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The invention of the UPC barcode in 1973 revolutionised retail and paved the way for unprecedented efficiency gains in supply chains. Slapping a barcode on everything—from car parts and industrial machinery to cereals and shirts—automated checkout and inventory management like never before.
But today, barcodes are just one component of the technology transforming data capture—the process of collecting and digitising information from the physical world. Barcodes will continue to be innovated upon through GS1’s Sunrise 2027 initiative, which encodes more information into the humble barcode. They're also now better understood, not as a standalone technology, but as part of a wider shift towards smarter data capture.
Following a smart data capture strategy can deliver the next level of business efficiency as well as customer and employee experience. It eliminates tedious manual processes and empowers employees and customers with instant data insights. Using smartphones, drones, wearables, and other devices, it allows businesses to seamlessly capture information not just from barcodes but also text, IDs, objects, and more through computer vision techniques. The data can be integrated directly into workflows so it can be analysed and acted on in real-time—unlocking huge benefits for businesses. It’s all part of the challenge of operating a business in 2023 and beyond:keeping costs low and improving efficiencies while maintaining uptime.
Smart data capture is a technology that unlocks a broader shift in how we live our lives; it also keeps businesses up to date with how individual access to data has evolved. Consumers and employees expect on-demand access to information like they have in their personal lives. But legacy data capture methods can’t deliver that convenience.
Frontline workers waste time struggling with fragmented systems that rely on paper forms and manual data entry. Take the retail store associate that has to check and update price labels manually, potentially hundreds of times a day, in a time of inflation and regular price adjustments. Such tedious work hinders their ability to make timely, informed decisions, leading to reduced productivity, poor customer experiences, and a lack of operational visibility. One analysis by Gartner suggests poor decision-making driven by inefficient data capture costs businesses three percent of their profits. Six in 10 records in company databases are incorrectly labeled, according to analysts ECR Retail Loss. That can be costly: The pharmaceutical sector loses $35 billion a year to logistics errors that can stem from simple mislabeling.
Part of the answer is democratising data access to unlock insights across businesses. The technology augments the productivity of frontline staff rather than replacing them—and gives them individual access to real-time data as they need it. A recent Microsoft survey captures the frustration workers feel: Forty-six percent of staff want the right tools to make their jobs easier—but aren’t getting it.
Freed from data drudgery, workers using smart data capture can fully utilise their strengths, upskilling their abilities, and benefitting the businesses they work for and the customers they serve. It blends all forms of modern technology like the smartphone, which many businesses and workers already have access to today. It could also be deployed on computer vision-enabled cameras trained on image recognition models to identify which objects to pick and pack from warehouses, or camera-enabled drones, or floor cleaning machines that can identify on-shelf shortages while keeping stores tidy. Smart data capture puts advanced capabilities that were once reserved for technical specialists into the hands of every employee with ease. The process unlocks efficiency gains that work for the benefit of the bottom line, the C-suite, and frontline staff.
Smart data capture platforms offer multi-modal support to capture text, barcodes, IDs, objects, and more. Innovative features like simultaneous scanning, augmented reality (AR) overlays, and on-screen instructions ensure accurate, efficient data collection in any environment. Problems like counting 3,000 shoe boxes manually or trying to find the proverbial needle in the haystack of a stock inventory can be automated away. For instance, an AR overlay can turn a messy dark stockroom into an easily traceable and organised one, from which items can be seamlessly picked by pinpointing which are relevant. Meanwhile, seamless integration and robust analytics turn raw data into actionable business insights in real time. A raft of leading providers in the smart data capture space have versatile platforms to capture data from all sources and integrate it into any workflow or application.
Retail employees can access product information on demand to better assist customers with complicated queries. Delivery drivers, under time pressure to perform, can verify shipments and load vans faster. Field technicians working on tricky tasks can get clear, diagnostic guidance through AR overlays—all delivered through smart data capture.
As consumer brand loyalty diminishes, with 36 percent of shoppers switching brands, smart data capture enables more convenient and engaging shopping experiences to attract and retain customers by offering AR overlays when shopping, or personalised vouchers based on what customers have previously bought directly to their own smartphone.
Smart data capture is redefining the way we work. Exactly 50 years after the UPC barcode revolutionised the world, smart data capture looks set to take industry into the next half-century.
Learn more about smart data capture at scandit.com
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
