luggage tags | Future label development trend: Migrating to the cloud
01 Jan

luggage tags | Future label development trend: Migrating to the cloud

Last year, companies from all walks of life accelerated their adoption of new technological solutions, which was largely a response to the coronavirus pandemic. Ken Moore, vice president of NiceLabel, provided some insights on how cloud-based labeling systems have become one of the main trends that will continue into 2021. As we look forward to what is coming in 2021, companies are increasingly looking for integrated solutions from original image management to factory labeling and direct labeling. Therefore, moving towards integration is a trend we expect to change the face of the label market.

The continuous introduction of centralized label management systems can support this integration, which can interface with multiple devices that perform a variety of different functions. These labeling systems will also be integrated with vision management systems and product lifecycle management systems, the latter usually being a rich source of data.

With the improvement of integration, data services may also see significant growth in the entire label industry. The shift to online remote centralized management of tags will help generate more data, which will help provide actionable intelligence for many companies. For example, printing press manufacturers will be able to gain more insights about the performance of their printing presses. Label system vendors will be able to better understand which features their customers are using and which customers are not.

1. Further migration to the cloud
Another trend that will continue to accelerate is the migration to cloud-based tags. This is what we saw in 2020 and is expected to continue into 2021 and beyond. The changes that vendors have made as they adapt to the pandemic include increasing adoption of cloud-first approaches to cope with remote work and a locked-in world. As companies move their labeling operations to non-in-house deployments, this channel has been gradually improved to help manage labels in the cloud.

In addition, regulated industries such as life sciences that require system verification are increasingly migrating to cloud-based solutions. Each time one of these companies updates or changes the system, it must conduct a series of tests to ensure that its system is fully verified. However, because verification involves a lot of work, companies limit the number of updates they make. Life sciences businesses can benefit from a verification-ready cloud solution that allows them to simplify compliance methods while limiting the number of updates that need to be made.

2. The continuing impact of the new crown epidemic
Throughout 2021, the new crown epidemic will continue to have a significant impact on the industry. Change has been driven by necessity. Throughout the label, organizations are forced to adopt new ways of working and often find that they are more effective than before. Companies now know that they can work remotely and still be efficient. Suppliers have responded by modifying their tools and solutions. The same transformation is taking place in the field of label management systems.

Nowadays, channel partners can collaborate remotely and provide services. Whether it is designing labels or configuring applications, they can remotely monitor the number of labels and the types of labels printed to help provide a better customer experience. The best way to ensure the quality of corporate labels is through a technology called visual inspection. These systems can help ensure that the barcodes and text on the label are flawless, thereby ensuring that the label is as expected.

In 2021, we will see that the visual inspection system is fully integrated with the label management system, so that the company is in a closed-loop state and can be assured that the printed label is the label that needs to be printed.

3. Looking to the future
As companies consider labeling needs in 2021, they not only need to start migrating to the cloud, but they also need to standardize, centralize, and simplify their processes. Although printers connected to the cloud have not yet adopted it on a large scale, it is expected that in 2021, printers using cloud technology will increase. The solution has been around for a while, but now there is a problem that can be solved. With the development of cloud-based label management systems, it is necessary to connect cloud printers to make the enterprise zero occupied space.

Looking forward to 2021 and the future, despite facing many challenges, this is a huge period of opportunity for the label and label management industry. The convergence and digital transformation of the industry, including the accelerated migration to the cloud, will shake up not only the label and label management market, but also many markets.