Today, the demand for compliant labels on shipments is creating additional pressure for organizations to ensure their suppliers, partners and vendors are not only complying with their internal standards, but with external regulations as well. Many organizations will try to announce their labeling requirements to their suppliers in advance, but the ability to truly enforce and maintain real-time control of the label design process is very difficult. It may take up to a year or more before suppliers adhere to any changes in internal/external label design compliance standards, putting them at risk of a negative impact to their bottom line due to delayed or returned orders and increased overhead as a result of incorrect labels.
This pain point can be resolved by implementing hosted label design software that will allow for enforcement of label design requirements across the supplier network. It’s essential for companies seeking an enterprise label management system to find a solution flexible enough to flawlessly integrate into existing systems, business processes and established requirements; no matter how simple or complex. An ideal solution will allow administrators to manage all printers, print users, barcode label design users and reporting users on a single server. Having a centrally managed solution creates a secure environment with extremely low IT overhead; administrators can roll out the print interface without a local installation, automatically push any design software to users’ computers and seamlessly implement software updates and label template revisions to internal and external print users.
The value of this type of solution stems from the enablement of out-of-network printing for suppliers or vendors. Local printing features allow you to enforce the printing of internally approved and compliant labels by your external print users, suppliers and vendors, while maintaining control of label design and editing capabilities. Suppliers and vendors can simply log in to an already established web interface, access the relevant label templates and begin printing labels immediately without installing any software. Without the need for client installs, it’s effortless to roll out to new suppliers and vendors. Maintaining total control of the design, approval and traceability processes creates a more streamlined process that helps avoid returns due to mislabeling and creates consistency with labels used on incoming shipments.
TEKLYNX International, a leader in barcode labeling software, has responded to the trend of standardization across supplier networks with a solution that supports label standardization across the entire supplier network. TEKLYNX CENTRAL‘s hosted label printing features allow organizations to better manage suppliers and/or vendors. With the core functionality necessary to support the governing organization’s requirements, this solution handles all aspects of labeling process management in a single, unified solution.
“TEKLYNX CENTRAL is an out-of-the-box enterprise label management solution that is flexible enough to be configured to seamlessly work with your current business processes and add significant value to your organization,” explains Nick Recht, TEKLYNX’ Enterprise Product Manager.
An integrated label management software solution, TEKLYNX CENTRAL combines the proven technology of TEKLYNX barcode label design, printing and label tracking and approval software into a single solution designed to work together. TEKLYNX’ controlled development process keeps all application versions in sync to provide a stable solution organizations can rely on.
A defined business process can be enforced at every level, restricting access to only the printers, compliance labels and tasks a user needs to perform their job. The printing interface is configurable to align with any business processes and the design, approval and automated printing components can be configured to meet specific needs. Roles can be defined per a workstation or user and streamline the label template selection process. Print users will only be able to see the label templates they need within their role and organization, eliminating the need to scroll through hundreds of irrelevant label templates. In addition, unique company information can be populated at print time to ensure full flexibility and accuracy of all label templates.
Secure logins and custom reporting features of TEKLYNX CENTRAL ensure full traceability of who printed what and from where.
“Companies are transitioning to hosted label printing software for supplier networks because they can see the value in standardizing and centralizing on one labeling solution,” Recht says. “Efficiency and effectiveness of supplier interactions is something that is growing in popularity, and TEKLYNX has the software to respond to this demand.”
More information on TEKLYNX International and TEKLYNX solutions is available at www.teklynx.com.