Brussels, 4 December 2012 - As one of the first countries within the Unilever Group, Unilever in Greece has implemented a voice picking solution. In the brand new warehouse in Schimatari, 20 operators now execute their order picking tasks with the help of Zetes’ voice solution 3iV Crystal. The solution was implemented in one month’s time, including the development of custom RFC’s for direct integration with Unilever’s ERP system SAP. Thanks to the untrained approach and the adaptive dialogues, even inexperienced operators were up and running in no time.

Adapted to all users 

Thanks to the ‘user independent’ or ‘untrained’ approach, operators no longer need to register a voice profile before getting to work, but they can start using the system immediately using their own language. In addition, the system offers two types of voice dialogues, adapted to beginning or more experienced operators. Depending on their level of expertise, the operators will be guided by more or less explanatory instructions. As a result, the 20 Unilever operators, ranging 30 to 50 years old and with no previous experience working with a voice system, were up and running in no time.

Direct integration with SAP

The voice solution integrates directly with SAP via custom built RFC’s. As it uses SAP’s standard integration options, the solution eliminates the need for any middleware or intermediate business logic layers. With this approach, Unilever can keep their critical business data available in one single location, the SAP ERP system. The whole design and implementation process was completed in only 1 month’s time.

Says George Antipas, Logistics Manager at Unilever: “The solution integrates perfectly with our SAP system and the untrained approach allows us to have new or flex workers immediately up to speed.”

Alain Wirtz, CEO of Zetes, concludes: “Zetes has a longstanding reputation in developing and delivering voice solutions and we continue investing in further enhancements. Thanks to the close collaboration with our R&D daughter MCL Technologies and their platform MCL voice, we can offer 3iV Crystal also as an untrained voice system, a relatively new approach that is gaining momentum in the mature voice market. Customers as Unilever are hence able to enjoy the benefits of having new (flex) operators up and running in no time".

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Following a rebranding exercise in 2013, the Zetes’ logistics execution solution using voice technology is now called ZetesMedea Voice (formerly 3iV Crystal). All features and functionalities remain valid.

  • Easy to use for all operators: dialogue adapted to different user levels and no registration of voice profile required thanks to untrained approach
  • Direct integration with SAP
  • Rapid implementation: 1 month, including development of custom RFC’s