Trace One, the European leader in e-collaborative platforms for private label products, today announced a new version of its Packaging Portal. The new product adds the capability to manage long-rang product lines, enabling distributors to speed up the development of major projects and reduce time to market by 20 per cent. The portal is also designed to help retailers revise their packaging specifications within the framework of the new European regulations on food labelling.

Increasing productivity through better management
Simultaneously maintaining long range product information across various ranges can be extremely labour intensive. Throughout product ranges there is often significant replication of information in both the design phase and specification of the materials used, with only subtle differences being necessary to make small changes such as a container’s size or a lipstick’s colour. Trace One’s Packaging Portal specifically addresses the management of long range products to address this problem, allowing retailers to increase productivity and minimise delays in the product design phase

"We identified a real need to improve operational efficiency for long range products. We therefore sought to improve our Packaging Portal and provide the first solution to manage the collaborative design process for all product categories," said Nick Martin, Senior Vice President Northern Europe at Trace One.

The new version of the Packaging Portal allows retailers to make changes to several different references within the same project, allowing them to duplicate some or all of the steps when creating product references and saving substantial amounts of time in the packaging creation process.  This even works across different products that must be tracked simultaneously; e.g. the integration of a specific image common to a wide range of products sold during the Christmas period.

New EU rules on food labelling
The portal also helps retailers and manufacturers respond more readily to new European regulations on the labelling of food products. The regulations, which take effect on 13th  December 2014 ( or by December 16, 2016 in the case of some exceptions), will require food product packaging to include additional information such as energy value and the amount of certain nutrients (such as fat, saturated fat, carbohydrates, sugar and salt). Distributors will be required to ensure that each product is consistently labelled, which can lead to the revision of a number of different product packaging and generate even more work for their teams.

By enabling retailers to quickly review the packaging details of all their products through proofing tools and integrated web collaboration, the portal grants designers the ability to manage multiple projects using the same resources and to collaborate on a single document in real time; significantly increasing efficiency.

Main characteristics include:

• Management of collaborative projects through user-defined steps
• Automatic notifications by e-mail, for a fluid workflow
• Media Library and Document Management
• Embedded web proofing tool allowing online proofing and editing and collaborative annotation models (including automatic comparison and highlighting changes)
• Automatic display of requested changes, with colour separation and document assembly
• Scalability to manage projects on the industrial scale required by retailers and brand owners
• Monitoring and reporting in real time

The Trace One Packaging Portal is now available on the market. For more information on the solution, please visit the dedicated page here: http://www.traceone.com/fr/produits-solutions/suite/solutions-pour-marques-de-distributeurs-food/module/packaging

About Trace One
Trace One is a global leader in collaborative solutions for the private label and branded goods industry. Our mission is to drive food and non-food product innovation, support brand protection, and accelerate time-to-market for retailers, manufacturers and food service companies.

We are committed to enabling collaborative processes between retailers and manufacturers thereby optimizing the sourcing, tendering, launching and development of consumer goods, while controlling product information and ensuring product and food safety. This not only supports the protection of brands, but also maximizes profitability and competitiveness throughout the product lifecycle management process. The solutions provided by Trace One are used by over 30 leading retailers worldwide, including 12 of the top 25, as well as 12,500 manufacturers in over 110 countries. Trace One has a global presence in 13 countries (Australia, Belgium, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, UK and USA).

Further information (external website)