XBRL, or Extensible Business Reporting Language, is a standardized, interactive language that companies can use to submit their financial data. Rather than treating financial information as a block of text, it provides an identification tag for individual pieces of data, making it computer readable. XBRL allows companies and other producers of financial data and business reports to:

• Automate processing of data collection via computer software
• Increase the speed of handling financial data
• Reduce the chance of error
• Permit automatic checking of information
• Streamline collecting and reporting processes
• Adapt to meet different requirements and uses
• Download and compare financial metrics for many different companies

Since XBRL is more efficient than the current system of reporting financial data, there is a proposed federal regulation in place that would require all public companies to file financial statements in XBRL by 2011. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) even proposed that Fortune 500 companies should begin filing in XBRL beginning in 2009, and that all public companies should consider XBRL within the next three years.

Under a pilot program, about 80 companies are already submitting their financial statements in XBRL to the SEC. These companies speculated that by switching to XBRL early, they will save money on software, and save the stress of rushing to meet future deadlines.

Tracking and tracing materials throughout the supply chain has become an important part of business today.  Using automated data collection not only makes this process more efficient, but can save you some green.  Track and trace systems have the ability to:

• Keep unsafe foods and pharmaceuticals from consumers
• Protect brands from counterfeiting
• Validate products for specific consumers
• Protect against bioterrorism
• And more

The food industry in particular has been focusing more on increased traceability for consumer safety.  With the introduction of EPC (Electronic Product Code), more detailed product information can be encoded, allowing specific information for each item to be tracked.  GS1 has also created the Global Traceability Standard to identify items globally and in multiple supply chains.  This standard can answer questions such as:

• Where did this product come from?
• What customers have received a product from this batch/lot?
• When was this product produced?

You can read more about the GS1 Global Traceability Standard and see how an effective track and trace system can benefit your business in the brochure for this standard.  For more information on implementing a system that utilizes barcodes and RFID for traceability, please contact me at ehodges@barcode.com.

Barcode Industry Standards are developed by specific industries and government groups to describe how certain symbologies will be used in their applications.  For instance, ISBN is standard for the labeling of books.  These associations or groups specify how data is encoded into the barcode and they can even impose rules regulating  the length of a barcode.  Essentially, barcode industry standards define how to use a barcode symbology in a particular application or industry.  Here are a few examples of barcode industry standards and what industry groups they are used in: 

In future posts I’ll focus on certain industry standards, such as the Health Industry Barcode Standards(HIBC) and provide detailed information about the applications they are used for.