Donating blood is one of the greatest gifts someone can give another person. In England alone, 6,000 blood donations are needed every day to treat patients, making the need for blood donors so critical. This life-saving service is required 365 days a year, and every batch of donated blood is tirelessly processed, tested and distributed out to patients who need it.

Every year the NHS need around 200,000 new donors to ensure they have the right mix of blood groups and types to meet patient needs, and to replace the donors who can no longer donate.

As technology advances and becomes more sophisticated, more and more of our devices are being connected online. It’s not just our phones and computers anymore: everything from lights, fridges and even mirrors have the potential to be connected to the internet. Whilst this may sound like some far-off futuristic utopia, the fact is that a lot of this technology is already here and being used every day.

Inventory Management – or stock management – is critical to maintaining a controlled, profitable business and this is especially crucial for smaller enterprises where margins are tighter.

Starting up a new business can be an exciting and hectic time. While managing your stock may not be at the top of your list of things to do, it is often one of the biggest influencers of revenue so it’s therefore worth getting it right from the start.

For most businesses, the purchase of assets will constitute one of the largest proportions of initial outlay when considering start-up costs. It makes sense therefore to protect your initial investment by ensuring you know where your assets are, what they are being used for and their current condition.

This is the job of asset tracking and thankfully there are now solutions available that make this a streamlined and efficient process. One such option is the G-SMart asset solution which combines web-based technology with barcoding to provide an all-in-one tracking system that provides a real-time, holistic view of all of your assets, all in one place.

Here we consider the top five benefits businesses can expect by having an effective system in place.

Barcode data collection holds lots of power – especially when you utilise a mobile barcode app to their full potential. With the use of mobile barcoding software apps, you can flexibly track and trace almost anything. Products such as GoBarcodes app suite from GSM Barcoding means you can implement a versatile barcode tracking system, all within one single hand-held scanner.

With the workforce going mobile, your business needs to be more flexible and move with the changes within many industries. With the right mobile device management solution, you can make your work structure much more efficient. But what are the benefits of utilising these incredibly handy mobile barcode apps?

Whatever industry you work in, or whenever you step foot in any type of shop, one fact remains to be true – barcodes are everywhere.

Whether you are a manufacturer and utilise the innovative tags to track the movement of your products, or whether you are a consumer and are purchasing products that contain the traditionally black and white codes, it is an inevitable fact of life; almost every single human on the planet, in one way or another, will come into contact with a barcode during their lifetime.

QR codes; you’ve probably heard of them before and you’ve probably utilised them at some point. They are used in various ways and are one of the most effective forms of barcode for many industries, such as marketing and communications, as well as for stock control within warehouses and factories.

The QR code has been enjoying some well-deserved time in the spotlight recently and, while it seemed to fade away for some time, the prospects are even more exciting. Could this be due to the introduction of QR code payment mark?

So, in a world full of advanced technology, just what is a QR code and could they be making a huge comeback for business, marketing and much more?

The capturing and recording of data is the essence of the Auto-ID industry; from its 1973 introduction of scanning a barcode on a pack of chewing gum to the invention of 2D imagers and later RFID, the industry has continued to evolve at an astounding pace.

The barcoding evolution or rather revolution has been driven by the massive benefits in business efficiency and accuracy that comes from scanning barcodes.  For many of us accustomed to barcoding systems it is easy to take the speed and 99.9% scan accuracy rate for granted. But, for a second, just consider businesses attempting to manually count stock or track production in today’s supply chain!

GSM Barcoding’s technical manager Tom Selby was invited to attend the Sage Developer and ISV Software Fair in Gateshead 19^th-20^th April.

During the event, we managed to speak to developers and teams within Sage about G-SMart Link 50 add-on software and how it adds value to businesses who run the Sage 50 software.

When starting small, it’s reasonable to think that keeping track of your stock can be done with a simple pen and paper or keeping records in spreadsheets.  A monthly audit or tracking ins and outs is straight forward when you’re a small business, but what happens as you grow?

It’s no longer manageable, higher turnover of stock, extended product lines and variants, short-term promotions and a number of stock locations where inventory can be misplaced adds to the complexity of knowing what stock is in hand and where.