Frames Data (Muy Caro)

[drk]

Ok, for about one of these I can sign up for the FRAMES DATA service.

1. It seems the main advantage would be in inventory management (vs. looking up some weird frame that you can't get, anyway).

I'm supposing that when a frame comes in, instead of hand-entering frame data into your software, you could (at least in my software) "select" the frame from the CD-rom and have the data auto-populate into your inventory management module. (Am I right on that?)

If so, it would save time. How much is up to your optical, I'd suppose.


2. Second potential use is that it will upload a bar code for your frame labels, I think (am I right on that?). Now, my existing software does its own random bar code, so it's not worth anything to me. But there's that.

But I wonder if the frame bar codes in FRAMES DATA (hey, that would be a nice Optiboard sponsor, wouldn't it...) are the same bar codes that come on a shipping invoice from the frame manufacturers? I.e., are the FRAMES DATA barcodes near-universally used? If so, is there anything useful because of that? For example, could you "wand" your shipping invoice bar code and somehow select the frame from the FRAMES DATA CD therefore avoiding scrolling through eight billion units of China's finest? (I've never navigated a FRAMES DATA CD...maybe it's a breeze for all I know.)

3. (Not entirely on-topic) How many "wand" their frame tags to talk with your inventory management/billing software? It seems like a good idea, to me, on face.

[jpways]

So to go step by step with you questions (using Compulink's interface, I do not know if this differs from software to software)
1. It sometimes speeds up the process when entering frames, when doing a single frame it does make it faster, though the process can be a little cumbersome. First, you have to select the manufacturer (or manufacturer line combo in the case of division companies) and then you have to select search style and go though a non-searchable text window and select your frame (so for large line you have be looking at 300-500 lines to find you style). From there the window will populate with all the size/color combinations. From there you click on the line you want click add, update the drop down fields to you preferred listing (assuming you don't like the default Frames data listing). The prices auto populate (assuming you have your wholesale->retail formula(s) properly entered into your software).
And then when I exit the frames data interface it's at the entry that I just added so that actually add it into inventory (because frames data only adds the frame record to the inventory system it does not actually put it into inventory)
When entering a whole order if you add all the records at once from frames data then add then add them to inventory I'd say it's about 20-30% quicker than adding the new frames by hand (assuming that the whole order is new product)
The other way is to add one record at a time, add the frame to inventory, repeat, it's might be quicker than adding each frame by hand, but it's probably a wash (though you'll generally have all the box numbers on a frames data supplied entry, assuming the manufacturer supplies Jobson with the numbers, where if I have to measure out the box number to enter them it's going to take longer, assuming I feel like entering them)

2. With Compulink, scanning the barcode to select it from the frames data interface is not an option. At least in the optical industry it seems like the first 6 numbers are assigned to a company (every Tura [orginal Tura lines I don't know about the Eschenbach lines] frame starts with 764724), but if you don't care about that, you're probably not going to run out of numbers. Our software uses 6 digit numbers, so as long as we only used those (which we don't) we would have to have 900,000+ (because I figure there's a least a few unused numbers such as 000000) unique frames before we'd have to duplicate.

3. We used to do that until our barcode scanner would only read 60% of barcodes, so we do it by hand, where 1 person reads and 1 person enters. When it works it's faster, but if you're printing barcode labels, a 6 character barcode works just as well as a 12 (or 13) character barcode as far as the scanner is concerned

The only thing that I will add that was not covered in your questions is the website. The search tool on the website is very powerful and generally works well (assuming I remember all of the companies that do not list through frames data) to find frames that I'm having trouble finding, yes 60-80% of the results are completely useless to me because I can't get that line, but 80% of the time I can't find what I'm looking for. As an example these would be my filters. Metal frame, eye size 52-56, B 31-35, shape: rectangle or geometric (which has 2278 results).

And, that reminds me of a negative, not every company lists with frames data, because it can be expensive.

[Hayde]

My 2 cents:

Ok, for about one of these I can sign up for the FRAMES DATA service.

For an online catalogue and database index for both your inventory and your electronic job submission (Visionweb, and others I believe,) that's a good value when you think about it.

1. It seems the main advantage would be in inventory management (vs. looking up some weird frame that you can't get, anyway).

Let's not forget how easily and quickly human fingers can foul up the index of an inventory management database. You're not only buying speed of data entry, you're also dramatically improving the accuracy of your software reporting outputs--or shall I say dramatically slowing down their degradation.

I'm supposing that when a frame comes in, instead of hand-entering frame data into your software, you could (at least in my software) "select" the frame from the CD-rom and have the data auto-populate into your inventory management module. (Am I right on that?)

Yep!

If so, it would save time. How much is up to your optical, I'd suppose.

Yep, and you've already scaled up the process so it's ready for business growth.

2. Second potential use is that it will upload a bar code for your frame labels, I think (am I right on that?). Now, my existing software does its own random bar code, so it's not worth anything to me. But there's that.

The frame SKUs are part of what you're buying, and so since FD already knows the frame for that SKU, it auto-populates the info in a standardized fashion instead of being at the whim of horrifying, database-killing lapses of logic and categorization by your paid human and they're typo-prone fingers. Pay and fingers better suited (and trained) to other more important tasks, usually.

But I wonder if the frame bar codes in FRAMES DATA (hey, that would be a nice Optiboard sponsor, wouldn't it...)

heck yeah! Brilliant!!

...are the same bar codes that come on a shipping invoice from the frame manufacturers? I.e., are the FRAMES DATA barcodes near-universally used? If so, is there anything useful because of that? For example, could you "wand" your shipping invoice bar code and somehow select the frame from the FRAMES DATA CD therefore avoiding scrolling through eight billion units of China's finest? (I've never navigated a FRAMES DATA CD...maybe it's a breeze for all I know.)

Yep, that's what makes them "SKUs"...standardizing the ID number is the whole point. Leveraging work. It's pretty much a breeze. If your PM software is worth its salt, there's already an interface for synching to FD via online or disk. If your firewall is a bear, better plan on disk.

3. (Not entirely on-topic) How many "wand" their frame tags to talk with your inventory management/billing software? It seems like a good idea, to me, on face.

I wand. It's not 100% perfectly accurate, but certainly no worse than typing.

You will encounter some new problems, mainly vendors supplying timely and accurate updates to FD & the occasional db server issue. But these problems are much better than the problems of not having an FD subscription.

[drk]

Thank you so very much.

[Hayde]

You're welcome, Doc! I should also be clearer on point #1. If your PM/POS software is like mine, you use FD to populate your software's "catalogue" and then scan/import your stock into inventory afterwards--now that the software knows what frame you're talking about when you scan the SKU. (You may have had that figured out already, but just in case I didn't want to make it sound like you can just put the FD disk in your D:/Drive and start scanning.)