Digital Product Requirements

 

For the past few years, photo products have become increasingly ‘data-critical’. Today, nearly every product we produce for a school is driven by the data that we receive either from you or the school. Excel Photo strongly recommends the use of Data Advantage camera cards or labels or professional image link software to ensure the integrity of the student data and the accuracy of your product. Cost for Data Advantage camera cards is $0.08 per card and labels are $0.02 each. Delivered sorted to your specifications.

 

Frequently, data provided for camera cards is received incomplete. It is not until a job reaches the point of photo product production that information is determined to be missing or incomplete. When this happens, production stops. Unfortunately, once the delay begins, it tends to have a trickle-down effect on all jobs. Please advise us of any information other than the Critical Data listed below that needs to be retained for product production and/or needs to appear on the Data Advantage camera card.

 

HOW CAN THAT DELAY BE AVOIDED?

Be sure to know your school’s precise product needs & delivery requirements. Make sure that they know that the accuracy of their product depends upon the the data that they provide to you. Communicate your specific data needs to the school when requesting data for camera cards or CamLynx. In most cases, missing, incomplete or invalid data is the primary cause for delay and product remakes.

 

WHO TO TALK WITH:

When working with public schools, information is most readily available and more easily obtained from the district office. Ask for the “computer person” for best results. This ensures that you are dealing with a person that has the skill and knowledge to provide you with the information that you need. In private schools, you will need to deal directly at the school level. Again, ask for the “computer person” and be prepared to offer assistance in exporting the data.

 

DATA TIMELINE:

Get your data from the school as early as they can provide you with complete enrollment information for the current school year. Enrollment information should be obtained and camera cards ordered at least 2 weeks prior to shoot date. Data should be provided electronically via email or on disk to avoid data entry charges. Please provide data in a comma or tab delimited (data separated with a comma or tab) .TXT format. Additional charges may apply if data is not properly formatted. Contact Customer Service if you have any questions. Be sure to allow sufficient transit time via UPS from Excel Photo to you to ensure delivery of camera cards prior to shoot day.

 

CRITICAL DATA:

CRITICAL information that is REQUIRED to accurately produce ID cards, CDs, digital service strips, record stickie photos, pictorial directories, proof order envelopes and composites includes:

• Field headers to identify data provided • Student last name • Student first name • Student grade      » For preschool and kindergarten children, be sure to include AM, PM and/or class days      in the grade level. • Student Permanent ID Number (Note: Though this number may not always be required, we   STRONGLY encourage you to obtain it. Some products cannot be produced without this data   and may be requested by your school at a later date.      » Some schools have multiple ID numbers. One for lunch program, one for library and one       permanent ID number for administrative use. Be sure that you know, provide and inform us       of the ID number required for the products that they are requesting. It is possible that more       than one ID number may be required. • If Barcode products are required, our default barcode is Code39. If any other barcode is required,    please advise us on your production paperwork.

 

Additional information may be required depending on grade level, products ordered and how the school would like their products delivered. Be sure to include ALL necessary data required to produce, sort and deliver your school’s products.

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION THAT IS FREQUENTLY REQUESTED:

• Elementary schools: Teacher Name, Room Number, Lunch Program ID Number, Library ID Number • Middle & High Schools: Homeroom, Period, Advisor Name (or Number), Room Number,    Library ID Number • Mail home or rolodex schools: Parent Name, Mailing Address, City, State, Zip, Home Phone,    Alternate Phone

 

Please submit all camera cards for students AND staff in the exact order photographed with your job. Camera cards should be bundled by class whenever possible. For high schools or middle schools where this is not possible, bundle approximately every 20 subjects and number each bundle sequentially. If you are capturing digitally and you are not using CamLynx, please write the image file number on each camera card and slate. This helps to ensure that images and data are accurately linked.