Fundamentals to GS1Trade Sync

Good morning everyone and welcome to today's webinar where we're going to be looking at GS1 Sync, our system for sharing product data. I can see that people are entering this digital room here. So I'm just going to give it. half a minute or so. So get yourself settled and then we're going to get started on today's. program. Yes. All right. Again, welcome everyone who's joining here today. We're going to slowly get started on today's program. & hope you can. See my screen okay? Today we're going to be looking at GS1 Sync Fundamentals. Sync, as you might know, is our system where we can share product data and that's what we're going to be looking at. today. A few practical information before we get properly started. You should find your microphones and videos turned off for your cameras. Turn off. That doesn't mean I don't want to hear from you. I really would love to hear from you. There should be a panel on the right-hand side. of your screen. and feel free to ask your questions as we're going through the webinar so If there's something that's unclear or... or something you would just like me to explain a little bit further or something maybe I forget to mention. Feel free to write your questions along the way. We will answer all of your questions at the end where there's... Time for questions. This session will be recorded and sent to you by email. after the session And just a quick presentation, I'll just move my little Image so you can see the Phone number as well. So my name Karolina I am a part of Member services team here at GS1 Denmark. where me and my colleagues help answer anything that deal from how to use barcodes how to become members and also how to use one of our many systems including trade Sync that we're going to be looking at today. And you can see our email details and phone details here. I'll also show them later on. if you'd like them mentioned again. But yes. Some of our details then. But we're going to be looking at today's programme. So what I'm hoping that we're going to gain from today's session is that you're going to have a bit of an understanding what tracing is. That is the first point on the agenda today. And then also we're going to be looking more specifically at what is product. Data, exactly. Because when you have that product data. we can then look at how do you then create your data in Sync. We're going to have... a little introduction to how to actually physically use the system. After we looked at Sync, we're going to look further into our two other services. It's called GS1 Trade Exact and GS1 Trade Image. And we're going to be looking at how these work alongside trading when you're sharing your data. in the system. & really do hope that after today's session, you feel ready to... You start creating your data in Sync. making that all available to your customers. Right. First things first. What's the purpose of trade Sync? What is trade Sync? Well... Sync is a system that allows you to share product data with your customers. and As suppliers, you might find yourselves having very different processes of sharing your data. with different customers. So one customer might want an Excel spreadsheet. Another customer has a different Excel spreadsheet. Maybe a third customer has has a platform and maybe a separate platform again for images And. And that can be a very It's... tiresome task of sharing your data. when you're having to do it individually to each and every customer. So the purpose of Sync is that you can share your data with all your customers. from one single source. So this is a place where you can create your data and maintain your data. As well as images. So images are a part of your product data that you create when you send your data. You send that from one place. And by handling all your data from trade Sync, That means that, first of all, you save a lot of time and effort not having to do the same task multiple times. Full times. But actually more than anything, Consultant data. means that there are not as much room for error. So every time you manually have to enter your data. through different platforms it is proven that the risk of errors in data is much greater. So So it allows you to have fewer errors when you share your data. to all your customers, especially because you don't have to think about how does this customer want it? How does this customer want it? Oh, you have to remember that customer only wants some data mentioned in a particular way. So by using one platform, the entries are Consultant with all your customers. And the same situation is also valid for your customers. They also receive all the data from different suppliers. in a Consultant way. There are over 1200 companies that are already members and users of GS1 Sync. But that's only trade Sync. Actually, you're also able to use... international sources other okay so I'll rephrase that Sync is a data pool in something that is called a GDSN network. And that means that you can actually share data. to other countries as well. So if you, for instance, have a customer. in Sweden and that customer Member of Validoo, for instance, that is the Swedish equivalent to Sync. Well, then you will be able to send your data from Sync to your Swedish customers. or to your German customers or Finnish customers as long as they are part of that same Judaism network. So you can actually share your data, not just to Danish customers. but perhaps even internationally if they are part of that same GDSN network. And there are many data pools that are part of of this network globally. Just to illustrate, you as suppliers would find yourself on the left-hand side of the screen here. You enter all your data in Sync. And you can share that data to both selling groups. and to Co-op and to Rema and perhaps your international trading partner as well. So that's same data about the same products. is sensor multiple. partners and it's the same as valid for your customers even though they are working with different suppliers and with different product groups they are able to receive the same data in a Consultant way. from different providers. of data. So once your data goes through to your customers or trading partners, What is the data then used for? Data can be used for various purposes. And these are just some examples. So it can be how to handle your data. promise When they receive your palates, how big are the palates? how many the how many cases are on the pallet. It can be also dimensions in terms of The individual sales unit, how much space does it take up on the shelves? And not to mention also, of course, your name and... product information on the shelves themselves but maybe even on web shops You can have direct integration to webshop information for customers to buy your products. Images are obviously a big part of the data that is being sent, used for marketing materials but also for webshop purposes for instance Often it's easy to relate to that one-to-one customer. That is going to physically handle your product. but often your data can also be used for very specific information that is part of your data. So for instance, public institutions like hospitals or public canteens. They might be looking at specific allergen information or nutritional information about products. to then use it in an assortment. for maybe patients or... similar situation like that so there are different data entries that you use and they can ...be used for very various purposes to be able to handle your product. in the supply chain and for the consumers. & would like you to think of your data as... a digital twin, I suppose. So you made all that effort to put all the data up. ...about your product on the packs, often for legal requirements, but also just general information to the consumers. These are all placed carefully on your Packaging. and that same information should be available. in tracing to then for instance be used on a web page, a web shop. And I'll just remove Image here so you can see it. So this is just one example. So we have this pack. Sun Loli ice creams that you can buy on this webpage here. So the ingredients list does. picked up one-to-one from from trade Sync save the nutritional information general product details images obviously and the product name and the brand name and also in this instance mark Marketing information has also been used. to promote the product. Shhh This is the reason why we always think of the data as a digital twin. So the way you present it on the Packaging should also be visible in Exact same way. So when that your data for instance is used to display it to the consumers. All the data is... actually presented to your customers. that are considering buying it. And this then leads to the next question. Why is data important? Well, accurate and good quality photos not only help promote sell your product when it's presented to the consumers, it is also something that is very important along the whole supply chain. So for instance, if your palate information is inaccurate, let's say actually the palate is much higher than expected, or there's not as much in as many cases as they expected. that will be a problem. So the pilot information is important. if the dimensions in trade Sync is inaccurate, well then maybe that shell space. that has specifically been chosen for your product. It won't fit? Then your customers will have to find an alternative solution to make sure that the actual your product can be sold in store in the best possible place. It can also be information such as certification marks. So if you, for instance, have the use of Sveinemärket or some organic information that is not been entered in Sync. well then if it's not entered in trade Sync maybe that information has not been properly presented to the consumers who might choose not to buy your products. because that information is missing. So it's very important that all your data is accurate to make sure that the process of handling your products is smooth and also So present it in the best possible way for where it's going to be using your data. For instance, the consumers. Right. Now we just talked about how important it is. Well, let's look at what is it that you need to enter. when you have a product in Sync. So just to use an example, I think often food products are the ones that have the most information that have to be legally declared. So if you look at a packet of Hobnobs as we have here. Typical information about packet of... biscuits would be these so obviously you'll have the barcode number The GTIN as we call it, to identify the product with. The prototype. you would always have dimensions how much physical space does it take up in terms of width and depth? and height. You also have the weight in terms of net weight. and the total weight and even net content. You'll have the ingredients list, nutritional values. allergens, E numbers, additives. maybe claims. If you have those on the Packaging, you would maybe have organic attributes. logos, certifications, product descriptions and not to mention the images. that you have like this one here so these are all information that might be relevant for your customers. All the consumer who are buying new products. And we often find that the people who are responsible of entering the data in Sync or sharing the data in another platform, they are often... They often just have like an Excel sheet and just be very wary of when you copy Being in pasting your information from an Excel sheet into a platform like Sync, well that's great. But some information might not be... included in that Excel spreadsheet so we always recommend actually having the physical product in your hands because the data should be entered as it appears on the product. So for instance, the product name. How is it presented on the Packaging? What is maybe you have a sub name? What about the brand name? Is it apostrophized or how is it actually spelled out? Maybe have some claims here about if it's got like if it comes in includes oats or whatever it might be that it's includes if you have any claims on it. This is about whole grain, it could be about fibers, it can be about vegan information. whatever might be. Sometimes you have tiny little certification mark hidden in corners. They can be important to have as well. Most of the information though is on the back. off the packs you will have perhaps Packaging instructions. Sorry, not Packaging instructions. What's that called again in English? Storage instructions how to best store the product after it's open. The net content. the Hey. ingredients list and please note all allergens should always be marked in capitalized letters to make them bold you actually enter allergens two places in Sync as part of the ingredients list and allergens needs to be specified as well. well to make that easy for your customers. to say whether it includes an allergens or not. You also have nutritional information. Often you'll find contact information for the consumers needs to be available. That needs to also be entered in Sync. So these are just some examples. So for this reason, we always recommend having the physical products in your hand. To make sure all the data is entered. for your consumers to see when they are using the data. Okay. Those examples were of the sales unit, the individual base unit as we call it. call it but actually when you create your data in trade Sync You do all the units separately. So if you were to create this packet of Hobnob, you would first create the sales unit. with all the dimensions and in Information that's on the Packaging of that sales unit. And then afterwards you would... create the case with its own barcode number, with its own dimensions. etc. But then when you share all your data, your customers can see the whole hierarchy as we call it. So you'll have a sales unit. and then a case and they will all of them be available. to your customers as a hierarchy. Sometimes you have very big products. Maybe let's say you have a five liter a big pack of flour, for instance, that you need to send, maybe... there's no case for that well that's fine then you would just have a sales unit and publish that as a hierarchy of only one unit in it. But sometimes you might have a sales unit & case and an outer case. Well, then you'll have Three units. So each unit will be created individually and then shared. Once everything's created, so your customers can see the whole hierarchy. together. We have made a little video just to illustrate the process of how you go about creating your data in trading we have included some of The most frequently asked questions. Just so you have a couple of pointers to be aware of. So I'm going to be sharing my video. It takes about eight minutes. And then afterwards, we're going to sum everything up. and look at some of the next. Point is as well. Hope you enjoyed. When you log into GS1 Sync, you will see your dashboard. Here you can always see an overview of all the data you have registered in the system. To create product data, go to your items overview. This is where all your existing products will be listed. To create a new product, click New Item. You can choose to create a new blank item, new item from template, or you can copy an existing product or hierarchy. In this example, we are creating a new product from scratch. and therefore select New Blank Item. To start, we need to enter Basic data about the product. Start by entering the product's GTIN, which is the barcode number on the individual pack, You always create the smallest unit in the hierarchy first. Please note that all GTIN must be entered using 14 digits. So if you have a 13 digit GTIN You need to add our leading zero. The product hierarchy level code should be base unit or each. Select Denmark as the country of sales code. If the data is intended for your Danish customers, Select Fast Moving Consumer Goods as a sector. So the question is trade item a variable unit? We in this instance say false. Variable item trade units are products that can vary in weight. such as meats, fruits and cheeses, and that have weight variable barcodes on them. Because this unit is intended for the end consumer, We here select true for is trade item a consumer unit. Should there be any errors or missing information indicated in red, the checklist in the bottom right hand corner will help you with an explanation. And should there be any doubt what any of the fields should mean, there will be a question mark you can select with an explanation too. On the next page, you need to select the GPC. which is short for Global Product Classification. You here need to find the code that defines your product. And this code is important as it determines what information is required when entering and sharing your data. You can search by entering keywords such as biscuit, Or you can navigate through the categories. In this example, we select food beverage. Bread Bakery Products Biscuits Cookies and finally Biscuits Cookies shelf stable. You do not need to complete the additional fields below. just click save. The preliminary item status code should remain unchanged as final. and then confirm by clicking create. You will then be directed to the draft where you enter the information regarding your base unit. As soon as you have created your draft, it will be visible on your items overview.