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UPDATE ON SUNRISE DATE

" In a little more than two years, retailers in the United States and Canada will face a deadline that promises technological challenges akin to the Year 2000 computer problem."
- The New York Times, August 2002

Contact the Biltmore GTIN Compliance group directly at GTIN@BiltmoreSolutions.com

DETAILS
Based on the increasing use of the EAN.UCC System to facilitate global commerce, the Uniform Code Council has announced that all North American retailers and trading partners who presently scan the 12-digit UPC symbol (now known as UCC-12) should be capable of scanning EAN-13 symbols by January 1, 2005. The UCC is recommending that North American companies update and expand their databases, systems and applications to accept data structures up to 14 digits in length. This will allow complete item identification with any EAN/UCC data carrier.

The primary reason driving this effort is that an independent study conducted by the UCC estimated the depletion of the organization's supply of new company prefixes for the 12-digit UPC by 2005. In addition, over 80 countries currently use the EAN 13-digit standard with the exception of the U.S. and Canada.

GTIN
The Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) is an umbrella term used to describe the entire family of EAN/UCC data structures for trade item identification. Theses data structures include:

UCC-12 (also known as the U.P.C.)

EAN/UCC-13

EAN/UCC-14

EAN/UCC-8

BENEFITS
To accommodate the global EAN.UCC System, there are two importanta changes:

The length of the number that to be processed and stored must be increased to 14 digits
Systems must be able to accept varying lengths of company prefixes.

In addition, GTIN will include Reduced Space Symbology, an emerging symbology that will bring 14-digit scanning capability to small item identification.

By updating databases, systems and related applications, North American retailers and trading partners will be able to accept the complete family of EAN/UCC data carrieres. The ability to accept and transmit all GTIN data structures will enable your company to conduct efficient global trade and utilize all the tools and business solutions supported by the EAN.UCC system.

CONSEQUENCES OF DELAYING
The January 1, 2005 Sunrise Date was selected to give North American companies ample time to address all conversion issues. The failure to update systems by that time can cause serious consequences. The inability to accept and store the information of all the GTIN global data structures can result in:

Serious system failures
Additional costs
Time-to-market delays and other critical inefficiencies
EAN/UCC-13

BILTMORE CAN ASSIST
Biltmore's GTIN Compliance group can assist your company in becoming compliant with the new GTIN standards. Our compliance methodology includes:

GTIN Systems Compliance Assessment - provides an assessment of the impact of GTIN compliance and remediation to your organization.
GTIN Detailed Systems Analysis - identifies all impacted program logic and database file structures, hardware impacts, and provides a detailed gap analysis.
GTIN Systems Remediation and Conversion - facilitates the recommended course of action based on the results of the first two phases including system and hardware remediation, upgrade, or replacement.

Due to the potential for significant consequences to your business, the UCC strongly urges that all companies begin system planning, testing and update/conversion activities now. For more information, contact the Biltmore GTIN Compliance group directly at GTIN@BiltmoreSolutions.com


	LATEST NEWS Sunrise Date The Uniform Code Council (UCC) has announced that all North American retailers must be capable of scanning EAN-13 symbols by January 1, 2005.

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