In the last few days I have been dealing with UPC codes and ITF codes. Mostly in respect to artwork being placed on packaging our products. To be honest I never knew what an ITF code was before this began or even how it was used and different from a UPC code.
Today I had some clarification from the company we purchased our UPC codes from. Here is what I was told. Some of you may be aware of this but for those of you who are not hopefully this will help.
I will use our scenario for reference:
Currently we have 2 UPC codes. One for the individual product and one for the box that the product comes in. Some retail locations are selling the product either by the each or by the box, therefore 2 UPC codes were needed. An ITF code is strictly for carton/pallet/(whatever else you ship in that contains the product to be sold) for inventory purposes for distribution locations. This ITF code is created and linked to the UPC code on the product inside of the carton. It is your responsibility then to provide the distribution location(s) with a sheet detailing how many pieces of product are inside said carton and their UPC code number(s) (basically all the relevant information for them and their inventory processes).
It was suggested to me that we do NOT use both the case UPC code and the ITF code on boxes as it could cause confusion in the distributor(s) database. So the general rule of thumb here would be that if you are selling only by the each then having an ITF code on the case is ok. If selling by the each or box then 2 UPC codes are needed. Now that doesn’t mean that you cannot put a UPC code on the bottom of the box along with an ITF code if selling by the each or box, but distributors will need to be made aware that BOTH codes are on the box.
Obviously there is much more to this topic. For our usage though this is all we need to know at this current point. I searched the internet for about an hour before I finally broke down and called someone, and even then I needed to “clarify” what they were telling me so I knew we were on the same page. Anyhow maybe this will help someone maybe not, either way I found it interesting, I hope you do too.
One of my biggest headaches right now is how to handle our office document revision management. We have multiple computers that access a NAS device that houses our data. On a very simple level we have just renamed and saved the file after every change, for example, pricing.doc becomes pricing_R1.doc then pricing_R2.doc and so on. To date this works for us. However I can (and I am sure you can also) see problems with this structure when you start to add more and more people to the mix.
I have been playing with subversion and the autoversioning feature in regards to this issue. On WinXP and lower you can also incorporate the Novell NetDrive software to mount the file location like a local drive. This solution is not completely flawless and doesn’t work with Windows OS versions above XP. Because of this i have started to toy with WebDrive (www.webdrive.com), it is available for Windows and Mac but not Linux. Not a big deal considering the fact that I am the only Linux user in the group. I have not had enough time to play with WebDrive to comment on it’s abilities yet, but I can say with the $59.95/ea price for Windows users and the $34.95/ea price for Mac users this probably will not be our solution. My largest problem with this solution is not the subversion or autoversioning experience, it is finding a very clean easy to use interface for my users. Granted I could just forgo the use of autoversioning and force everyone to use and SVN client like TortoiseSVN but I am afraid that may be to difficult for some. The more I can make it look like how they use their computers every day the better. Although I am heavily weighing the support/teaching against not having a real solution.
Another option was www.Box.net and the business plan. This looks really promising with all of it’s features and the fact that it is web based makes it more attractive. On the downside the price is $15/per user per month. For us that translates to $900/yr for the service. Now I am on the side that would argue that is not a bad price for the features and space given, but I also am quick to adopt SaaS solutions, on the other side I am also quick to say “we can do that ourselves”. I do believe that Box.net is a great solution and that they do deserve to be compensated adequately for their service. I just think there is a simpler less expensive solution for us.
I am aware of other solutions out there like Drop Box, Jungle Disk and XDrive. When it comes to multiple users, simple use, clean interface and unlimited revisions they just don’t make the mark. Obviously our company is not the only company to ever have to deal with these issues. Which makes me wonder “What other solutions are there, what am I missing?”. I would like to hear how your company handles the document revision management issue…
