GS1 India Barcode Asset Tracking Software – Traceability Modernization Platform

Barcode Asset Tracking Software Case Study

Hakuna Matata partnered with GS1 India, a government-backed organization, to modernize its legacy DataKart and DataTrace platforms. By building a scalable barcode asset tracking software solution, we improved transaction speeds to 70/sec, reduced infrastructure costs by 30%, and delivered end-to-end traceability for multiple industries.

Client

GS1 India

Platform

Web App

Industry

Logistics

Technology

Angular, Node.js, PostgreSQL, Azure

70

Transactions Per Second

3X

Performance Improvement

30%

Cloud Cost Reduction

30%

Reduction in Admin work

About

GS1 India - Traceability Modernization

A non-profit govt organization who are into standardizing unique product codes and building traceability solution for retail, healthcare, textile, pesticides, Active Pharma Ingredients, army, manufacturing industries. Their existing DataKart and DataTrace product is built on Legacy tech and the tender is to modernize the same.

For us it is exciting as in Hakuna Matata we have not crossed the traffic of 10 transactions / second, in GS1 we can handle traffic more than that and provide us a strong knowledge in Traceability systems. We fought the tender and won the project.

We under-estimated the project complexity and we stood by the commitment even though it drained us financially as it gave us rich experience to grow as a team.

Business Challenges

Unavailability of documentation on existing system: Inspite of multiple rounds of discussion with stakeholders as knowledge is scattered and it has been more challenging in organization like GS1 where it runs on key members knowledge.

Data driven System : There are many functionalities hidden inside the data specific to a few customers. Hard coding to handle specific cases, columns to meet specific requirement, additional table to handle a specific customer all made the requirement on genericity more complex.

Resource unavailability : On a longer project where many stakeholders are involved, there is always someone leave you behind. We lost few teammates in the middle for us to regroup and meet the timeline.

Data Migration : Inspite of load testing in UAT, moving the code to production with live data had many concerns due to poor data sampling. Many siloed data and specific implementation only for few customers have been discovered only after going live. This has impacted our timeline and put a huge pressure on the tickets to address.

Solution

Scalable, Cloud Agnostic micro service architecture driven by opensource fully for system that can handled 70 transactions / second with a lower infrastructure cost (compared to previous spending).

Super-efficient excel reading algorithm & duplicate detection that can process 100K rows in few seconds. Customers use excel to request for GTIN for tons of products.

Built a GTIN Allocation system that is superfast without pre-built allocation and creating dummy rows in database. GTIN allocation in fraction of seconds.

Built an integrated platform for manufacturers, suppliers, buyers, retailers and e-tailers who can opt for GTIN’s, Label Generation, Traceability Services.

A dynamic system to meet the growing customization needs especially in Traceability that caters to various industry verticals.

Data Migration Tool with ETL support to migrate data between two SQL databases.

Our Approach

Discovery & Strategy

Conduct in-depth analysis and identified key inefficiencies.

Tech Implementation

Integrated AI-powered tools to steer development activities.

Deployment & Support

Launched the solution and provided continuous support.

Our Steps

Modernized Infrastructure

Designed a scalable, cloud-agnostic microservices architecture using open-source stack (KeyCloak, Postgres, ClickHouse, Kong, Kubernetes).

Smart Automation

Built intelligent modules for GTIN allocation, Excel automation, and duplicate detection to boost speed and accuracy.

Seamless Traceability

Delivered a dynamic, barcode asset tracking system with multi-level label generation (QR, GS1 128, Data Matrix) and batch/lot traceability across industries.

Outcome

Multi-Level Label Generation that supports data matrix, Barcode, QR Code, GS1 128.

Ability to monitor & limit API hits by customer.

Sellers can define their own Label templates for Traceability

Meeting GS1 standards for unique ID creation and EPCIS standards for interoperability.

Batch & Lot Traceability

Manufacturers to manage dynamic fields instead of admin managing the same.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How do you modernize a legacy government traceability system without disrupting operations?

Using a cloud-agnostic microservices approach — we rebuilt GS1 India's DataKart and DataTrace platforms on Azure while maintaining backward compatibility, achieving 70 transactions per second post-migration.

What is GS1 DataKart and how was it modernized?

GS1 DataKart is India's national barcode and product data registry. We modernized it with open-source microservices, reducing cloud costs by 30% while tripling platform performance.

What technology handles 70+ transactions per second for supply chain traceability?

A cloud-agnostic microservices architecture on Azure, supporting multi-label generation (data matrix, barcode, QR, GS1-128) and horizontal scaling under peak government traceability load.

What is the cost of modernizing a government-backed traceability platform?

Modernization at this scale typically delivers ROI through infrastructure savings — GS1 India achieved 30% cloud cost reduction alongside 3x performance improvement.

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