topVOX Limited based in Surrey is the UK business within the global Ehrhardt + Partner Group (EPG) which has grown from a niche Voice Solutions Provider to a Total Solutions Provider for all of your Logistics Hardware, Software and Support needs.
topVOX is still ‘The Choice for Voice’ with the world’s most technically advanced industrial Voice solution, Lydia®. However, we also supply and maintain a range of hardware from all leading manufacturers including our own Voxter® Voice Wearables as well as provide world leading WMS’s and TMS solutions through EPG and Partner companies.
WLN – As a top Order Picking supplier, what have conditions been like in the past year for your business?
For topVOX as a supplier of a voice logistics solution the conditions have been excellent. We still see a strong demand for our out of the box solution Lydia® Plug&Play suited for small and medium sized companies. We have also received a lot of enquiries from companies looking to switch form their old voice-directed solution to our Lydia® Voice Solution.
WLN – How have recent international developments affected you and how have you responded?
So far we haven’t experienced any significant effect of recent international developments on our business. As we are focused on the logistics market known for its continual demand for processes to be optimized, we are confident that our business won’t be negatively influenced by these developments.
WLN – What are your flagship products and services?
Our flagship product is still the Lydia® Voice Suite, technologically the most advanced Voice Solution for voice-directed and ergonomic work processes in logistics. Lydia® Voice meets the requirements of medium and big sized companies. With the Lydia® Connector we offer standard-related interfaces to nearly every established WMS and ERP system like SAP.
In 2016 we saw a great demand for our Lydia® VoiceWear®. The new wearable system that replaces the headset and enables order pickers to have their hands always free whilst working. This helps to ensure improved working ergonomics for employees.
As a new product we launched our PickManager, an interface between voice clients and the warehouse management or enterprise resource planning system. The PickManager manages the picking and customer orders. Its standardised and modular structure means that adapting it to the customer’s individual requirements is simple.
However, we also supply and maintain a range of hardware from all leading manufacturers including our own Voxter® Voice Wearables as well as provide world leading WMS’s and TMS solutions through EPG and Partner companies.
WLN –What makes you the ‘go to’ supplier in your category?
We offer our customers the best “Choice for Voice” as Lydia® Voice is the most reliable and most flexible voice solution on the market. Lydia® can operate on Android, iOS and Windows devices.
That said we have extended our range of Products and Services with a full range of hardware and including Printers and Scanners with full Maintenance and Support. As well as our TMS & WMS offerings which can be easily integrated existing IT environments.
As such, customers can now get everything from a single supplier.
WLN – How do you help customers improve their business performance?
Currently fast and error-free handling of all intralogistics processes are key requirements for an efficient supply chain. For this purpose, topVOX provides an innovative and flexible solution based on a voice directed workflow. With our voice solution we help our customers to increase productivity, reduce errors and improve safety where Voice is appropriate. However we also provide Scanning and other solutions such as Voice & Vision or Pick to Light for example where they are more appropriate.
To our customers we offer a detailed analysis of their logistics processes and where necessary we extend our standard solution with individual functionalities to meet the customer’s requirements. These new developed extensions will then be included in our standard products to enhance their functionalities.
WLN – How have you changed your offering to customers in the last 12 months and why? Have you added anything new?
Our product offering has changed massively in 2016. As we said before we are now a Total Solutions Provider and we launched this concept at IMHX this year. So not only have we extended our Lydia® Voice suite with VoiceWear® and Voice and Vision, we have also added a full range of Hardware Products and Services as well as a new range of warehouse and transport management solutions with full hosting and cloud based offerings as well.
On top of these we also offer a full Logistics Consultancy Service with our inhouse team of consultants who specialise purely in this area.
WLN – Have you made any enhancements to your customer service?
We made the important step to become a total solution provider in logistics, because our customers were looking for a single source provider of all products and services related to their projects. As a full solution provider for Logistics IT services our aim is to provide customers with Logistics IT services by being able to supply, support and maintain all of their Logistics IT projects and operations from initial concept design through to complete ongoing Warehouse and Logistics operations through a single source.
WLN – Which markets are your customers in? Which ones are growing fastest?
The majority of our customers are in the retail and logistics sectors. However we are also seeing strong demand for our solutions from the automotive industry and have received several enquiries from the aviation industry.
WLN – What’s been your most memorable recent project?
There are a few to choose from. However one that we are all really excited about, as this is in a completely new area for us, is with an international parcel carrier service.
Rather than picking or checking we are providing some really cutting edge voice solutions in parcel sortation.
We have been working on various concepts and designs in partnership with the client and have now developed and deployed bespoke solutions which have delivered immediately visible benefits to the client which are being rolled out early next year and we are already working on some new concepts with them in other areas which are completely new again.
It’s great working with our clients as they all have unique challenges in their own way and with this particular client they have such vision and focus that these ‘blue sky’ ideas rapidly become reality.
WLN –What were your other major achievements in the last 12 months?
In 2016 topVOX Limited has grown from a niche Voice Solutions Provider to a Total Solutions Provider for all of our customers’ Logistics Hardware, Software and Support needs.
We also received the German Handling Award for our Lydia® Smart Watch Solution.
WLN – Are you branching into any new areas, targeting new customers and taking on more people?
We did expand our product range. From 2016 on we offer the warehouse management system LFS, developed by Ehrhardt + Partner Group (EPG) and is deployed in over 1,000 warehouses around the world.
We have also added ‘Logistics planning and consulting’ as a part of our business offering.
This is a completely new offering for us and is treated as a completely separate part of the business in that they offer consulting expertise in hardware and software selection, warehouse equipment, material flow optimisation and process management as well as warehouse design and restructuring. Our UK business will see huge growth in 2017 and we will be expanding our team significantly to meet this demand.
WLN – How important is staff development and training to your growth?
An important basis for the continued and growing success of topVOX is our openness towards changing market requirements and the adoption of new IT trends and technologies. Taking this into account, staff development and training is of the utmost importance to us.
WLN – Looking ahead, what factors do you see affecting your business? How are you turning these into opportunities?
We will continue to experience an increased demand for technology throughout the supply chain including production and logistics processes. This will raise the need for high-performing IT solutions to deal with these demands. Our software and hardware solutions will expand in their functionality and flexibility to cover these new requirements and we are investing heavily in our business to lead the way.
WLN – Which major trade shows and other industry events are you involved in over the next year?
In 2016 you saw topVOX at IMHX and CeMAT Hannover, two tremendously successful events. In 2017 we will focus on global events in the USA, Russia and the Far East. And closer to home in the UK we will be putting on some ‘roadshow events’ ourselves.
WLN – What headline news from topVOX can our readers look forward to seeing in Warehouse & Logistics News in 2017?
For sure we will expand our activities in the fields of warehouse and transport management solutions as well logistics planning and consulting. You will also see topVOX as an independent hardware provider and still the ‘go to partner’ for voice applications.
WLN – And finally, in our social media age, if you had to sum up your company in a 140-character tweet what would you say?
topVOX provides world leading technology, excellent service & flexible, customer-focused solutions that integrate simply with client needs.
TOPVOX LIMITED
01327 261 050
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