Seagull Scientific
Building Trust with Secure Labeling Software

Seagull Scientific, headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, has become a juggernaut in the barcode generation and supply chain/compliance labeling space. The company’s product, BarTender^® labeling and barcoding software, is used by businesses ranging from those that require only simple design and print functionality to the world’s largest enterprise organizations that require complete scalability, security, and centralized control of their labeling processes. Harold Boe, President and CEO, said, “It is important for us to develop loyal customers through generous user support and strong partnerships. We want to offer not just outstanding products, but also trusted business relationships.”

The product comes in four different editions. BarTender’s Basic Edition is designed for small businesses with limited labeling needs, while the Professional Edition adds database connectivity capabilities. The Automation Edition features the advanced label design functionality of BarTender’s exclusive Intelligent TemplatesTM, which leverage conditional printing to create many labels from a single design format. It includes role-based security and simplification of the print process using the customer’s native applications, like ERP and WMS applications.

BarTender’s Enterprise Automation Edition builds on the capabilities of Automation Edition, and offers complete connectivity and control of the printing environment, integrations with SAP and Oracle, mobile printing from iOS and Android devices, and centralized management of printing, security, and administration.

Seagull Scientific’s close relationships with organizations, stakeholders, global regulatory bodies, and leaders in the industries they serve helps them understand issues and needs.

We’ve built a substantial industry presence and expertise that has helped shape BarTender into a forward-looking, solution-oriented product that the world’s industries trust

Boe said, “We’ve built a substantial industry presence and expertise that has helped shape BarTender into a forward-looking, solution-oriented product that the world’s industries trust.”

A recent BarTender deployment at a multi-brand, multi-channel, vertically integrated specialty retailer demonstrates the product’s power and versatility. The retailer receives more than 150,000 items from over 500 merchandise suppliers daily, and they needed a consistent and reliable method of labeling that that would also help streamline their complex supply chain. By labeling merchandise at the site of manufacture, one set of labels and hangtags could follow merchandise throughout the supply chain, eliminating cross-dock labeling, saving time and resources in warehouse and distribution centers, and reducing the potential for error. But this presented a challenge because the company’s suppliers are spread throughout the globe, change quarterly based on seasonal needs, and have varying technological infrastructures and capabilities.

With BarTender, the retailer built a standard set of label templates for supply chain labeling and retail hangtags, eliminating inconsistencies that the retailer’s warehouse and distribution personnel formerly had to hunt down and correct. With the BarTender Print Portal tool, the retailer created a centrally controlled website where its suppliers could access the standard label formats via any web browser. The site features form fields where each supplier can select labeling data restricted to the merchandise it manufactures.

By using BarTender to design a standardized business process engineered to eliminate mistakes and workarounds, and by moving the process wholly out to its supplier base, the retailer is able to get its goods to market faster, respond more quickly to fashion trends, and economize operations from supplier points of origin through warehouses, distribution centers and onward to online, catalogue and retail outlets.

In the last year, BarTender has won the Frost and Sullivan Best Practices Award, and was named to Food Logistics’ Top 100 Technology Providers list. BarTender also launched native iOS and Android apps for mobile printing, enabling its customers print anywhere, anytime. Seagull Scientific also develops Windows printer drivers for nearly all industrial printers, including thermal barcode label, card, color ink jet, and direct ink jet printers.