SCANNING&WAREHOUSING 25
NISA-TODAY’S INVESTS IN VOICE FUTURE
Nisa-Today’s has purchased over 250 Vocollect Talkman T5 dedicated voice terminals from VoiteQ, replacing the retailer’s existing Talkman T2 mobile computers in its Harlow, Stoke and Scunthorpe distribution centres. The investment signifi es a signifi cant
investment in the company’s future use of voice technology, which VoiteQ said forms part of the retailer’s long-term software strategy. Wayne Swallow, Nisa-Today’s IT
director, said: “We knew we wanted to continue to use voice, as we believe that voice is still the right solution for Nisa-Today’s operation. Talkman proved to be the best choice from both a user acceptance and the performance point of view, so we decided to upgrade our existing T2s to the Talkman T5 device.” The voice servers were migrated to
run Vocollect VoiceConsole at the end of 2009 in preparation for the upgrade of the voice terminals and to add resilience to the current solution, so the IT backbone was already in place for this rollout. The new Talkman T5s will also offer users the ability to ‘auto logon’ via their dedicated Vocollect headsets, signifi cantly reducing logon time for the voice users, including over 120 concurrent users at the Scunthorpe site alone.
JELLYCAT SPEEDS WAREHOUSE
its Accellos warehouse management system (WMS) from Balloon One. The wireless WMS eliminates duplicated data and paper documentation and enables accurate stock management. The integrated system gives full visibility of information across the business and has reduced administration time signifi cantly, enabling Jellycat to recoup the cost of the system within one year. Jellycat’s WMS uses Motorola radio frequency handheld computers with integrated barcode scanners. These devices enable fast and accurate receipt and placement of incoming goods as well as provide rapid error-free order picking, which speeds up order fulfi lment. “Accellos has signifi cantly reduced the amount of time spent on back-offi ce administrative duties and has improved effi ciency in warehouse operations,” said Danny Olive, Jellycat fi nance director. “We have been able to re-assign staff from administrative functions to revenue generating functions, which has signifi cantly reduced the need to bring in agency staff to meet demand at the warehouse during the busy seasonal peaks. These administrative
L
uxury soft toy company Jellycat is benefi ting from wireless integration between its SAP business software and
savings have easily justifi ed the capital expenditure within the fi rst year.” He added: “Balloon One took the time to
carefully assess our particular requirements, resulting in a system that was customised to meet our needs. The team also provided carefully planned end user training. This meant we were able to see the benefi ts of the system immediately from day one.” William Gatacre, Jellycat chief executive,
added: “The warehouse team [pictured] is very happy with the system. It is very easy to use, with an intuitive interface that displays orders onscreen and allows the operators to take charge of their workload. The system allows better communication between the sales offi ce and the warehouse. For example, we can notify the team of any special requirements such as urgent orders directly from the back offi ce system – it also allows us to send information straight to the pickers on the handhelds.”
SURVEY: ERP PROVES INFLEXIBLE, EXPENSIVE
A new international research project, undertaken by Technology Evaluation Centres (TEC) and business software provider UNIT4, has found 55% of mid-market companies cannot make data and business process changes to their enterprise resource planning (ERP) software without costly IT consultants. The fi ndings were based on a survey of 307 senior managers from a range of industries about their ERP and enterprise applications’ ability to support business change, as well as its ability to interface with barcoding, scanning and warehousing
processes. A similar survey conducted by analyst fi rm IDC at the end of 2009 showed substantial business disruption occurs to non-Agresso ERP solutions when any signifi cant changes are required. Ton Dobbe, UNIT4 vice president of product management, said: “ERP is the backbone of many organisations and where they struggle to adapt their systems to changes in the business, they will be overspending, and not only on IT resource, without ever really meeting business requirements.”
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 RETAIL TECHNOLOGY
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