"We started off using FileMaker as a database for customer details, but as the business grew we added more and more functionality to the point where we now run every part of the business using FileMaker"

Baker Labels / Sportstiks

Baker Labels Stick to What They Know

Baker Labels specialises in producing and supplying labels of every type for any industry. It creates a wide variety of products ranging from barcodes, promotional window stickers, and durable labels to security tags.

The company was set-up in 1973 by Roy Baker, former motorcycle stunt rider and father of Steve Baker, the current managing director of Baker Labels. The business started with only four employees and all processes were recorded laboriously by hand. As the company reputation grew, so too did the customer base. The continuing rise in demand meant that Baker Labels soon realised it needed a database that would store and process these records automatically, taking away this time consuming and costly task.

Having identified the need for a professional database, Steve Baker had soon implemented FileMaker and within a short period Baker Labels realised the greater potential of the solution. With increasing confidence in the processes involved in harnessing the capabilities of the easy-to-use FileMaker database software he had soon added more functions to the original database. Baker, who admits, "I'm not from a computing background" initially used FileMaker as a customer database and was able to develop it himself to its current stage where it is now used to log and utilise customer details, to create orders, enquiries, quotes, follow-up reports, quote-to-order ratios, production and post production stages.

From its modest beginnings Baker Labels has grown from four employees to over 40. As a large proportion of the work is field-based, it was important that whilst expanding the business and number of staff, all of the employees were still able to access information held on the system whilst working remotely. This helped the business to grow quicker and use time spent away from the office more effectively.

Partly due to the efficiencies of the FileMaker system and Steve Baker's entrepreneurial skills, the company soon expanded to create the sister company Sportstiks. The company was inspired by Steve's personal interest in triathlons and is designed to create stickers for sporting events that may require athletes to wear labels such as numbers on their clothing in the way used by tri-athletes and long distance runners.

As a brand new initiative, Steve Baker wanted to approach the venture in a different way and avoid the 'learn-by-doing' style adopted when starting Baker Labels. Baker already knew the benefits FileMaker could offer to the business but didn't have the time to spend on building a system on his own. He decided to enlist the help of Carl Henshall, a FileMaker developer and owner of Cutting Edge Software Ltd, to create a smooth-running system that would be able to incorporate the inevitable increasing demands that Sportstiks would encounter as order sizes increased for larger sporting events.

Baker stated, "Despite the fact that the Baker Labels systems had already proven that FileMaker really was easy for a non-techie to use, we decided to enlist the help of a professional FileMaker developer – Cutting Edge Software to ensure we would get the most from our Sportstiks system and freeing up our time for other projects we were working on this time."

By enlisting Cutting Edge Software's help and expertise of a specialist FileMaker developer, Sportstiks are able to get the most from its software and avoid any potential glitches and re-working of processes that are often experienced when introducing a new system.

"I was faced with a situation that is ideal for FileMaker software," stated Henshall. "Although we were just starting out with Sportstiks, we were able to draw on Steve's previous experience to know exactly what it was he wanted. The great thing about the way you can develop FileMaker software is it allows for the inevitable growth of business. It can be set up and ready for current and future demands. We have been able to set Sportstiks up for its current needs as well as allowing Steve to run and organise his business for the years to come."