Barcoding News
Data tracking news, product updates, tips, and more
New Features in Bartender 10.0 – Now Includes Card Printing
Card Printing, Advanced Drawing Functions, Major User-Interface Improvements, Data Type Support and much more.
BarTender version 10 began shipping on March 1st, 2012. Coming 25 years after the very first version of BarTender, version 10 is the biggest and most exciting software release in its history. Introducing ID card printing, truly professional drawing functions, and major user-interface improvements, BarTender now expands its industry leadership way beyond just label design and printing.
The new user-interfaces have also already been translated into the 22 additional languages supported by BarTender.
Card Printing and Encoding!
BarTender version 10 adds powerful features dedicated to the design, printing and encoding of ID cards, employee security badges, membership cards and just about any other plastic card. You can even encode smart cards and magnetic stripes!
Mobile Shelf Price Auditing for the Retail Environment
Industry Need
Aggressive pricing and promotions drive success in retail, and modern consumers are more price-sensitive than ever. The pressure to act and react quickly in modifying pricing continues to escalate. To meet this demand, today’s retailer needs increasingly efficient ways to implement accurate pricing changes on the retail floor. Only Intermec provides the total package of mobile printers, mobile computers, bar code scanners, and durable media necessary to label products and shelves at the point-of-use—key to improving store efficiency and eliminating costly errors.
When prices change, it is critically important that the price on the shelf matches the price in the computer; when these do not agree, significant problems result. If the charged price is higher, customer satisfaction plummets. If the charged price is lower, profits are lost. As an added consequence, retailers regularly incur fines when pricing accuracy laws are violated.
Printing today is commonly completed in batch mode using a fixed printer located in a back room away from the retail space. These shelf labeling systems separate a batch printing process from the point of labeling, creating the potential for obsolete, inaccurate, or misplaced shelf labels. Additionally, this separation from point-of-use leads to wasted trips and introduces a greater chance of human error in mis-labeling. For all these reasons, mobile label printing is becoming increasingly popular for shelf and product labeling in the retail environment.
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Wasp Barcode Technologies Launches Barcode Management Software Package
WaspLabeler & Barcode Maker for Office — Designed to Improve Efficiency and Accuracy for SMBsÂ
Wasp Barcode Technologies, announced the launch of an all-in-one software solution designed to help SMBs seamlessly design, print and integrate barcodes into their business — WaspLabeler & Barcode Maker for Office. WaspLabeler +2D and Wasp Barcode Maker are now available as one package, providing a complete barcode and label creation solution.
WaspLabeler +2D enables users to quickly design and print standard or customized barcodes for use as product barcode labels, inventory labels, product scan sheets or other printed barcode labels. WaspLabeler +2D can also generate barcode scan sheets or shadow books so that barcodes for small or difficult to tag items are easily accessible. Additionally, it can automatically serialize inventory or asset tags to simplify tracking.
Wasp Barcode Maker seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Office applications, allowing users to create barcodes for Microsoft Word documents or Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. Barcode Maker can help SMBs reduce data entry errors by adding barcodes to invoices and/or improve efficiency of retail checkout with barcode product lists for small or bulky items. In addition, the barcodes can be linked to data in Microsoft Office for easy updates.
Top 5 Barcode Scanner Apps for Android
In this modern world of technology the mobile phone is being used more and more for everyday things, and one of those things is the ability to read handy barcodes by way of a barcode scanner app on your mobile device that can read the code on products and deliver info about that product, I’m pretty sure if you own a mobile device you know how barcode scanners work.
So with this in mind, we thought we’d bring to our Android readers out there, our pick of the top 5 barcode scanner for the Android platform for your consideration, so let’s kick off that top 5 with…
Mobile Medical Sample Labeling
Industry Need
Medical testing provides key information to physicians, serving as a foundational tool for diagnosing patient conditions. Accuracy is critically important; mistakes can lead to undiagnosed illnesses or inappropriate treatments. Current specimen vial labeling methods, however, are error-prone. Handwritten labels are subject to interpretation and manual data errors; labels preprinted at a central station and carried to the patient location introduce the chance for mix-ups. Mobile sample labeling eliminates these opportunities for errors, enhancing patient safety. Printing on Intermec media ensures robust traceability, meeting the application requirements of sample labeling from the point of collection through challenging laboratory conditions.
Automatic identification technologies such as bar coding excel at eliminating human error. Within the high-touch medical environment these systems have steadily improved patient safety. Errors resulting from manual data entry are unacceptable in a diagnostic environment where they can lead to lost samples (increasing time to diagnose and treat) or mistaken patient identities (potentially leading to incorrect diagnosis and course of treatment).
Recognizing the persistence of these errors, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) has made improving the accuracy of patient identification the first goal of the 2010 National Patient Safety Goals document. This goal requires blood and specimen containers to be labeled in the patient’s presence. Printing sample labels in place and on-demand with ID scanned from the patient’s wristband eliminates multiple points of error, enhancing patient safety.
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Mobile Labeling in the Warehouse or Manufacturing Facility
Industry Need
Bar coding is a critical component in maintaining accuracy and efficiency in a warehouse environment. Shipping, receiving, and cross docking, picking and packing, shelf labeling, and tote labeling applications are integral to successful operations. Increasingly, companies are leveraging mobile labeling solutions in these applications. By enabling workers to print labels at the point of activity, mobile solutions enable a more flexible workflow, increased productivity, and fewer errors. Intermec’s integrated mobile printer and Duratherm media products deliver a comprehensive array of choices to meet these needs.
Shipping, Receiving, & Cross Docking
Mobile printing solutions enable workers to quickly generate barcode labels and apply them directly to items as they are unpacked or staged for shipment. Workers wearing belt-mounted mobile printers can re-label pallets and individual cases on the spot, reducing transit time between pallets and a central label printing location to optimize efficiency.
Picking & Packing
The picker’s belt-mounted printer, responding to print commands from the wireless network, generates a pick ticket to guide order fulfillment. After collecting all items needed to close an order, this receipt material serves double duty as the customer’s packing slip. Once the order is scanned complete, a new pick ticket is automatically printed for the worker’s next task.
Mobile Admission Ticket Printing
Industry Need
Fixed ticketing locations suffer from significant limitations when servicing peak attendance volumes. Limited processing points cause bottlenecks that severely restrict flow, causing delays and dissatisfied customers. This can create safety issues with excessive crowds congregating and limit event purchasing to a captive audience within a venue location. Adding stations requires significant investment without adequately addressing dynamically changing service environments.
Advances in mobile ticket printing have enabled users to overcome these limitations by moving ticketing to the point of activity. Taking transactions to the customer places processing points where they are needed most, increasing throughput and reducing wait times. However, this application is not without its challenges. Key requirements must be met for mobile ticketing success; these needs include media with appropriate durability, look and feel, speedy printing, and rugged, reliable equipment.
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Opticon introduces H22 Mobile Computer
Opticon presents new H22 with excellent reading and touch screen performance
The H22 uses the Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5.3 platform, providing the latest technology for mobile applications. Users will be able to use functions and enterprise applications at any time – regardless of the location. The H22 is available with either an alpha-numeric layout or a complete QWERTY keypad.
The sharp 3.7†color display with touch screen is among the largest screens available for mobile terminals. It provides users with an extremely user friendly interface for any field worker application. The 3.2 megapixel color camera with auto focus and flash light supports visual information to any issue. Besides linear barcodes, the H22-2D model also reads 2D and stacked codes, both from traditional media (labels etc.) as well as from the screens of other mobile devices.
Medical Wristbands
Industry Need
Effective patient care is predicated on accuracy, but human error is exceptionally difficult to eliminate in the inherently high-touch medical environment. To address this, barcodes and automatic ID technologies are being used increasingly across a wide range of medical practices. Patient wristbands are one common application area. Intermec patient wristbands ensure positive identification for integration with verification systems for medication, samples, and surgical procedures.
The five rights of medication safety (right patient, right drug, right time, right dose, right route) provide an important framework for verification of pharmaceutical administration, but commonly rely on manual human checks. Integration of positive patient ID with barcode wristbands provides a highly reliable adjunct to eliminate human error. With increasing implementation of patient electronic medical record (EMR), scanning the wristband can trigger caregiver notification of allergies or other special requirements.
The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) has made improving the accuracy of patient identification a high priority, and it remains the number one goal in the pre-release version of the 2010 National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs) for hospitals. Recognizing the accuracy enhancements of auto ID technologies, bar code verification is specifically cited as an acceptable alternative to resourceintensive two-person verification required for administration of blood products.
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IUID Item Unique Identification
In October 2008, the US Department of Defense published version 2 of the UID (Unique Identification) guidelines requiring a broad range of assets to be marked with a 2 dimensional data matrix code that is unique at the item level. Implementation is increasing, covering both new items and assets already in service. With an extreme assortment of surfaces and durability requirements, finding a product to reliably track these items can pose a significant challenge. Intermec’s comprehensive UID media offering simplifies this daunting task with proven labeling solutions.
Mission-critical tracking has been at the core of Intermec’s business throughout its history. Intermec media offers a number of products available off-the-shelf to meet UID requirements, and offer custom materials and configurations to meet particularly stringent requirements. Using these proven products and printing technology to satisfy UID requirements limits exposure and minimizes cost of complying with this mandate.
