Label Traxx, a leading provider of print MIS/ERP solutions for the labels and flexible packaging segment, has announced its intent to merge with its two key partners – Siteline and Batched.
Siteline is an online web-to-print platform built specifically for labels and flexible packaging while Batched is an advanced planning and scheduling solution to automate and optimize your manufacturing process.
This merger will create the industry’s only fully integrated, end-to-end production solution designed specifically for the labels and flexible packaging market. Label Traxx representatives going to discuss the merger at LabelExpo Americas 2022, scheduled for 13 to 15 September 2022 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention center in Chicago. Label Traxx will be at Stand 5920.
Seamlessly integrated solution
For the last six years, Label Traxx has collaborated with Siteline to develop and deploy a web-to-print solution that enables label customers and distributors to reorder, approve the artwork, pay invoices, and manage their label product catalogs online.
Siteline’s software integrates seamlessly with Label Traxx to provide a modern customer experience while maintaining Label Traxx as the system of record. Customer experience with this integration has reduced the time jobs spend in customer service by two days or more, resulting in jobs getting to press faster.
For the last three years, Label Traxx has collaborated with Batched to develop and deploy production optimization solutions, specifically targeting the unique needs of label printing, including automated scheduling, capacity planning, and operational dashboards.
The Batched solution enables production teams to thrive under the pressures of supply chain constraints, the growing demand for short-run digital, and shorter turnaround times along with more traditional, long-run flexo operations. This integration allows production operations to schedule more efficiently and to manage increasingly complex multi-step production environments.
“We are approaching our 30th year in business, over the last six years, we have cultivated partners to accelerate our innovation. Now it’s time to consolidate the portfolio and the teams to bring a well-coordinated and seamless solution to the industry,” said Ken Meinhardt, co-founder of Label Traxx.
Customer needs
These companies’ shared history and ethos make this merger a culmination of many years of partnership. All three solutions have roots back in ILS Labels of Ohio and its former owner, Jay Dollries. Label Traxx and ILS collaborated on their traditional flexo workflows and support for each new HP Indigo press. Siteline and Batched were built to meet ILS Labels’ evolving and growing business needs.
Label Traxx, Siteline, and Batched have similar cultures, believing that software that delivers a return on investment is built iteratively with the customer, not theoretically by committees several steps removed from the customer’s reality.
Traditionally, web-to-print as a solution segment in the print industry has either focused on direct-to-consumer applications (B2C) or specific solutions for customers who have large catalogs that need to be ordered by large groups of people like franchises, sales teams, and resellers.
Siteline is a web-to-print solution designed specifically for the current customers of labels and packaging printers. These brands exchange hundreds of emails daily with their labels and packaging partners, which can cause confusion, errors, and delays. Siteline is specifically designed to improve how label buyers interact with printers, consolidating these communications into a single view.
“I have been in the commercial web-to-print space for 25 years,” said Jennifer Matt, Siteline’s founder. “In 2017, I immersed myself in the label segment with Steve Smith, founder of Lightning Labels and Wizard Labels. My company helped evolve Wizard Labels from a prototype to a scalable B2C solution as well as integrating it to Label Traxx at ILS. I saw the need for a specific solution to address the tremendous labor required in customer service as well as the need for an online portal for existing B2B customers. Siteline is designed to provide customers convenient online access, resulting in faster jobs on press days using less labor.”
Label converting is more than just printing, it can involve three, four, five, and sometimes six different machines in a single order. Scheduling at any scale has exceeded the capacity of even the most skilled and tenured employees. Schedulers deserve a set of tools that enable them to thrive under these complex situations.
“Batched is focused on deploying tools to support the operations and supply chain functions of the label printer,” Matt Murphy of Batched said. “We started with automating the scheduling process and have since added capacity planning and operational dashboards. These dashboards allow the printer to literally measure their ROI daily. Our roots are in the shop floor, and we know how important it is for software to make the lives of our customers easier, as well as add real value and profit back into the business.”
