SAM Group, a point of sale (POS) services provider, has joined the Digimarc Corp.’s Channel Partner program and will begin offering Digimarc Barcode to its U.S. grocery and other retail customers. SAM Group’s sales and services include application development, system installation, system integration, staging, system support for hardware and software, and customized training. According to the company, the Channel Partner program is designed to maximize the benefits of Digimarc Barcode for the retail industry and facilitate rapid and efficient adoption of the technology.
“Our customers look to us to help them achieve smooth and efficient front-end store operations,” said Jason Thomason, VP of SAM Group. “Digimarc Barcode fits that bill nicely. Without requiring any visible packaging redesign, IT reconfiguration or more complex business processes, our retail customers can reduce checkout line wait time, enhance consumer engagement and lay a foundation for numerous other business improvements.”
Based on Digimarc’s patented digital watermarking technology, the Digimarc Barcode encodes existing barcode data many times over the surface of packages and labels, dramatically improving ease, reliability, and speed of scanning by POS scanners, smartphones, tablets and other devices equipped with Digimarc Discover software. This approach makes the entire package scannable, not just the traditional UPC symbol. POS systems can thereby identify the product regardless of how the cashier orients the item in relation to the reader, enabling much faster scanning.
“We’re excited to be working with SAM Group to bring Digimarc Barcode to retailers for their cashier-assisted and self-checkout lanes,” said Mark Belfiglio, VP of sales at Digimarc. “SAM Group has an enviable track record delivering the market’s preeminent solutions to retailers, and we’re honored to become a part of their portfolio.”
