Articles
EANnet® - multi-industry growth (October 2005)
Australian businesses gearing up for eCommerce are flocking to GS1 Australia's data pool, EANnet. In the last tweleve months, the number of companies registered with EANnet grew over 70%, bringing the total to more than 700 businesses across Australia and New Zealand.
GS1 Australia's General Manager for Business Development and Professional Services, John Hearn, said EANnet's expansion came as new industries saw the benefits of data synchronisation come to fruition in the grocery industry.
"Just as the grocery industry was the first to embrace bar codes in Australia, the Australian Food and Grocery Council, Coles Myer, Metcash, Franklins and Woolworths were the first to recognise EANnet's potential," Mr Hearn said.
"With savings and efficiencies on the board, the grocery industry has provided other industries with the perfect business case for EANnet's adoption."
Today, the EANnet data synchronisation catalogue includes items from the grocery, liquor, general merchandise, office products and consumer pharmaceuticals industries, with more soon to go live. According to John Hearn, GS1 Australia is assisting an increasing number of hardware, automotive aftermarket, electrical appliance and general merchandise suppliers in the race to become EANnet Ready™.
"Many leading hardware suppliers to the grocery industry are already using EANnet for products like lighting, plants, cleaning aids, tools and adhesives," he said. "Because EANnet is so well primed to deliver immediate benefits for hardware, we're forecasting steep growth of EANnet registrations in the industry. We are working with Nylex Consumer Products on a major data cleansing project right now, for example."
Mr Hearn said the appliance industry was also following suit, with the recent registration of retailer, The Good Guys, making it one of many companies building data synchronisation strategies around EANnet.
As with other supply chain initiatives, EANnet users will only realise its full potential with broad-scale industry adoption and Mr Hearn said GS1 Australia was particularly keen to support industry-wide initiatives.
"We were delighted that at the last Pharmaceutical Extranet Gateway (PEG) manufacturer meeting, members voted unanimously to adopt EANnet," he said.
"It follows the NSW Health Peak Purchasing Council's endorsement of EANnet for the NSW Health Electronic Catalogue and gives pharmaceutical suppliers a great head start, knowing their trading partners are moving in the same direction. Importantly, it will also allow them to leverage the Australian Catalogue of Medicines (ACOM), which is powered by EANnet."
Another sector to embrace EANnet, the automotive aftermarket industry is conducting an EANnet pilot using data synchronisation to improve order accuracy and make product information more accessible to end users. Supported by the Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association, the pilot involves key suppliers, wholesalers and retailers including Auto Concepts, Clutch Industries, Coventry Group, GUD, NGK, Repco and Supercheap Auto.
Describing EANnet as the foundation for electronic collaboration between trading partners, John Hearn outlined EANnet Ready™ status requirements:
- Populating EANnet with neutral and relationship dependent data
- Meeting EANnet data quality standards
- Having all GST classifications approved by the Australian Tax Office
- Providing trading partners with access to their EANnet catalogues
- Populating Retailer Vendor IDs
Mr Hearn said GS1 Australia members could call upon a wide range of support options.
"If I was a member looking at EANnet, I'd begin with some basic training to arm both myself and staff with the necessary information - as they say, knowledge is power. The good news is that the GS1 Professional Services team runs regular EANnet training from brief introductory courses right through to customised on-site training," he said.
"Next, I'd contact EANnet Client Services and ask for their assistance to get the business process started and, when the time was right to work on the EANnet project intensively, I'd consider engaging GS1 Professional Services, either to project manage the process or provide implementation assistance on-site. Help is available from experts every step of the way."
