TRIAL FOR ELECTRONIC DATA-TRANSMISSION NOW LAUNCHED

During the IWTO Congress in Edinburgh the initiate was launched to create a standard method to communicate data in wool chain electronically all over the world from Wool Growers to Scourers & Carbonisers, Topmakers and Spinners to avoid a lot of manual data re-entry, speeding up procedures and reducing the back office costs and paper requirements.

All preparations are now ready to start with a trial of the electronic data transmission.

The possibility exists to upload a standard data file, which includes all the information for each bale purchased or sent to be processed.
Eliminating the manual data re-entry of information already stored in another computer.

The supplier or the commission processor will send his customer via e-mail a file with all the significant information that is normally printed on paper or is in a text file such as a PDF document.
The supplier will create the electronic file and the customer will easily upload the data into his computer system.
There will be one record for each bale in the lot or consignment.
The record for each bale will include the bale number and the general data for the lot, for example the Yield. This standard will not put any company at a disadvantage in providing confidential information. It will simplify matters and save time and costs.

Everyone will send only the data that they normally send now.
The information will be provided to purchaser and will not disadvantage the seller.
The use of standard data transmission format means that IWTO can provide the rules on how to prepare the files and how to read them.
The file is prepared in a simple text format CSV with semi comma separated.
It can be created or read by any standard software such as Excel, Word, Notepad, Open Office or any private application.
It can be read by any kind of operating system.
It is a very simple and inexpensive to prepare software or macros to create and read the files. It can be done in a very short time and easily added to any existing software.
It will not affect any software/system of data transmission already in use.
It could operate together with existing data transmission software or it could be upgraded to read and write data prepared to this standard.
The estimated time for a software house to produce such a “driver” is not more than 3 hours. This format could be also adopted for transmitting details of any other types of fibers in the world.
The first few months are a trial period to allow for input and suggestions from the industry

For further information please contact Henrik Kuffner under kuffner@iwto.org