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.
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