Mercian Labels - business, open source & security label printing

The BBC are reporting that Computer systems generate up to 20% of all carbon produced by government, and that the UK government is going to have a carbon neutral IT system within 4 years. I wonder if they have considered cutting their electricity usage by using open source?

I noted sometime ago from Alan Lord (when writing our corporate social responsibility statement) that Linux is alleged to use less power than conventional Windows platforms. I am very out of touch with current thinking on this issue, but just thought I’d flag this up.

We believe that it was in 1952 when the first ever barcode label was produced, however it was not until the 1980s that barcode labels became popular to the public. When they were first produced they were only really used for one reason and that was for identifying railroad cars. This was a while ago though and since then barcode labels have become increasingly popular and technology has become so much greater. Being able to track and identify the movement of items error free, it is no real surprise that barcode labels have become largely popular.

RFID labels have been much touted as the way forward, and will replace barcode labels in due course.

Our experience, for what it is worth, is that RFID is expensive, prone to errors, and only really gives 2 advantages over barcodes: Speedy contactless reading (if RFID labels do read in your environment, as many dont if they are close to metal or water), and extremely high volume data storage (compared to 2D barcodes).

I’d be really interested in hearing from existing RFID label users with their expereinces.  There seems to be a lot of hype, and very little actual purchasing and successful rollouts of RFID labels.

If you have a different take on this situation, please post here.  We are actively looking at RFID labels, particularly in security labelling, but as far as we can see, barcodes are still a very good solution at the present time.

If you are a really small volume user of labels, you may be wondering if it is best to have your own A4 sheet label printer at home to print labels, or pay for a professional to print their labels for them. At Mercian Labels , we have want what is best for you.

If you are happy with a very limited range of paper labels, and do ultra small runs lengths, then its probably cheaper for you to print your own labels.  This is fairly easy for black and white labels on paper rectangles, but gets a significantly more cumbersome when you want photographs, non standard shapes, or anything but permanent adhesives.

When you needs grow such that:

• you are using higher volumes
• you are getting significant wastage
• you want a non standard adhesive or shape
• you need variable information
• you want better image quality

then the time has come to talk to us at Mercian Labels.  We have no minimum order quantities, and our label solutions are quick and cost effective.  When you’ve outgrown the desktop printer, or your time is better spent doing other things, come and talk to us!

Many of our customers enquire about what adhesives could or should their labels use. There is never a straight forward answer to this question, as there is a wide selection of adhesives, and it all depends on what use the label is going to be put to. This is because all adhesives are formulated for different reasons and they all have individual jobs to do.

If a customer needed labels for items of food, then food grade labels are essential. They are used on fruits such as apples, plums, bananas and many more, as they do not leave any unwanted residue onto the fruit as easy feel they are a lot more hygienic, and any residue left is edible and harmless.

If a customer wanted a more secure label then tyre tack labels are probably the best. They are applied onto tyres and are extra sticky so they are not as likely to peel off. There are also frost fix adhesive labels which have a service temperature of -40 Celsius which makes them very suitable to sticking onto items which are to be frozen.

There are many other types of adhesives to suit what the customer needs, including hard hat label adhesives which are usually used on hard hats which builders wear. These labels are stuck onto the hats for the workers own safety and do not damage or corode the plastic of the hard hat, potentially damaging its structural integrity and strength.

Whatever your specialist adhesive label application, we are likely to have a potential solution to hand - give give us a call.

At Mercian Labels our customers constantly design their own custom personalised labels, which allows them to create their own designs before we print them. You may want to design your own labels for many different reasons, whether it is a one off design to mark a specific event, or for company use in marketing a wider product range. When customers design these labels the best thing to do is to get them printed professionally to get the best possible quality.

We find that there are so many different events to attend now that benefit from custom labels.  Some people may create and design labels for certain events such as weddings, where they can stick labels onto anything to give their wedding a more personalised look (I went to one last weekend in fact that did this!). Other events for which people may decide to design labels for are parties, as this would also give a party a more personalised look.

If someone has made their own bath products, or brewed their own beer, they would more than likely want their own custom personalised labels to promote their products. With your products having their own labels, customers are more likely to purchase, as they have a more professional look.

The possibilities, especially with digitally produced labels, are only limited by your imagination!

Asset identification labels are useful for so many different organisations, and here at Mercian Labels we have many people contact us asking for such labels. Asset labels have so many different uses, but they are commonly used to help organisations track their assets and deter theft of their property.  One common area of confusion we find with asset labels is what the best material to use for asset labels.

The variety of end use applications for  makes the correct material selection very important, as the surfaces vary considerably, from smooth glass cabinets to painted metal computer cases. The identification labels usually contain the asset number and other variable data such as a barcode and serial number. It is important that the labels are resistant to abrasion and solvents which are used in the environment.

A key feature of asset labels is that they are difficult to remove, to deter theft.  We consequently usually specify a top quality semi gloss white ultra destructible vinyl. Ultra destructible vinyl fragments into tiny pieces (which is called the “eggshell effect”) if anyone attempted to remove the label. This makes for a secure asset label that can be customised easily in small runs, and not only identifies the product, but deters theft as well.

Other security label materials can be used, but often do not give as permanent a mark as ultra destructible vinyls.

Such security labels are our speciality - please give us a call if you are looking for such products.

Well we did a full dry run last Friday with the new PHP driven labels CRM system (yet to be named - any ideas?) and it didnt go as well as we hoped.  So much so that we have a list of bugs to work on before its good enough to go “live”, hopefully next weekend.

Patience is a vurtue as they say, but I’m just so keen to see the new system up and running and give us some more reliability.  Anyway, there is another week of bug fixing, and we try again next weekend.

Open source migrations take time, I knew it, and now we are proving it ourselves!

The BIG migration of our mission critical MIS system from MS Access to POSTGRES PHP is due to happen this weekend.  OK, its taken 18 months, not 6 months to write, but I’m sure it will be worth it.

Duplicate dry run on Friday, so watch this space…

Yesterday we just completed a change of business bankers.  This is not an activity to be undertaken lightly, but given that Mercian Labels has doubled in size in recent years and moved into the “commercial” banking sector of £1M-£25M turnover businesses we had really outgrown our previous banking arranagment.

For those company owners and company directors watching this blog, I thought I’d put down a few “lessons to self”:

1. when a business relationship dosnt work well for both parties, mutual respect and trust falls apart pretty quickly, and everyone reaches for the contractual terms and conditions.  If you need to move banks, do it swiftly and amicably, and accept that there will be some pain.
2. You will be surprised at how easy banking can be when you move to a forward thinking bank with a real grasp of IT - its so much easier to with with a company when you have similar cultural outlooks.
3. Bankers, in common with other business service professionals (I’m thinking lawyers!) sometimes regard themselves as above any questions, negotiation or discussion - their word is final and beyond reproach.  Well, in my opinion, its not - everyone should be professional and be prepare to explain and justify their professional decisions.  Disaffected bankers dont like it when you legitimately question or challenge issues, but it is worth it - on this occasion a careful check of the numbers saved us a very significant sum.

I’m not going to mention names here as that would be unprofessional, but in future I will check the small print of professional contracts even more carefully than I do now!

Jake over at Senokian ran an auction for his emergency cat5 dog lead as reported on The Register

I won it.  One of the most bizzare purchases I’ve ever made, but all proceeds went to a good cause and we were pleased to support Jake and battle Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

Anybody have anything else weird to sell us??

At Mercian Labels we have a variety of different label printing techniques, these include printing digital, hotfoil, thermal and flexographic labels. The different label printing options can result in confusion by our customers to what way would be best to print their labels. There is no right or wrong answer to this question as each label printing method has its own benefits.

For customers who have many different designs of labels but also has a tight budget, then digital label printing would more than likely be most suitable for them. Our digital label printers can print short runs of “process” colour labels, incorporating photographic images to be printed. Customers who choose to have their labels printed digitally have the benefit of not having to pay expensive block charges, and are able to have photographic type images on their labels without having to pay any extra costs.

Some people may choose to have their labels printed on hotfoil, as this allows people to have excellent quality labels with up to 6 spot colours. Hotfoil labels are excellent for brands who want to advertise their products it a cost effective way. With these labels you can have your own design, logo and text professionally printed onto papers, synthetics or transparent or clear materials with low origination charges. Customers also benefit greatly by the fact that they can have special size/shape requirements for their labels and do not have to pay hundreds of pounds for a cutter, which can occur if the label is very small or unusually shaped.

Thermal transfer printing may be the best option for some people who want barcode labels. Usually we produce either large or very small text barcodes, with simple logos, consecutively numbered labels. They are mainly used for industrial labelling applications such as tracking. The main benefit in getting Mercian Labels to print you barcode labels is that it is no longer in your hand as we will be doing all the hard work.

Flexographic label printing is another great method, though there are more limitations. Flexographic printing is mainly used for larger productions with simpler designs and colour combinations with up to 4 colours without special effects. The main benefits of flexographic label printing is that it is a economical printing method used for larger print runs as larger and faster machines are used. This printing method is usually chosen for industrial applications.

Letterpress and gravure label printing are still around, but more often used for specialist applications now.

If you want some free advice on what label printing method is best for your idea - drop us a line. Our advice is free, and we dont bite!

At Mercian Labels we often get many customers enquiring about how they should design their labels, as they dont have professional graphic design software in house, or havent yet engaged a designer to realise their design ideas.

This is why we offer a custom design service to help customers who do not have professional artwork files to create their new label designs. This is a great cost effective service saving customers from having to pay the costs of commissioning a full graphic service from a advertising or design agency. As our graphic design studio is PC based we have a few simple instructions for customers to follow when sending artwork.

If you use either CoralDraw 14 or Abode Illustrator CS3 then your artwork would look a lot better than if they were to use other programs that are not vector based. This is because both these programs help to improve the sharpness of the printing plates and allows easier colour separation and a better quality image. Our customers benefit greatly by using these programs as they give a lot better results for your design. We also advise customers to make sure that all photographic images are embedded into the file and all text created where possible as vector drawing line work as this all helps get the best results for their design.

To minimise the chances of unexpected design artefacts, we advise customers who need their artwork to be bleed off to make sure they allow 1.5mm of bleed off. We also express to customers how important it is for them to convert all fonts to curves/paths as this stops any missing texts issues when our graphic design studio opens the file up.

The process for getting designs ready to be printed flexographically is not a simple process at all for the uninitiated! We prefer to complete the process ourselves as the design has to be stepped and repeated and also stretched around the cylinder before sending for the plates.  Trust me - if you dont know what you are doing, you dont want to try this!

It is important that customers do follow the instructions given as otherwise files could be sent to our graphic studio which may not be usable for printing. This could be because of artwork being sent as low resolution jpeg or gif files, or it could be because designs are sent to us without converting font into outline paths. When customers do not follow normal industry practice for design files, it inevitably extends the amount of time it takes to go through the whole artwork approval stage of the order.

Our full guidelines for artwork files can be found at http://www.selfadhesivelabels.com/artwork.html but please fee free to email us for free advice on design files - try jamie.caddick@mercianlabels.com first of all!

Here at Mercian Labels we often have customers enquiring how long it will take for them to receive their labels. We inform our customers that it is usually 2-3 working days before their labels will be delivered to them.

When delivering we usually use a next day carrier , although occasionally we do use the Royal Mail for small orders. There is always the option however for customers to come and collect their labels within working hours of our factory. We give customers the option to have their labels dispatched by a same day courier for an additional charge anywhere in the UK - we use City Link we we find to be the best for our type of goods and service levels our customers need.

When it comes down to turnaround time it does really depend on how complex the job is. Though with good communication with customers we can often produce work for dispatch within 24 hours by same day courier or timed carrier delivery. There is always a premium charge for this service which depending on the additional work involved and couriers, it is usually £50-£500 per job because of our usual 3-4 day disrupted production operation. It is important that customers do not ask for same day/next day delivery unless the requirement is urgent and they have the budget to help us meet their deadline.

We get very few complaints about our delivery times becuase we are so quick, but if you are really in a hurry, anything can be done, but it does cause disruption and we have to charge for this exceptionally quick level of service.

I’ve decided to freshen up this blog by opening out some of the content to other business issues at Mercian Labels, as well as keeping up to date with our open source migration.

Regular readers may well see a lot of new content, as we add posts that are of interest to our customer base and other small businesses as well as more posting on open source.

I hope this widening of focus meets general approval.

PRESS RELEASE
16 June 2008
Cannock, Staffordshire, UK
LABEL LOCK LAUNCH SCORES “NO MARKS” FOR SECURITY INDUSTRY.

Building on their recent successes in security labelling, Security Labels International has announced the launch of the revolutionary new product - Label Lock.
Label Lock is the latest product to grace the portfolio of the Cannock-based company, part of the Mercian Labels Group. Available for distributors to stock easily in bulk, yet with each label having a unique number, Label Lock is described as the last word in tamper-evident labelling.
Because the surface of each security seal changes dramatically once removed to display the words ‘opened’ - but leaves no marks on the product it sticks to - Label Lock is seen as having unique advantages for all items that will be re-used. As Sales Director Hugo Gell said: “A padlock can be picked, unlike Label Lock which will seal everything from doors to CD and DVD cases without the need to drill holes or spend money on electronic monitoring. It’s designed initially as a deterrent, but the label tells you instantly if someone’s tried to get past it, and it can’t be replaced because every label has a unique number printed under the surface. What’s more, there is no sticky mess left behind once you’ve removed it”.
The product is the result of years of development and investment by Security Labels International, the UK’s premier custom label company. Dr Adrian Steele, Managing Director who has pioneered the R&D behind the technical aspects of the product said: “This has been a very challenging and exciting project. We were determined to present a good British-made product that was designed without compromise to perform a very demanding job. Technically advanced and highly innovative, we believe that this product will be at the forefront of value-added security systems the world over.”
“LabelLock labels will be distributed worldwide through a carefully chosen network of distributors” added Hugo Gell. “Having tried to quietly test them in the market place prior to launch, we found ourselves faced with an alarming and immediate demand. The Security Industry is crying out for innovative, unique, cost effective solutions, and we now have the ideal product to deliver just that”.
Adrian Steele added: “Once we were satisfied that the product was technically sound and market tested, we faced the immediate challenge of being able to supply a hungry marketplace. Happily, the investment we have made in infrastructure, technology and machinery have paid off, and we are now in a strong position to supply globally and in bulk”.
LabelLock labels are entirely manufactured in the heart of the UK by Security Labels International. The business employs close to 20 people and has a turnover in excess of £1,000,000, which looks set to grow rapidly following the launch of their new product and a move into the global marketplace. Products will be showcased at the Transec Exhibition in Amsterdam on 24th – 25th June, and can be seen on the website www.labellock.com

- - - ENDS - - -

- - - CONTACT - -

Security Labels International

Watling Street

Cannock

WS11 0BD

UK

+44 (0)1543 431 099

Contact: Hugo Gell

hugo@securitylabels.com

www.securitylabels.com

www.labellock.com

—NOTES FOR EDITORS - - -

Mercian Labels Ltd (www.mercianlabels.com) was established in 1969.

Relevant images available from the following links:

www.labellock.com/press/before.jpg

www.labellock.com/press/during.jpg
www.labellock.com/press/after.jpg
www.labellock.com/press/logo.jpg
www.labellock.com/press/people.jpg
www.labellock.com/press/alarm.jpg
www.labellock.com/press/box.jpg
www.labellock.com/press/case.jpg
www.labellock.com/press/cd.jpg
www.labellock.com/press/car.jpg
www.labellock.com/press/cabinet.jpg
www.labellock.com/press/cameraphone.jpg
www.labellock.com/press/pc.jpg

# # #

I was reading this article on the 30th anniversary of spam from the BBC this morning, and it struck me that if 85% of all email traffic is spam, and the majority of these are coming from hijacked PCs, then assuming that all these PCs are Windows operating systems (and not mac or linux), then security flaws in windows are responsible for allowing spam to exist.  Therefore with existing and successful IP/DNS blacklists of spammers, if all users adopted linux or macs (or indeed kept their windows machines up to date with security fixes!) there would be hardly any spam.

Nirvana.

In my early days of learning about open source Dave at Senokian gave me a lecture on why its important not to tie linux security updates into a paying subscriptions service for any OS, as all it does is does is create problems for everyone else.  18 months on, I think I’ve understood why!

The new version of Ubuntu, Hardy Heron LTS was released yesterday and last night I downloaded it and installed it this morning. The first, and most important thing to say is that it is just amazing that users around the globe can downlaod such fantastic piece of software for free, and thanks again to the community for all the work that has gone into it.

There are some cool new graphical interfaces, a new tracking tool I’ve found, and overall it just works, as I’ve come to expect linux and OSS software to do.

BUT, why was it a good idea to package a beta version of firefox in a LTS release that does not support existing firefox extensions/add ons?

This is a serious annoyance for me as I’ve come to rely on these extensions, that today don’t now work(in order of importance)

• Update Scanner (arhhh!  its fantastic, and now dosnt work)
• google toolbar (and google itself dosnt support the new firefox release!)
• Zimbra DnD drag and drop
• POPup alt Attribute
• SEO quake
• FEBE firefox backup

I’ve tried installing firefox 2 and got nowhere.  So now I have to wait, and hope and pray that a quick upgrade is available for these (and I guess many other) plugins.

 A quick note to the Ubuntu Commuity.

You are amazing, and thank you for your software. But, business people like stability, upgrading to a new version means that “stuff” should stay the same or get better.  Please dont take away what you’ve previously given us: such behaviour is what our government does to us, and it is not very popular.

I’ve been using open office for 8 months now, and had no serious interoperability issues with receiving documents that are predominately written in Microsoft Word. Well that came to an end this week with 2 incidents that are worthy of recording:

Firstly, I recieved a quotation by email for some building work that was written in MS Word. I opened it in Open Office, read it, printed it, and it all looked the same. It was competitive, (but not silly) and I entered into many hours of late stage discussion and negotiation with the sender over a potential deal. After about 4 hours of my time, it emerged that the quotation I had on screen and in hard copy was different to the intended version, and crucially missed a sub total of £7,500 that completely destroyed the bid. (There was no grand total BTW - I can do maths!).

Dropping the font size to 2 point on each of the DOC pages emailed to me I “found” the missing text, hidden under the footer graphic. I’ve never seen this in Word, and it was a lesson that all formatting dosnt display as intended on Open Office. A waste of my time and that of the bidder.

Similarly, I’ve been signing off a major deal this week as part of my duties as a non executive director of Business Link, and the signature page of an emailed document I had to sign printed differently on open office to that of the “original” document. With so many lawyers around for all sides, someone noticed and at the (very) last minute we had to get the document resigned by fax to enable completion.

Now I dont feel agrieved by these 2 episodes, but it has made me more wary. For casual use, OpenOffice writer is excellent, and I’m very grateful to the community to have use of it. However, in business we cannt ignore the current status of the MS Word .DOC document format as the “definative” document format at the moment. If you try to work with other businesses by email using open source software, you do have to be careful that you are getting what was intended.

Solutions:

1. PDF. easy, obvious.
2. Or we could just have ONE combined ISO standard for documents (isn’t that ODF???) and not 2 “standards”.

We dont want (or need) OOXML as a second “standard” in business.

Wouldn’t it be easier for everyone if there was only 1, open (source), standard file format?

Well, it arrived, a lot quicker than expected.  And guess what, it works. Right out of the box, just plugged it in, a few basic Ubuntu setup questions, and its been on and in our kitchen at home for a week now.

All I wanted from this purchase was an ubuntu laptop with a web browser that worked out the box and was reliable.  Well I got it, and it just works.

Nuff said?

Well we are getting dangerously close to swapping our MS Access CRM for the new php based Postgresql system that Rich has spent a year coding now - somewhat more than I originally anticipated!

We will then be working on the phone system, and finally move all the client machines to Ubuntu Hardy LTS when its out.

We are still very committed to the migration project, but as we are 100% dependant on our CRM for runing the business, it has to be perfect to migrate, hence the huge amounts of testing that Rich has been doing.

I’ve been running only on OSS for 6 months now, and love it - no more blue screen of death, and  Zimbra email is excellent (but we need HTML signatures, a global disclaimer feature and read receipts!)

Slow progress, but progress there is, all behind the scenes.