AppNet to put product codes online
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 12 (Reuters) - AppNet Inc. <APNT.O>, an
Internet services consultant, said Wednesday it has been
awarded a contract to convert Universal Product Code
transactions to the Internet.
The use of the bar code has been used since the 1970s as the
way of tracking products sold at retail locations. AppNet
signed a contract with UCCNet, a subsidiary of the
not-for-profit Uniform Code Council Inc. which administers the
code for manufacturers and retailers.
AppNet has a multi-year contract to develop, build and
maintain what it called "the world's largest Internet
marketplace for executing business-to-business transactions."
UCCnet and AppNet will work to update the UPC data so that
retailers can move to "real-time," almost immediate updates of
product prices and information, using the codes. At present,
the codes can take up to 10 days to update, using existing
database technology, AppNet said. But by linking to the
Internet, the updates can take place much more quickly.
"UCCnet will change the entire landscape of what e-commerce
will do," said Mike Heschel, executive vice president of the
large supermarket chain Kroger Co. <KR.N> in a statement.
AppNet said it won a competition involving 15 Internet
professional services firms who competed for the contract.
It said companies representing $300 billion dollars of
supply chain revenue have already signed letters of intent to
join the service.
For AppNet the contract with UCCNet amounts to "significant
revenue" said chief executive Ken Bajaj, but he declined to
disclose the amount. He said that by setting up the system with
UCCNet his company would also be in line to handle
implementation with product and retailers who need to integrate
it into their systems.
"This is going to revolutionize the business to business
market and might have a much bigger impact on bar code did in
the last century," said Bajaj in an interview.
Consultants and technology companies which implement the
system could generate fees of $300 million to $500 million,
said David Skeels, vice president E-Services and Consumer
Industries for consultant A.T. Kearney, adding, "that's the
size of the nut that could be cracked based on the number of
companies and the average size of implementation."
((Dick Satran, Reuters San Francisco, 415-677-2500))
REUTERS
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