I have chosen Baker & Taylor Marketing Services for the implementation of voice technology through Oracle. I have been working for this company since May of 2004 and using oracle to run queries since 2006. What I’ve noticed is the definite need for an upgrade to the system. After researching ways to do this, I ran across software that works with Oracle which allows product to be entered through verbally.
Baker & Taylor began binding and publishing books in 1828. They made sure their books made it onto library and store shelves and into readers' hands. Baker & Taylor has been in business for over 180 years and is the world's largest distributor of books and entertainment. They are a well known supplier of paper and digital books to libraries and they primarily serve two types of markets. The first market involves the core business of distributing books, videos, and music, as well as providing value services to thousands of school, public, and specialty libraries worldwide. The second market is the firm's retail unit supplies storefront and Internet book and music retailers, as well as independent booksellers, with a million book titles and about 385,000 DVD and CD titles.

Voice technology also answers the need to increase worker productivity. This technology—in which a computer is able to identify speech as well as give "spoken" instructions—is muscling its way into the warehouse because it frees up workers' hands so their workflow is uninterrupted while they communicate with a computer.
This technology improves such operations as parts inspection, putaway and order selection. Typically, it's used with an order management or warehouse management system (WMS). It takes data from these systems, synthesizes it into speech, and then transmits these oral instructions to workers via headsets. The workers, in turn, speak into microphones to verify that tasks have been completed.
In the last six months, several companies, particularly in the grocery industry, have said yes to voice technology in the warehouse. "Companies are more serious about this technology in hard times," says Judith Markowitz, a speech industry consultant. "It enables a person to perform more work single-handedly."
Increasing productivity was the goal of Md.-based US Foodservice when it deployed voice technology. The nationwide wholesale food distributor started using voice technology in one warehouse and saw mispicks and shorts cut by more than half. Now, the company employs the technology in half a dozen warehouses nationwide.
Steve Fasulka, a vice president of operations at US Foodservice's Pennsylvania division, says the biggest productivity boost in his division came from faster handling of "catchweights"—items that have to be taken out of a case to be weighed before shipment. Warehouse order pickers had to pull out such items, which include hams and turkeys, place them on a weight scale, jot down the weight on a slip and submit that information to an office clerk, who entered the invoice data.
Now, the picker simply has to read out the weight into his or her microphone while weighing the food item. The spoken words are converted into text. "We saw a 50% increase in productivity in that area," says Fasulka.
While enhancing worker productivity is the technology's main benefit, a reduction in picking errors is another major plus. On the downside, however, many systems have limited vocabulary and background noise can impede recognition. Moreover, companies often have to put a radio-frequency network in place along with the voice system—an extra cost that has dissuaded many.
In summary, "the penetration in warehouses is still minimal," says Bill Meisel, editor of SpeechRecognition Update, a California-based newsletter tracking the voice technology market. But its use is no doubt expanding, and it has even gained the support of powerful partners—WMS vendors. "Now it appears that the WMS companies are getting on board," says Meisel. "(WMS) companies see speech as a way of making their product more useful."(Arabe, 2002)
Warehouses are embracing voice and mobile technologies, as they help improve efficiency and make tasks easier for warehouse staff. The original WMS systems which used voice-recognition were limited to picking. Thanks to modern processors, computers can now use voice technology in multiple worker activities: picking, putaway, replenishment, shipping. And the days of using software to control your voice-recognition add-ons are disappearing – most vendors offer a voice-capable product out of the box.
Mobile technologies are also in demand in many business operations, and the warehouse is no exception. With the ability to access software on the go via an iPad, tablet PC, or smart phone, mobile systems are becoming popular with both managers and floor workers. More and more systems are being designed with applications built to live in a mobile world.
New features like mobile alerting have changed how productivity is monitored in the warehouse: if a picker is taking longer to complete a task than he should, he can get a mobile alert on his iPad, tablet PC, or smart phone.
“Instead of people being reactive, they are being proactive,” says Paul Schweet, Senior VP at TZA Consulting. Mobile software will help increase the visibility of warehouse operations among workers, and make efficiency standards easier to achieve.(Koploy, 2011)