ZEBRA’S APPFORUM 2017 SPONSOR SERIES: INTRODUCING THE ECLIPSE DOC ORIGIN ZPL HANDLER® By Steve Luke, CEO of Eclipse Corporation

The enterprise customer’s demands have been changing in significant ways. Tech leaders and developers at the head of the curve know that the end user won’t accept anything less than leading edge support. Whether your customer operates in a warehouse, manufacturing facility or brick and mortar retail space . . . all operations expect response times for urgent services in one-two hours—all day, every day.

This 24/7 mentality gives rise to challenges that are surprisingly similar for companies along the spectrum. First, everyone from the multinational conglomerate to the startup must have the capability to create a variety of labels and documents, including picking and packing slips, order confirmations, and checks. Second and perhaps more critical, is a company’s need to drive the printers that generate and deliver those labels and documents, oftentimes from around the globe. These are the fundamental pain points that inspired the creation of the Eclipse DocOrigin ZPL Handler® our new design software that lets customers generate both static and dynamic labels and forms with a single tool.

DocOrigin works with the Zebra ZT400 Series Printers and Zebra’s Browser Print technology to offer a single solution that addresses a range of information and communication needs. DocOrigin initially attracts customers because of its ability to print forms and documents. The tool’s full power doesn’t begin to emerge, however, until customers realize they can use their smartphone or tablet or PC from wherever they are on the planet to control their labels, drive Zebra printers, and do more robust printing and presentation with those labels. The solution also provides system access that gives visibility to the labels and information out there to be printed, control over the location where that label is released, directed, and redirected, and all the multitude of other tasks that can be performed with Browser Print. The possibilities include the ability to dynamically add information to labels such as custom QR and bar codes, or even cross-sell promotional or other messaging directed to the exact person buying a distinct item placed in a specific box.

Things get especially exciting when customers understand that in addition to Browser Print capability, Eclipse also has its own print drivers that we use in all our platforms so that we have direct ZPL output capability with Zebra printers. With this ability to drive the Zebra printers using native ZPL language comes the power to activate all the features of a printer AND drive that printer in its most efficient method by bypassing ZPL to it and not using any third-party drivers.

In September 2016, the Eclipse DocOrigin ZPL Handler, v3.2 successfully validated with Zebra ZT400 Series Printers and Browser Print. Eclipse was one of the first companies to achieve a Validation Certificate through Zebra’s Validation Program and we are excited about being a leader in that space. The positive nature of our experience during the validation process also helped our Eclipse team get more enthusiastic about working with Zebra.

There were occasions during validation when the Eclipse team stumbled a bit trying to pinpoint exactly what we were trying to accomplish. But the Zebra team worked closely with us and walked us through challenges to get the DocOrigin solution completely up and working. With DocOrigin, developers can now quickly add USB or network-based printing support to their browser-based apps on Windows 7, Windows 10 and Mac OSX systems when using Internet Explorer v11, Chrome or Safari. The source code and documentation that come with Browser Print make adding print capabilities both simple and straightforward, and developers can also enhance their apps with printer status checking at print time.

The Validation Process was a microcosm of Eclipse’s entire relationship with Zebra, which dates to the 90’s. When I look back at our company’s history and the partners that Eclipse has worked with, I see Zebra as THE leader in the industry. It’s my experience that the overwhelming majority of customers have already selected Zebra, and recognize them as a company with consistently reliable technology that backs its products. We are pleased that the Zebra® PartnerConnect partner program puts Eclipse in a position where we feel like we are important to Zebra and will go on receiving the requisite assistance we need to succeed together. 

Eclipse will be participating in a big way at Zebra’s APPFORUM 2017 event, May 9-11 in Las Vegas. If you haven’t been to one of their events before, I encourage you and your team attend. Rest assured, when Zebra puts on a show, there’s educational information, fun things to do at certain times of the day with Zebra people and customers, and a LOT more going on than taking a walk down the showcase aisles.

Please stop by and visit the Eclipse booth when you’re in Vegas so you can begin to comprehensively address your information and communication needs by embracing the power of DocOrigin. I look forward to meeting you at APPFORUM.