The problem statement:
   There is no way to uniquely identify, and quickly and easily find back a specific wine and all relevant
   information about that wine.

   This lack of wine market transparency has important consequences for consumers and companies.

Unique product code (« back)

The use of computers to manage information has been a driving force in the development and implementation of unique product codes. These codes have been adopted by companies worldwide, and helped the optimization of integrated supply chains.
 

Example:

International Standard Book Number

The ISBN code was developed as the BSBN (Britisch Standard Book Number) for a large book retailer who wanted to implement a computer system in 1965-67. It was adapted by the International Organization for Standardization and, the International Standard Book Number became ISO 2108 in 1970.
http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/isbn/international/history.asp
 

Example:

Universal Product Code

The UPC code was developed on request of the UGPCC (Uniform Grocery Product Code Council for a numeric code format for unique product identification. In the period 1970-73 the Universal Product Code was developed and became truly international through the addition of a country flag digit. The EAN and JAN - for European and Japanese Article Numbering systems are basically UPC.

Standard product description - i.e. concept of 'master reference database' (« back)

With Internet, large communities of consumer and business users are enabled with free flow of information, for example information about products. Computer systems from different companies get interconnected to share information about the same topics. The resulting problems are well known to most internet users, as companies (e.g. wine retailers, magazines, … ) all use different codes and descriptions of a product. The result is that - even though Internet offers a vast amount of information - it stays relatively difficult to search and navigate information in a consistent way, but also to exchange and compare information about products.
 

These problems are well known in Information Technology. For example, large multinational corporations usually have a complex IT systems landscape that poses the same challenges as internet does - but within the company.
 

In Information Technology (IT), the field of systems architecture covers how different computer systems and applications can co-operate in the most consistent and effective way to fulfill all the functional requirements. One rule in systems architecture states that it is imperative to have a single master or reference database system for key information - in a corporate environment for example customers or products, … so all other transactional systems can work consistently with the same information. Indeed, if all computer systems would work with different descriptions and codes about the same customer, they would not be able to exchange information without facing major inconsistencies.
 

Standard product classification (« back)

An additional requirement for eBusiness is the need for a standard product classification to integrate different types of products from multiple vendors.
 

This requirement emerged from electronic procurement (eProcurement) projects in the early phase of the Internet. Electronic catalogs and information on a wide variety of products (from different vendors) had to be integrated in a way that users can search and navigate and find any product or service they need.
 

The solution is a standard product classification such as UN/SPSC or eClass. The UNSPSC Code is the first coding system to classify both products and services for use throughout the global marketplace.

The Universal Standard Products and Services Classification (UNSPSC) was developed in 1998 by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Dun & Bradstreet, who integrated their United Nations Common Coding System (UNCCS) and Standard Product and Services Classification (SPSC).
 

Please refer to the section Other Codes for more information on the UN/SPSC codes specifically for Wine.