Portfolio news Zetes

Zetes announces a milestone in its history of implementing voice projects: during the calendar year 2010, the company has installed more than 10,000 voice terminals in various projects across Europe. This means that more than one out of two terminals was installed by Zetes in 2010. With this record number of installations, Zetes reaffirms its position as a leader in the voice market with a European market share of more than 50%.

Remarkable evolution

The European market for voice technology has evolved significantly since the first implementations at the start of the millennium. Since the launch of Zetes' 3i Voice Solution in 2002, the number of voice users equipped by the company grew significantly: from seven units installed in the first year to more than 10,000 in 2010, bringing the total install base to more than 50,000 units. Approximately 8,500 of the voice terminals installed last year were voice dedicated devices, which use voice as the only interface; 1,500 were multimodal devices, or combined with peripherals, such as keyboards or (RFID) scanners.

Demand for choice drives evolution in voice market

As the voice market matures, the demands on voice solutions are also evolving. Some notable trends in the industry include voice growing out of the warehouse environment and an increased customer demand for a larger number of options in terms of terminals, applications, and peripherals, such as scanners or RFID readers.

Satish Sastry, Head of the 3i Voice Innovation & Competence Center: "To meet the needs of those new voice users, suppliers need to adopt a very flexible approach. That is why Zetes continuously invests in research, development and innovation via its 3i Innovation Centers. As a result, 3iV Crystal is the first voice solution to offer both trained and untrained systems, and Zetes has been the first company to implement the Motorola Voice Optimized Wearable terminal in Europe at Italian retailer Gruppo Iper. We are proud to say that today 3iV Crystal is the only voice solution on the market that offers its customers real freedom of choice in integration possibilities."

Some of Zetes top voice customers in 2010 include companies such as Morrisons and Argos in the UK, Día in Europe, South-America and Asia, Système U and CERP Bretagne Nord in France, FloraHolland in the Netherlands, and Colruyt in Belgium.