The Empress Numbering System has been designed to quickly and easily allocate laboratory specimen numbers on demand, allow an interface system for direct upload to a laboratory information system and to provide comprehensive operating statistics. Empress uses current technology to allow for scalable installation requirements, from a single Empress workstation to a complex group of workstations all connected via a network. By utilising the Microsoft Windows environment, users can comfortably move around in a familiar environment with an easy to use program.

The Empress Numbering System is composed of two individual programs, the main operating program Empress and the master maintenance program Empress Master.

Empress is the main program used by most users and is used to create the associated barcode labels. Empress master is used to maintain the Empress numbering system to perform such features as test setup and statistical extraction. Descriptions of the features included are described in detail under each operational feature.