THE DATALOGIC Skorpio™

ERGONOMIC AND RELIABLE: The Datalogic Skorpio™ is a rugged mobile computer particularly suitable for mobile commerce solutions in the retail environment both on store shelves and in the stock room. Thanks to one of the best ergonomics ever seen on the market, Datalogic Skorpio™ reduces operator fatigue with no compromise in terms of reliability and robustness, resisting harsh environments, multiple drops, strong shocks and repetitive tumbles.


WIRELESS COMMUNICATION: Its wireless communication capabilities (Bluetooth®, IEEE 802.11b/g) enable fast transactions and complete interaction with information systems including the newest RF security protocols such as WPA™ and WPA2™. Moreover, Cisco Compatible Extensions CCX V4 certification permits all the advantages offered by the Cisco WLAN infrastructure to be exploited.

“GREEN SPOT” FEEDBACK: The Datalogic Skorpio™ offers the unique feature of integrated data capture technology combined with “green spot” feedback (Datalogic patent), providing a”good read” green dot directly on the code, where the operator usually tends to be looking.

USER-FRIENDLY: The Datalogic Skorpio™ large high visibility color graphic display with touch screen helps users work more efficiently, while the practical 38-key “alpha & numeric” keypad and the new simplified 28-key numeric keypad allows data, codes and descriptions to be input very quickly.

To learn how the Datalogic Skorpio Hand Held can transform your operations, please contact STCR Business Systems, Inc. at (607) 757-0181.

Network Security: Wired and Wireless

A business needs to be able to safely access the internet, while at the same time allow authorized users access to company data. Firewalls, anti-virus software, email filters and the like can be used to reduce the introduction of malicious software and unauthorized access from outside and inside the company. One of the most important decisions for any company is the type of network structure to use, wired or wireless. Cost, reliability and security top the list of considerations. Traditionally, wired networks have been deemed more secure than wireless configurations. This view is rapidly becoming obsolete with the development and implementation of better authentication and encryption standards for wireless technology.


Both the wired and wireless options have the same goals: ensure that information confidentiality and integrity is maintained, allow only authorized access and to detect and prevent intrusions. The original standard for wireless networking was flawed, giving rise to the view that the technology was not a safe option. Prior to 2002, the standard adopted for wireless LANs by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) was WEP - Wired Equivalent Privacy. This standard was found to be inadequate for meeting necessary security requirements. With WEP, data is protected using RC4 encryption; user authentication determined by a pre-shared key. The key could be cracked, allowing data to be modified and otherwise compromised. These issues were addressed by the IEEE. In 2002, the WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) was introduced, and in 2004 the IEEE adopted WPA2 as the new standard. WPA2 uses the AES encryption algorithm. AES is considered extremely secure and is approved for military use. Additionally, two methods for authentication are employed including RADIUS, a security option used in wired networks. WPA2 is the basis for setting up a secure wireless LAN.

Most companies do not implement wired-only or wireless-only networks. A combination of both strategies comprise a typical network. The wireless option is more popular than ever. Hand-held scanners, price-checkers, as well as devices recently available as wireless - such as printers, are standard equipment. While no network can have absolute security, properly implement wireless segments of a network can be just as secure as the wired segment.

Is your wireless equipment up-to-date? Contact STCR at (607) 757-0181 for information on access points, hand-scanners and more.

WIC EBT

By now you have either heard of or in some states you are now processing, WIC EBT. What is WIC EBT? It stands for Electronic Benefit Transfer for Women, Infants and Children. This will eventually replace the paper vouchers which are now in use. There are two forms that will be used:

Online: Using a card with a magnetic stripe which needs a live connection to the processing host functioning much like a credit card transaction.

Smart Card: Which communicates to information stored on a card containing memory which connects directly to the POS terminal and then batch processes the data to the host at a later time. Each state is allowed to choose one of the two methods for processing the WIC EBT.

This map from the USDA Food and Nutrition Service website shows the status of each state’s implementation for WIC EBT. http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/EBT/wicebt.htm

Will Tax Reform Effect your Business

Many tax experts suggest the following approach to tax reform: Cut high statutory rates in return for eliminating many loopholes and deductions. Given high federal deficits, they have indicated that corporate tax reform would have to be revenue-neutral, shifting the tax burden from those paying a lot to those paying a little, while not lowering the total amount of tax paid by corporations.


Owners of small C corporations should be wary. They would be prime targets to pay more tax if this approach moves forward because they pay the lowest effective tax rate under the current system. To ensure that corporate tax reform is revenue neutral, reformers would likely target deductions and loopholes that many small corporations use.

Few would disagree that our corporate tax system is flawed and should be fixed. Our statutory corporate tax rates have been higher than in every other developed country except Japan and will soon be the highest in the world. At the same time, the amount of taxes corporations actually pay is uneven. Because of a multitude of deductions and loopholes, many companies pay less than the statutory rate. The New York Times reported that 115 companies among the biggest public companies listed on the Standard and Poor's 500-stock index paid federal and other taxes amounting to less than 20 percent of income from 2006 through 2010, while 39 paid under 10 percent.

Experts believe that fixing our corporate tax system would benefit Americans. Eliminating loopholes and deductions in return for lower rates would make it easier for corporations to forecast their taxes. In addition, businesses would become less leveraged because their incentive to take on debt would be reduced. They would also spend less on accountants and lawyers to reduce tax payments and more on productive ways to generate profits. Finally, lowering tax rates would keep many domestic businesses from going overseas while attracting foreign businesses to the U.S.

Private Label Goods

As private label companies continue to introduce better-for-you products and more attractive packaging, they have experienced sales growth in recent years that aren’t likely to decrease in the near future.


Private-label grocery brands have come a long way since their modest beginnings in the late 1970s. Along the way, private-label brands appeared to have shed much of their budget stigma. According to a recently released Nielson report, cash-strapped families looking to cut their food costs have been increasingly avoiding well-known brands for their slightly cheaper counterparts. Private-label brands accounted for 17.4% of the total U.S. dollar share of food products last year, up from 15.2% in 2006, Nielsen says.

More than two-thirds of those who participated in Nielsen's U.S. survey said they thought private-label goods had the same or better quality than name brands. And just 10% said such products weren't suitable when quality matters, although 17% indicated that private-label brands have cheap-looking packaging. The few packaging and quality concerns are unlikely to discourage customers in the future. More than 9 in 10 Americans surveyed by Nielsen said they would continue buying private-label brands regardless of the economy.

The economy in the last few years has decidedly boosted private-label purchases, but the rise in the popularity of store brands actually began back in the early 2000s when the economy was very strong. Store-brand products, which make up a $90 billion industry in the US, now account for almost 30% of the total servings of food products sold.

Use Exception Reporting to Fight Shrink

Leveraging your POS system's exception reporting to run a tight ship is just one of the valuable tools that are often never fully developed by store operations. The benefits are many fold and should be explored and customized to your business. It's an ongoing effort to analyze and retool practices and processes to fight shrink by quickly identifying impropriety and product pricing issues as well as fine tune performance metrics and training.


The purpose is for monitoring, analysis, reporting and decision-making. Personalizing the various data capture settings to your environment enables management with timely, accurate, relevant, actionable information to audit and control the POS operations. It allows for management to standardize and evaluate performance expectations. If requirements are not being met a report can be reviewed with the employee to decide on appropriate action to re-train, re-assign or terminate as needed. They can also be used to identify top performers and goal achievements to promote quality and productivity. The important point is it provides a consistent fact based method for performance appraisal. More importantly these techniques can help address employee based shrink revealing impropriety via theft, sweet-hearting or simple unreported pricing issues.

Using these tools to shrink the shrink and grow a well-trained performance oriented team will promote business goals and drive the bottom line in the right direction. STCR provides POS solutions and services to assist with these critical efforts. Are you getting the results you need? Take a look at what features you could be using to incorporate these best practices into your business operations. If you’re not sure where to begin, call your STCR Sales Representative at (607) 757-0181.

About GS1 Barcodes

You have probably seen or heard about any one of several new barcode formats called GS1. The most prevalent being the little produce stickers which are GS1 Databar Stacked and Omnidirectional plus PLU and the new GS1 Databar Expanded Stacked barcodes on manufacturer coupons. See examples to the left.


First let's examine the produce sticker. It has the PLU clearly identified for compatibility with today's process then it has the GS1 barcode that contains a 14 digit number. In the US and Canada that number is made up of two leading zeros, the company prefix which can be 6 to 10 digits, the companies item reference code which is 2 to 5 digits (note this can be the universal product code or any other number the company decides on) with leading zeros to fill to position 13 and then the check digit. Like this - 00 123456 04011 3
Detailed at the GS1.org website below.

Now let's examine the example coupon above. It has both the UPC type 5 coupon barcode and the new GS1 Expanded stacked barcode. Above the new barcode portion is the companies prefix (0037000) and the offer code (010752) in human readable format. Embedded in the databar portion are the application identifier, primary GS1 company prefix, the offer code, primary purchase family code, primary purchase requirement, the save value and optionally the secondary purchase requirement, secondary purchase GS1 company prefix and the secondary purchase family code.

Detailed at this website -
http://www.barcode-us.com/coupon/dataBarCoupon.html

Your particular POS application needs to be set up to read and use these barcodes. In the case of the produce stickers the entire decoded number will need to be added to your item file to scan and ring up that item. In the case of the new coupon databar barcode your application will need to be able to understand the data fields and translate the offer code and value to an amount that will be discounted as a coupon amount.

For further research here are some useful links:
Here is a link to the GS1 US/Canada website: http://www.gs1us.org