Barcoding News

Elo has unveiled a new 55-inch 5501LT modular interactive digital signage display, featuring 10-touch infrared capability to deliver a smooth and highly responsive multi-user interaction. The infrared touch technology provides higher touch sensitivity, giving the 5501LT a tablet-like performance on a large-format screen. The low-profile design integrates seamlessly into modern interiors for retail, office, hospitality or public space applications, and offers system integrators and value-added resellers a high-performance solution that is easy to deploy and will withstand the heavy use of a commercial setting. The 5501LT is available to order beginning today.

Retailers are turning to touchscreens to unite the online and in-store shopping experience and increase customer engagement, while businesses have used the technology to enhance collaboration in an office setting and increase productivity. The clear-glass 5501LT takes large-format touchscreens to the next level by including 10-touch infrared technology, auto-switching between active input sources to ease use in meeting rooms, and support for serial control input with the use of adapter cables. Additional features include a 1920×1080 full HD resolution display and a high-contrast/brightness LED-backlit LCD panel, delivering undistorted clarity, and a new video input that auto-detects the last good signal from the internal computer module or other external video sources.

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The differences between a TTL RS232 and a True RS232 interface purely have to do with data being sent, not with powering the barcode scanner. The data is being sent as an electrical block-signal representing a sequence of logical zero’s and ones.

• For a TTL device a zero would ideally be 0 volt, and a 1 one would ideally be 5 volt. The receiving device therefore has to decide whether a the signal at a given time is meant to be 0 or 5 volt, in order to tell if it is looking at a binary zero or a binary one.

• For a True RS232 device the zero is represented by ideally -12Volt and a one is represented by ideally + 12 Volt. Here the receiving device has it a bit easier because the difference between -12 and + 12 = 24 Volt. (specification allows -5 to -15V and +5 to +15V)

In practice we see that a signal gets weaker the longer it has to travel and can sometimes drop 1 volt a meter going via cable from device to host. With a True RS232 device both positive and negative signal can drop 10 volts and still have 4 volts difference in polarity left to tell zero’s from ones. The TTL interface has already less polarity difference if the signal drops just 2 volts.

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Honeywell is showcasing a wide range of solutions designed to help retailers improve the customer experience, enhance store associate productivity and improve profitability in the omni-channel environment at the National Retail Federation’s Big Show, running Jan. 17-20 in New York City’s Javits Center.

Retailers need to create a positive in-store experience for customers in order to build loyalty, increase sales and attract new shoppers. To make digital marketing programs more effective, Honeywell’s 2D scanners such as the Xenon 1900 and the Voyager 1450g simplify the process to redeem coupons from shoppers’ mobile devices.

To help retailers accelerate in-store sales and enable ad-hoc checkout during peak shopping times, Honeywell’s Captuvo line of sleds for Apple iOS devices support mobile checkout apps.

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Zebra has recently introduced the TC8000 enterprise mobile computer, a landmark innovation in warehousing technology that will drive significant gains in productivity and decrease worker fatigue. The ergonomic, lightweight TC8000 mobile computer offers an innovative design that reduces muscle effort by eliminating the need for “tilt and verify” motions warehouse workers repeatedly conduct with traditional devices. Shaving seconds off each repetitive motion saves one hour per worker per shift, increasing productivity by an average of 14 percent based on workflow.

Zebra worked with users around the globe to completely re-think, re-design and re-engineer industrial mobile computers based on deep research and human factors analysis.  The result is the new rugged Android-based TC8000 mobile computer, 33 percent lighter than traditional mobile computers and requiring less muscle effort and reduced wrist motion to help increase the productivity of warehouse workers.  It also reduces training time and makes data entry significantly faster and more accurate in challenging industrial settings.

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One of the biggest turn-offs when shopping is ordering something and it isn’t even available or even worse, when it arrives it’s the wrong item! Product availability is an expectation that every customer has especially when shopping online and failing to properly deliver can cause you to lose that customer to one of your competitors.

The biggest key to preventing any of these issues is having an accurate inventory management system in place.  With proper inventory management you can ensure you have the right stock levels of popular items, stop mispicks, and get the right product shipped every time.  Fewer mistakes means more happy customers and more repeat business.

Learn how proper warehouse management can improve your business in this infographic. The improvements that are possible will surprise you.

British American Tobacco (BAT) is the market leader in the Romanian tobacco industry. Operations began, as a local affiliate, in 1994 and BAT Romania was founded as a domestic business entity in 1996. Local production began at the company’s Ploiesti factory in 1997. The factory now employs more than 500 staff and produces brands including Kent, Lucky Strike, Pall Mall, Dunhill, Vogue, Viceroy and Rothmans for both local and international markets.

The company’s sales agents had previously been using a range of dot matrix printers for printing all required documents to carry out their daily engagement with customers. However, poor printer performance, costly printer consumables, printer size and issues related to limited connectivity led to BAT looking for a new solution to ensure that their sales agents’ productivity levels were improved. They looked to upgrade to a printer that could withstand the rigours of the field sales environment and that could grow with them in the future.

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With the ever changing healthcare landscape, hospitals are constantly under pressure to  consistently perform to always evolving regulations. Add to this that many hospitals are being forced to do more with less staff and you have a genuine need to improve the efficiency and accuracy of every process from identifying patients and accessing electronic medical record data to general bedside care.

Providing hospital staff with the right barcode scanner is a simple step to take to empower them to do more with less. Honeywell is leading the way with a line of scanners designed specifically to meet the needs for healthcare applications.

All of these scanners provide full decoding of any 1D, 2D, and Stacked barcodes and have disinfectant-ready housings that will handle daily cleaning without ever effecting performance.

Xenon 1900h Area-Imaging Scanner

• Corded Scanner – USB, PS/2, RS232, and IBM 46xx options
• Custom Sensor Optimized for barcode Scanning
• Laser-Free Solution

Xenon 1902h Wireless Area-Imaging Scanner

• Cordless Scanner
• Long-Lasting Lithium-Ion Battery with Tool-Free Access
• Flexible Radio Power Management
• Vertical Base
• Laser-Free Solution

In today’s ever mobile work environments, many business are looking for ways to enable their workforce without hindering them with fixed stations or heavy, clunky mobile devices. A common trend today is using existing iOS or Android devices paired with rugged cases and for enhanced data capture capabilities, a cordless barcode scanner.

There are a wide range of cordless scanners to choose from but few have been designed with smartphone compatibility specifically in mind. Zebra’s CS4070 is the perfect solution for any application looking to add enterprise-level scanning to any smartphone or tablet.

The wireless Bluetooth CS4070 Companion Scanner provides the reliable scanning and  ergonomics that are missing in your tablets, laptops, smartphones and other devices that are not designed with intensive barcode scanning in mind. This affordable pocket-sized device offers advanced barcode scanning that’s able to capture virtually any barcode, in any condition, in the time it takes to press the trigger, even if it is damaged, dirty or scratched. And the natural feel delivers comfortable no-fatigue scanning, no matter how many times a day your workers need to scan.

Key Features:

• Wireless scanning for iOS, Android and Windows mobile devices
• PRZM Intelligent Imaging technology for next generation bar code scanning performance
• Scan any 1D, 2D or PDF417 barcode on any medium
• Superior ergonomics
• Point-and-shoot scanning simplicity8
• Full-shift power
• Real-time and batch mode support

For assistance finding the right Zebra scanner for your specific needs, contact us at Barcodes, Inc.

The readers of Business Solutions magazine have honored Seagull Scientific, manufacturer of BarTender software, for the eighth straight year as a “Best Channel Vendor”—the only labeling software company to be recognized so many years in a row. With more than 2,700 readers voting, the magazine’s reseller subscribers again cited Product Features and Product Reliability as our top two areas of strength in the category of Labeling Software.

“We are grateful that our channel partners have publicly supported Seagull longer than any other labeling software company,” said Harold Boe, President of Seagull Scientific. “In our 30th year in business, we launched a major new version of our BarTender software and introduced fresh new branding and a new website, but this award demonstrating the continuing strong relationship with our valued channel partners is really the icing on the cake. We look forward to deepening our relationship in 2016.”

Business Solutions conducts its annual survey in partnership with Penn State University, and does not consider vendor advertising in the magazine as a factor in the results. The full results and methodology were published in the January 2016 issue.

The Power of Personalization: Consumers Increasingly Seek Customized Offers

It seems everyone today boasts a public profile on social networks from Facebook and Twitter to LinkedIn. And in the e-commerce space, consumers have become armchair critics, commenting on retailers, products and services via customer reviews. In turn, notions of privacy have been upended in the era of social sharing.

So it’s not surprising that most shoppers (74%), are willing to share some level of personal information with retailers, such as their age, likes, dislikes and purchasing history. As a bargain never goes out of style, those shoppers reluctant to share are swayed most by discount offers to provide their personal information. But they expect personalized product and sales offers in return.

One-size-fits-all retail promotions and blanket sale offers, like a diaper coupon emailed to a woman without children, seem woefully archaic today.

Shoppers prefer receiving personalized offers, for example, before leaving home via email rather than in the store so they can plan ahead. That’s because consumers often research products online, or “webroom,” before heading to the store to make a purchase. By contrast, once consumers are near a store or shopping its aisles, a relevant text offer is preferred, shoppers surveyed said.Retailers now make product recommendations based on shoppers’ purchasing patterns. That’s helped condition consumers to expect offers targeted directly at them.But while consumers increasingly expect retailers to be clued in to their needs with customized offers, they want to determine themselves how they get those offers. Once they’ve set the agenda, they’re open to a variety of marketing tactics.
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