How does barcoding help you better track your inventory?

Barcoding promotes better tracking because it automates inventory count maintenance. Every time an item is removed from the shelf to fulfill an order, it gets scanned and the appropriate count is deducted from the Inventory Management System automatically. When warehouse employees receive a new product, they input it into the system, print a barcode. Then, when the same product is reordered, it’s only a matter of attaching a barcode and scanning in the quantity received. The system will also be able to tell automatically when an inventory count is low and trigger a reorder alert automatically.

How does barcoding help you better understand your inventory?

Successful inventory tracking allows for inventory optimization. First you have to know the situation today, then you can start moving towards a goal. With inventory tracking on auto-pilot, you can start looking at which products sellout fastest and which sit on the shelves. Tracking products well will allow you to immediately see the effect of advertising programs - i.e. we’ve advertised this product heavily over the last three months, now lets see how it flew off the shelves compared to the previous three months.

Top 10 Funniest April Fool’s Day Office Pranks:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00701/Helium-balloon_1__701052a.jpg

It’s amazing that a shot like the one below was taken without millions of dollars in government funds.

I will definitely think of this next time I seem to be outmatched by the competition!

Many of today’s websites utilize Flash to deliver rich interactive content from visualization software, to presentations, games, product demos, and videos. Some websites are built entirely in Flash.  In fact, Flash has grown so popular for interactive content delivery that Intechnic does Flash programming for one website out of four-five that we build.

Unfortunately,  iPad users won’t be able to enjoy Flash as part of their Web experience.  Apart for the built-in support for Youtube, it just won’t work.  Apple blames Flash’s developer Adobe for dragging their feet on Flash support for IPhones and now IPad.  However, some believe that this move is intentional as Apple is pushing support of HTML5, which allows for video to play natively without need for Flash.

The new IPad has some other disappointments as well.  It has no video output, no USB ports, resolution smaller than some netbooks!  Some even compare it to HP TC 1100, released SEVEN (!) years ago (see the comparison chart). This brings me to my question: will Apple’s iPad really revolutionize the Web?

1) Freeinternet.com - according to Wikipedia, this company lost $19 million bucks on $1 million in revenue, not surprsing considering that they’re giving away internet access for free. I guess the ads never really took?

2) Boo.com - those of you wondering why venture capital money is so hard to come by…Boo.com had a perfectly legitimate plan, to sell apparel online. There are lots of profitable websites doing that today. Boo.com, however, managed to burn through $135 million in venture capital dollars in about a year and a half, check it out on Wikipedia.

3) There’s one more I remember reading about, but I’m sorry I can’t remember the name. They advertised delivering anything anywhere. Go online, say you want a snickers and it’ll be at your door. It didn’t take long before millions in investor funds didn’t alleviate that fact that delivering a single candy bar halfway across town doesn’t add up.

4) Intechnic Corporation…oh wait, we’re definitely still here.

Hackers (1995)

Zer0 cool’s nemesis in the move wrote a “worm” that chipped away at the company’s profits and put small amounts of cash into his account using this 3-D super magic programming language…

Swordfish (2001)

Hackers isn’t the only one programming in 3-D. In Swordfish, where John Travolta fights terror with terror, they like to write computer viruses using some sort of goofy crystal ball. Are those Photoshop tools on the left? A nice touch is how it’s “Decrypting Data” on the floor of some virtual hallway.

(courtesy of apcmag.com)

Masterminds (1997)

Here all we have to do is type “initialize phone routing system” and everyone thinks we’re in Hong Kong. Then, we run through a video game map in under 2 minutes while facing threats from a virtual prosecutor in order to gain access to some sort of top secret database.

For those who want the simplest possible explanation, here is Web 1.0 vs. Web 2.0:

1) Higher Cost & No Savings
We have estimated that the cost of having a web developer updating a website over the course of its lifespan can add up to 2-3 times the cost of integrating a Content Management System (CMS) and having the website updated internally.  In some cases, this cost becomes a contributing factor to why websites become stagnant and don’t get updated for years (terrible for search engines and company image).

2) You Are Not in Control
If you can’t update critical information on your own website, you are not in control of your own website. What if your web developer goes out of business or you can’t get a hold of them?  How you are going to publish that special promotion, correct a typo, or update important contact information?  Having the ability to control content on the website is of utmost importance for any business.

3) Delays & Low Priorities
The truth is that web developers don’t like maintaining and updating websites. It is hardly profitable and tedious work that always gets pushed to the end of the task list.   Resulting from this, customers can wait for the longest time to get their website updated. With a Content Management System built into the site, you can update your own website from the comfort of your office and on your own timetable.

4) Missing out on Long Term Benefits
Having a Content Management System on your website also has long term benefits: Since the content is kept separate from the design, the site can be easily redesigned without any change to the actual content.  With the content stored in the database, web developers can easily integrate the existing content into a newly designed web site.  This allows for a site to be upgraded more frequently in order to keep up with the latest trends and technologies. 

5) Wrong Perceptions
Despite what some think, having  a Content Management System on your website doesn’t cost much, it  is not difficult to use (if you can read this blog or use Microsoft Word, you will be to update content using CMS), and doesn’t take up much of your time.  It is secure and easy to use and for all the reasons above is the best tool your business website can have.

1) Your competition uses a particular Content Management System, what would they say it does better? After all, you are looking for the company that will best suit your needs.

2) How much time will this really take to get done? Often times schedules change as requirements get fleshed out and to arrive at an exact schedule, a development team needs to spec out the project.

3) How will my project be supported? There may be a ticket system, forum, 800 number, dedicated individual or even someone overseas as infamously pioneered by some big computer manufacturers. This is important since your websites will be a new piece of software to you and you will have questions.

4) How do you document the project? Projects are often planned in phases depending on complexity. A proposal starts the project and a technical specification gets into the details so that developers know what to do.

5) What’s the cost for the project? Here, on a project of moderate complexity, you actually don’t want an exact answer since the team you introduced the project to must get into the technical details, think through features, research APIs if that are being used, etc. and get their heads around the amount of work involved.

This list isn’t all encompassing, but should provide you with some common sense things to think about on your next web 2.0 development project.