defined within the GLN Service Technical Design document. In January, GS1 Egypt, GS1 Ireland and GS1 Lithuania began use of the hosted GLN Service with thirteen other MOs planned. Seventeen MOs with local registries are committed to be part of the GS1 GLN Service. Interested in the GLN Service MO Interest Group or the GLN Service? Contact Kerry Angelo at [email protected]. 15

16 Important News A grateful farewell Joe Spreitzer Joe Spreitzer, who has spent over 40 years with the Target Corporation, announced his planned retirement. Joe has been a valued member of the GS1 community, serving as co-chair of the Identification SMG, Fresh Foods user group and the Next Generation Product Identification work groups. In these leadership roles and throughout his time in the GS1 standards development community, he has been a well-respected voice of the retail supply chain who both influenced and implemented many of the standards in use today. GS1 and the communities it represents extends its thanks to Joe for his years of dedicated service to the advancement of GS1 standards and the shared belief in the power of standards to transform the way we work and live. Mark Frey Mark Frey has announced his plans to retire, having successfully led many GSMP initiatives during his tenure. Mark was instrumental in the development and leadership of the recently ratified UHF Gen2V2, as well as GS1 Source and the GS1 Digital Mission-specific Work Group and has demonstrated outstanding leadership of the ID Standards Management Group. Mark has been a key contributor to the ongoing GSMP improvement programs and has made key contributions to GS1 s best-in-class standards development initiative. GS1 wishes Mark its very best wishes for the future and expresses appreciation for his valuable work on behalf of GS1 and the communities he touched. Save the date GS1 Global Standards Event October 2015 DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel & Conference Centre Warsaw, Poland GS1 Standards & System Development Newsletter is a publication of: GS1 AISBL Blue Tower Avenue Louise 326, b10 BE 1050 Brussels, Belgium T +32 (0) F +32 (0) Publisher: Steve Bratt Editor: Terése Tarantino For more information, please contact: teré[email protected] or visit: Follow GS1 on GS1 is a registered trademark of GS1 AISBL. All contents copyright GS1 AISBL