Barcoding has taken the world by storm. It has literally revolutionized the business world. Barcodes are currently being used in every imaginable business undertaking and their popularity shows no sign of waning any time soon. From conventional or mainstream data collection in attendance management systems and business resources’ tracking and control to some unbelievably innovative applications in video games, nutrition and health, and even in advertising, barcodes have infinite demand in the business world.

 

The most basic and perhaps most important features in any barcoding system are the labeling and printing solutions. These are the building blocks or foundations of the entire data collection process. A typical barcoding system or solution consists of three main components, namely barcode printers and the labels and ribbons to be printed on, barcode scanners and readers, and the application software that “connects” all these. The nature of the data collection project dictates the type of hardware devices and barcoding programs to be used. For instance, an RFID (radio-frequency identification) tracking kit can be used to track assets while a tradeshow scanner will come in handy while processing attendees at an event. Among all the thousands of uses of barcoding equipment and software, there are three main business applications that have proven invaluable more than all the rest.

 

Event Attendance Tracking Solutions

 

This is an automated system that is used to control and track individuals in group or crowd settings or engagements. Attendance tracking solutions are used by institutions, companies, organizations, and even governments to monitor various attendance metrics, such as the time of arrival and departure for each individual, distribution of gender, age range, and many other statistical characteristics in the target group. Students, business employees, seminar and convention attendees, tradeshow visitors, film goers, and any other kind of crowd event uses these barcoding solutions to easily and accurately collect data on everyone in attendance. Printers are used to create barcodes, and scanners and readers are used to interpret and process the gathered information.

 

Inventory Control Systems

 

These are mostly designed to suit typical business settings. Inventory tracking systems are quite common in various business entities, especially retail outlets where all products are labeled with bar-coded markers. Extensive systems that combine barcoding scanners and readers and customized software are used to track movement of stock in the business. Customer purchases are deducted from available inventory and newly delivered stock is added to maintain an updated ledger — showing the movement of the company’s inventory over time.

 

Asset Tracking

 

 

This barcoding solution is especially popular among corporations and government organizations where capital assets are quite substantial. Asset tracking kits use special barcoding tools including scanners and customized programs to collect and analyze important data regarding a specific asset. A barcoding system is able to identify and match the asset’s number to its location and description. The system is also able to calculate the asset’s depreciation rate and even to produce some warranty information.

 

Custom Barcoding Solutions

 

Some barcoding solutions are specially designed to solve specific data collection needs. Some are quite simple but other custom systems can be quite complex and sophisticated. a few examples of such systems include barcode inspection kits for tracking equipment inspections, production management/labor reporting solutions for monitoring manufacturing processes, and package delivery systems for tracking the collection and delivery of packages and other equipment.