“Where the carpet ends” Loosely speaking, that’s where the line gets drawn between where traditional office print dominates, and where thermal printing takes over in relevance. This is especially true when it comes to Manufacturing, Transport, and Logistics (MTL), where things become rugged. These core verticals combined represent Zebra’s largest market. As well as Décor, there is also something of a use case divide. Carpet side the use cases are largely in relation to document solutions. Whereas beyond the carpet, it’s predominantly Asset Tracking Solutions (ATS) – which in very simplistic terms is barcode labels on boxes. If you can scan it, you can track it. So, what exactly is thermal printing, what are its advantages for MTL organisations, and what does it take to be the market leader in this space? Thermal printing uses heat to create images on special paper or labels. Zebra provides printers of both types; Direct Thermal (applies heat directly to specially coated paper), and Thermal Transfer (transfers ink from a ribbon onto paper or synthetics using heat from a thermal printhead). Durability, resistance to environmental factors, lack of consumables, fast printing speeds and lower maintenance requirements make thermal printing a preferred choice for applications in harsh environments, such as MTL. Zebra customers have confidence of working with a market leader. We are #1 in Rugged Mobile Computing, Data Capture, Barcode Printing, and Mobile RFID. We are also a Global leader in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Indoor Location Services. Part of our success is how we orchestrate technologies to go beyond tracking solutions, empowering organisations to make every asset, as well as every worker, visible, connected and fully optimised. The other part is ensuring we nail the fundamentals. For that we have arguably the most comprehensive portfolio of Thermal Printers and Certified Printing Supplies, all supported by our Print DNA software ecosystem. Our printers drive relentless performance in any environment. Printing is business critical. If warehouses can’t print shipping labels, customers can’t get products. If drivers can’t print receipts, invoices can’t be processed. And if you can’t print ID access cards, then security could be a concern. Next Month – we'll take a slightly deeper dive into the print portfolio, covering Industrial, Desktop. Mobile and Card. But if you want to start a conversation with your customers now, it’s easy. Just start by asking whether they have assets they need to track. Ask if they are they using labels in their organisation. Or ask if they have some older thermal printers that could do with being traded-up to newer technology using our Zebra Printer Trade Up Program. BUSINESS BRIEFING 51 PRINTITRESELLER.UK 25 continued...
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