McDonald’s is rolling out a new way to order at its restaurants. Kiosks have increased accuracy and efficiency for fast-food chains. But are kiosks better for customers to use?
Source: www.businessinsider.com
The best illustration yet I have seen of the actual menu process and how the choices are added/deducted
Developing a kiosk user interface that’s both responsive and a pleasure to use is a critical component of any successful kiosk project. In this second part of my two-part series on developing a responsive kiosk user interface, we’ll focus on design considerations at the system level. Follow these tips to ensure that your kiosk user interface is quick to react to your customers’ touch.
Kiosk performance can degrade over time
Just because your kiosk performed well when it was first installed doesn’t mean it’s performing well today. Following deployment, there are a number of factors that may change and impact your kiosk. Today there may be more users, more data, more software installed on the kiosk, bandwidth changes, memory leaks, disk fragmentation, etc…
Enter robust QA and maintenance schedules. It is important to periodically exercise production kiosks so that you can observe and remedy any declines in performance. Users will not always notify the kiosk operator of sluggish performance. In many cases, they just won’t use a disagreeable kiosk and opt for a cashier instead. It’s up to the kiosk operator to periodically test their kiosks in order to ensure responsive performance long after the kiosk is first installed.
Regular database maintenance
If your kiosk application makes use of a database then you should take steps to ensure that your database is regularly maintained or performance at the kiosk will suffer. In order for your database to function at an optimal level, its indexes must be in good working order. Database indexes get fragmented as database access occurs so your database will required regular maintenance, especially if it’s processing a heavy load. As a general rule you should rebuild your indexes when fragmentation exceeds 30% and below that you can you can simply defragment them.
Minimize real-time communication with external servers
Sometimes your kiosk application will need to push or pull information from a 3rd party server or API for any number of reasons (i.e. synchronizing inventory, processing payments, etc…). If the reliability or responsiveness of the 3rd party server is questionable, you’ll want to avoid risking your kiosk application’s responsiveness while waiting for a server outside of your control. Real-time communication should be avoided when possible in favor of caching and bulk transfers.
For example, many of the kiosk applications we’ve developed are POS front-ends for a retail system running on a central server administrated by a 3rd party. All of the inventory and product photos are stored on the central server and need to be downloaded to the kiosks in order for customers to shop. In order to ensure responsiveness at our kiosks, we only communicate with the server in real-time when the data is operationally time sensitive. The majority of our server exchanges involve synchronizing inventory and product photos, which we perform on its own periodic thread. We’re not stalling the UI thread with lengthy data-sync methods nor do we decommission the kiosk while it performs inventory maintenance as customers roam the store. When a transaction is completed at the kiosk, this does need to be sent back to the server in real-time in order to fulfil the order.
Consider minimizing large data transfers and long running processes during moments where the user would have to wait (i.e. when the user clicks next, don’t transfer 500k of data over the network before the next screen can load). We always try to minimize the number of real-time interactions between our kiosk and server to reduce the chance that the customer will be staring at a loading animation on the kiosk while the kiosk is waiting for the server to respond.
Make use of local servers and storage whenever possible
When reliability and responsiveness are of high priority you’ll want to take advantage of local servers and storage whenever possible. The more points the data has to pass-through between your kiosk and its final destination the longer the transfer will take, which may result in the customer staring at a loading animation on the kiosk. A great way to make use of local storage at the kiosk is to caching transient data in memory or store it in a local database. This way you avoid unnecessarily accessing a central server.
Build a solid domain model to support the kiosk system (doesn’t utilize data intensive operations, model small and operations are quick)
Conclusion
Constructing a responsive kiosk user interface also involves design considerations at the kiosk level which was the topic of my first article in this two-part series. If you develop kiosk user interfaces then checkout my complementary article about� creating a touch friendly kiosk user interface design. If you have any other suggestions for designing a responsive kiosk user interface please post them in the comments section below.
Building your own LLM is going to occur to you. If only to assist human assistants. A fashion designer can allow customers with a series of voice questions to locate a particular style of dress. Taking it further, they could optionally “design” the dress they want and AI could output mechanical and pattern data to allow dressmaker to make. And sell at a very high price with a very high margin.
One of the custom LLMs example in self-service is by Verneek. You are in health-oriented supermarket and want to do very specific queries for current products available with multiple characteristics. Not just the usual characteristics like is it onsale, is there a coupon, which department. Much more specific context.
Consider the Verneek solution topology elements as we have detailed on Intel Marketplace
Verneek works closely with Nvidia (see Tokkio toolset).
Nice article here covering:
Here is a Nice writeup on building own LLM options
I am creating my own fine-tuned LLM right now. My name is on it 🙂
Hello and welcome to the realm of specialized custom large language models (LLMs)! LLMs are created to comprehend and produce human language. These models utilize machine learning methods to recognize word associations and sentence structures in big text datasets and learn them. LLMs improve human-machine communication, automate processes, and enable creative applications.
Instead of relying on popular Large Language Models such as ChatGPT, many companies eventually have their own LLMs that process only organizational data. Currently, establishing and maintaining custom Large language model software is expensive, but I expect open-source software and reduced costs for GPUs to allow organizations to make their LLMs.
Why Enterprise LLMs?
Enterprise LLMs can create business-specific material including marketing articles, social media postings, and YouTube videos. It can create, review, and design company-specific software. Also, Enterprise LLMs might design cutting-edge apps to obtain a competitive edge.
Before designing and maintaining custom LLM software, undertake a ROI study. Custom LLMs cost a lot to create and maintain. LLM upkeep involves monthly public cloud and generative AI software spending to handle user enquiries, which is expensive.
Popular Large Language Models (LLMs):
Some of the popular language models are Google’s BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers), Facebook’s Roberta (Robustly Optimized BERT approach), and OpenAI’s GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer). OpenAI published GPT-3 in 2020, a language model with 175 billion parameters. In 2023, OpenAI published GPT-4, its largest model. Google launched BERT LLMs in 2018. BERT converts data sequences using transformers.
How do I build Enterprise LLMs (Large Language Models)?
The key steps include selecting a platform, selecting a language modeling algorithm, training the language model, deploying the language model, and maintaining the language model.
A big, diversified, and decisive training dataset is essential for bespoke LLM creation, at least up to 1TB in size. You can design LLM models on-premises or using Hyperscaler’s cloud-based options. Cloud services are simple, scalable, and offloading technology with the ability to utilize clearly defined services. Use Low-cost service using open source and free language models to reduce the cost.
Options for creating Enterprise LLMs:
1. Use on-prem data center:
Use your data center hardware for creating LLMs. Hardware is an expensive component. GPUs cost a lot of money. Free Open-Source models include HuggingFace BLOOM, Meta LLaMA, and Google Flan-T5. HuggingFace and Replicate are emerging models for API hosts. Enterprises can use LLM services like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, or others.
Pros: The model gives you full data processing control. Privacy-conscious buyers may welcome this strategy. You can easily customize the model for your use case, enabling more specific applications and quick responses to unanticipated needs. With large throughput and challenging scaling, this method may be cheaper over time. The model is yours. Your product is tougher to copy and more competitive if you customize the “secret sauce” to your use case.
Cons: Hosting the model yourself takes more technical expertise and infrastructure, making it harder to set up and integrate. All model upgrades must be built in-house. It could be costly and complicated. You must have in-house ML professionals who can fine-tune models and MLOps. Turnover and onboarding of new hires might also slow progress
Create custom Large Language Models (LLMs) using On-Prem hardware:
You can create language models that suit your needs on your hardware by creating local LLM models.
2. Use Hyperscalers:
Use Hyperscale services such as AWS Sagemaker, Google GKE/TensorFlow & Azure Machine learning services.
How to use Public cloud services *AWS, Azure & GCP* for creating custom LLMs?
3. Use the Subscription model:
OpenAI, Cohere, and Anthropic provide language models via API subscriptions. Simply join a provider for API access. Data input and output length determine user fees.
Pros: Setup is simple, no infrastructure is needed. API makes model access uniform, simplifying integration and acceptance. String-free. Simple APIs. Swap providers if LLMs suit you. LLM setup and usage without ML Ops saves time, money, and effort.
Cons: Sending data to a third party may risk leaks and algorithm improvement. Offering this to enterprise customers may be difficult. Service level agreements and pricing strategy set subscription prices. Scaled closing-source solutions may cost more than in-house models.
Community-made ML apps and LLMs
Large language models created by the community are frequently available on a variety of online platforms and repositories, such as Kaggle, GitHub, and Hugging Face.
Summary
On-prem data centers, hyperscalers, and subscription models are 3 options to create Enterprise LLMs. On-prem data centers are cost-effective and can be customized, but require much more technical expertise to create. Smaller models are inexpensive and easy to manage but may forecast poorly. Companies can test and iterate concepts using closed-source models, then move to open-source or in-house models once product-market fit is achieved.
Creating LLMs requires infrastructure/hardware supporting many GPUs (on-prem or Cloud), a big text corpus of at least 5000 GBs, language modeling algorithms, training on datasets, and deploying and managing the models.
An ROI analysis must be done before developing and maintaining bespoke LLMs software. For now, creating and maintaining custom LLMs is expensive and in millions. Most effective AI LLM GPUs are made by Nvidia, each costing $30K or more. Once created, maintenance of LLMs requires monthly public cloud and generative AI software spending to handle user inquiries, which can be costly. I predict that the GPU price reduction and open-source software will lower LLMS creation costs in the near future, so get ready and start creating custom LLMs to gain a business edge.
Published on kma.global
September 29th is last day to comment and best to do via the maillist — “public-wcag2ic[email protected]” <[email protected]>
Hi Craig,
The WCAG2ICT task force is glad you and other KMA members will be reviewing the WCAG2ICT First Public Working Draft.
In answer to the questions in your previous email to the list:
We also want to call to your attention that WCAG2ICT does not comment on hardware aspects of products, because the basic constructs on which WCAG 2.2 is built do not apply to these. This limitation of scope is listed in the Excluded from Scope section.
The task force appreciates that you took the time to post about the draft review and bring it to the attention of your colleagues in the KMA. Early public drafts provide the interim exposure to wider public review as the task force continues to develop content – a valuable part of the process.
Since this draft focused on including new WCAG 2.1 requirements and definitions to the 2013 WCAG2ICT, it’s not surprising you found old technology examples of closed systems. We are still making further changes that include: updates for Closed Functionality software, adding WCAG 2.2 requirements and definitions, addressing open issues, and refreshing stale content in other sections. We have noted the outdated examples that require updates in GitHub issue #217.
Best regards,
Mary Jo Mueller
IBM Accessibility Standards Program Manager
OUR COMMENTS
Actual Release
WCAG has always been about the open web. For closed systems some of WCAG (3 instances) are included in the U.S. Access Board recommendations for closed systems. In 2013 the W3C issued this same document (but using WCAG 2.0). This is the updated version for WCAG 2.2. This document is “guidance” (566 pages) on how WCAG 2.2 can apply to Ebooks, Operating systems, and Travel kiosks (example given). There is no mention of ATMs or hybrid POS SCO systems or POS terminals which would seem to be the majority of closed systems. For that matter the modern TV (now up to 136″ thanks to LG).
We do note there is a specific recommendation for kiosks regarding the timeout period (see below).
It should be noted that the DOJ has issued NPRM regarding Web and Mobile accessibility. In their NPRM they use WCAG 2.1 Level AA which is current release. It will be different though and not reference WCAG 2.2 .
The committee is still finalizing Appendix A and is accepting comments from any interested parties. We are commenting and if you would like yours included email to [email protected]
Background
Guidance on Applying WCAG 2.0 to Non-Web Information and Communications Technologies (WCAG2ICT), approved in September 2013, described how WCAG 2.0 could be applied to non-web documents and software.
Abstract:
This document, “Guidance on Applying WCAG 2.2 to Non-Web Information and Communications Technologies (WCAG2ICT)” describes how the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 [WCAG22] and its principles, guidelines, and success criteria can be applied to non-web Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), specifically to non-web documents and software. It provides informative guidance (guidance that is not normative and does not set requirements).
This document is part of a series of technical and educational documents published by the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) and available from the WCAG2ICT Overview.
Editors:Mary Jo Mueller (IBM)Chris Loiselle (Oracle Corporation)Phil Day (NCR)
The following are out of scope for this document:
Examples of products with closed functionality include:
See Appendix A: Success Criteria Problematic for Closed Functionality for a list of success criteria for which this is relevant.
Timeout Criteria
20 seconds was also based on clinical experience and other guidelines. 20 seconds to hit ‘any switch’ is sufficient for almost all users including those with spasticity. Some would fail, but some would fail all lengths of time. A reasonable period for
requesting more time is required since an arbitrarily long time can provide security risks to all users, including those with disabilities, for some applications. For example, with kiosks or terminals that are used for financial transactions, it is
quite common for people to walk away without signing off. This leaves them vulnerable to those walking up behind them. Providing a long period of inactivity before asking, and then providing a long period for the person to indicate that they are present can leave terminals open for abuse. If there is no activity the system should ask if the user is there. It should then ask for an indication that a person is there (‘hit any key’) and then wait long enough for almost anyone to respond. For “hit any key,” 20 seconds would meet this. If the person indicates that they are still present, the device should return the user to the exact condition that existed before it asked the question.
PDFs
Like you, we dismiss the usual renderings and “look at what we offer” in favor of real kiosk implementations. Rubber meets the road type data.
Nice photojournal and writeup on LinkedIn by Shannon Moyes @ Volanté Systems | Cloud Enterprise Point of Sale. Disclosure – Elo Touch Solutions is one of our gold sponsors so we naturally report and monitor on them.
I put together this group of photos the other day for an existing client interested in implementing kiosks and just couldn’t help sharing them publicly.
So many beautiful spaces and most importantly, businesses reaping the benefits of our self-serve ordering including:
– Higher average check sizes 💸
– Less reliance on staff for check-out purposes 👍
– Full offline mode for badge pay + credit cards 💳
Locations are University of Manitoba (Aramark Canada) + Lancaster General (Morrison Healthcare).
Volanté Systems Elo Touch Solutions Epson America Inc.
CLICK FOR FULL SIZE — Anthony Sansone Jr., from St. Louis, gets instructions from Breanna Evans on the new scanners at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport on Monday, Feb. 24, 2020. The new scanners from the Clear company scan either a person’s fingers or iris to make a positive identification. Airport travelers have to sign up for the service that will let them avoid showing any other identification. Photo by J.B. Forbes, [email protected]
Travelers willing to pay an annual fee could have an easier time making their way through security checkpoints beginning…
Source: www.lasvegassun.com
The company uses government-approved, advanced-biometric technology (fingerprints and iris recognition) to verify the identity of Clear Card users. “We are thrilled to be bringing Clear to Las Vegas,” said Caryn Seidman Becker, chief executive officer of Clear.”
Gas pump kiosk
Elo’s 27-inch outdoor monitor, boasting 1500 NITs brightness and IK10 vandal-proof rating, ensures 24/7 performance, even in direct sunlight. Readable with polarized sunglasses, it thrives in extended temperatures. Ideal for payment systems, signage, and charging stations, this brilliant, optically bonded weatherproof monitor features edge-to-edge glass for seamless outdoor enclosure integration.
Built to perform outdoors, Elo’s 2799 weatherproof monitor offers IP66 and NEMA 4X when integrated into an enclosure as well as IK10 impact protection. With extended operating temperatures from -20 to 60 degrees Celsius, the integrated outdoor digital signage display can withstand harsh physical and thermal requirements.
To provide unmitigated performance from day to night, the ambient light sensor automatically adjusts the display’s brightness to optimize power consumption, extend the life of the display, and enhance the viewing experience.
Elo’s 2799L outdoor monitor enables you to create reliable outdoor kiosks that will capture audiences and differentiate your sunlight-readable outdoor display.
Transform Elo touchscreens into an affordable, scalable, single-architecture media platform with EloView® and the Android Backpack. With simplified content-delivery and remote-management capabilities, managing isolated outdoor kiosks out-of-the-box is simplified.
Touch Screen Video
Built-in Thermal
Compliant with
IP66
OEM Life Cycle
Ready for
From LinkedIn Pulse September 2023
Transition Period The updated timeline still includes a transition period for organizations to update from PCI DSS v3.2.1 to PCI DSS v4.0. To support this transition, PCI DSS v3.2.1 will remain active for 18 months once all PCI DSS v4.0 materials—that is, the standard, supporting documents (including SAQs, ROCs, and AOCs), training, and program updates—are released.
This transition period allows organizations time to become familiar with the changes in v4.0, update their reporting templates and forms, and plan for and implement changes to meet updated requirements. Upon completion of the transition period, PCI DSS v3.2.1 will be retired and v4.0 will become the only active version of the standard.
Future-Dated Requirements In addition to the transition period when v3.2.1 and v4.0 will both be active, there will be an extra period of time defined for phasing in new requirements that are identified as “future-dated” in v4.0.
In PCI DSS, new requirements are sometimes designated with a future date to give organizations additional time to complete their implementations. Requirements that are future dated are considered as best practices until the future date is reached. During this time, organizations are not required to validate to future-dated requirements. While validation is not required, organizations that have implemented controls to meet the new requirements and are ready to have the controls assessed prior to the stated future date are encouraged to do so. Once the designated future date is reached, all future-dated requirements become effective and applicable.
We anticipate that PCI DSS v4.0 will contain a number of new requirements that may be future dated; however, we won’t know the exact number until the standard is finalized.
While the effective future date for these new requirements will not be confirmed until PCI DSS v4.0 is ready for publication, it will provide enough time for organizations to plan and implement new security controls and processes as needed to meet all the new requirements. The future date will be dependent on the overall impact that the new requirements will have on implementing controls in the standard. Based on the current draft, the future date is expected to extend beyond the planned transition period, with a possible future date being between 2½ – 3 years after PCI DSS v4.0 is published.
Account data includes:
PCI DSS 4.0 comprises 12 requirements, organized into six categories:
More Links
We stopped and did a photo tour. Quite the store. They purchased old Sears Grand facility which was huge. North side of Denver near Top Golf and proposed IKEA. Worth noting the marquee image showing portrait has a person touching the BACK button. The person is 5 foot 10 so button is easily 6 feet high.
One of the senior managers from Living Spaces flew in from San Diego for the Grand Opening and he noticed me taking pictures. We talked for at least 30 minutes
So what about Clockwise versus Counterclockwise
Retailers often use these tendencies and insights when planning store layouts, placing promotions, and designing displays to maximize sales and enhance the shopping experience.
“Living Spaces” is a prominent furniture and home accessories retailer founded in 2003 in Rancho Cucamonga, California. The company rapidly expanded its presence across the United States, offering a broad selection of styles and designs for every room in the home. Renowned for its spacious showrooms, Living Spaces provides customers with a seamless blend of style, comfort, and affordability. Alongside its in-store experience, the brand also boasts a robust online platform, allowing customers to shop and access design tools and resources from the comfort of their homes. Over the years, Living Spaces has earned a reputation for its commitment to quality, exceptional customer service, and its emphasis on creating inspiring environments for shoppers to explore.
Living Spaces was founded in 2008 by Grover Geiselman, a native Houstonian, and has quickly grown across the Southwest. Geiselman is good friends with Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale, founder of Houston-based Gallery Furniture, and sought guidance from McIngvale when looking to start his own furniture store in California.
Reprinted from Olea Blog.. Thanks!
Interactive kiosks are everywhere! Nearly every day in the news there is a new story of kiosks being deployed in a wide variety of applications intended to create greater efficiency in a variety of industries, including retail, food service, casino gaming, government agencies, school campuses, and more.
With so many success stories, many businesses see digital kiosks as a “magic bullet” that is going to increase revenue while cutting costs. While this is often the case, it is still important to look at a kiosk deployment as a strategic project that involves planning, execution, and follow-up to ensure that the kiosks are maximizing their potential and generating the most revenue in the most efficient deployment.
Location and Convenience Are Key!
Frank Olea, owner of Olea Kiosks, often compares interactive kiosk deployment to selecting a real estate location for a commercial business. Location and convenience are critical to a successful kiosk project, and as Olea says, kiosks are like retail stores, and “just because it exists, doesn’t mean people will go there.” The primary purpose of self-service kiosks is convenience, but if the kiosk isn’t placed in a convenient location, the kiosk inherently is no longer convenient.
As Olea says, “people naturally choose the path of least resistance,” so when confronted with any difficulty, such as an inconvenient location, customers will choose an easier option. For example if your favorite restaurant has a shortage of parking spaces and requires 20 minutes to look for parking, you are probably going to leave and find a more convenient option, no matter how much you may love the food. After a few instances of parking lot frustration, you probably will stop even considering that restaurant as an option.
The same can be true of kiosks. If a kiosk is placed in an out-of-the-way location or consistently has long lines, then consumers will naturally look for a more convenient option.
5 Tips for Success
The following are a few tips that will help ensure your kiosk deployment is able to help you to achieve your goals:
1. Clearly Define the Kiosk’s Business Objectives and the Potential Audience
Interactive kiosks have become such dynamic machines that they are able to handle nearly infinite numbers of business functions. It is important when planning a kiosk project that you clearly define the business objective for the kiosk as well as define the demographics of the group that will be using the kiosk.
The kiosk’s objectives and the potential audience can influence the design of the physical unit, the selection of optional components, and the design of the user interface. For example, with a healthcare kiosk, it is often important to provide an ADA compliant solution, which means that all components on the kiosk need to be accessible to all users, and the user interface must provide a solution for impaired users. Similarly, while a standard wayfinding kiosk can be a straightforward solution, there are many options that can be considered, such as the addition of banner ads to the user interface, which can make the kiosk project more successful.
Additionally, consider the volume of traffic and portability of the kiosk. While some kiosks are built to be completely portable with extremely modular lightweight components, such as Olea’s TapSnap portable photo booth, other kiosk projects have to deal with the rigors of a high volume of users every day, such as Olea’s ADOT vehicle registration renewal kiosks. Understanding the potential volume of users will ensure that your kiosk will be able to provide an effective long-term business solution.
An experienced kiosk builder, such as Olea, will work closely with its customers to identify who will be using a kiosk, how it will be used, and the likely number of users, and then develop a comprehensive design specification that directly caters to these factors. The more clearly you are able to define your objectives, the more likely the kiosk will be able to satisfy your goals.
2. Promote Your Kiosks!
Studies have shown that 85% of adults use kiosks for self-service transactions, so there is a tremendous interest in and demand for new kiosk deployments. As such, be sure to promote your new kiosk deployment with visible signage on and around your kiosks to ensure that it captures the attention of potential new users that are passing by.
Consumers have quickly become so accustomed to using self-service interactive kiosks that they not only prefer these self-service options, but they have now come to expect it! Make sure that you are supporting your kiosk deployment with enough promotion so that new users know it’s there.
3. Use Human “Stewards”
As mentioned above, there is a huge demand for self-service solutions, such as interactive kiosks, but sometimes humans can be resistant to change. Once we get comfortable using a particular product or service in a way that suits us, we may be reluctant to try something new or different.
When customers encounter a new kiosk, there may be some trepidation to try this new system, but this situation can be overcome by training customer service staff to closely monitor users of the kiosks and function as “stewards” for those users that encounter any difficulties. With human staff able to offer immediate guidance on the kiosk’s functionality, consumers will more quickly adapt to the new self-sufficient system and are more likely to become dedicated kiosk users.
Typically, once a customer gains confidence in a self-service solution, they are likely to prefer that self-service option for every transaction, which can increase customer satisfaction and provide greater overall efficiency. By using human “stewards” to guide the user through any difficulties, there is a greater likelihood that customers become dedicated long-term kiosk users.
4. Strategic Kiosk Placement
When initiating a new k
iosk deployment, it is important to gather as much data as possible on current users of your services and to develop projections of estimated potential users of the new kiosk systems. In addition, it is often useful to create a schematic of your floor plan so that your kiosk manufacturer can work with you to determine the best solution for your needs.
For example, if you are deploying a wayfinding solution, you want to make sure that the kiosk is positioned in the highest traffic areas, but deployed in a location that will be unobtrusive to the flow of traffic. Similarly, for retail kiosks that provide SKU lookup functionality, product shopping capabilities, and a self-checkout system, it is typically most beneficial to deploy the kiosk near existing POS machines so that customers transition from human POS systems to the new self-service kiosk options.
5. Analyze Data and “Split-Test”
After a new kiosk project is launched, the project typically is not finished. Once the kiosks go live, it is important to begin the data tracking and analysis phase. Kiosk software can be configured with advanced tracking software that can provide detailed information on a variety of usage statistics including total users, average session duration, transactions started/finished (for retail kiosks), and user goals accomplished (i.e. new accounts created, loyalty cards issued, wayfinding map requests, etc.).
From this data, a business can often further optimize its kiosk deployment. For example, by using the old advertising technique of “split-testing,” a retail business can test multiple up-sell and cross-sell options to determine which is the most successful and drives the greatest ROI.
Similarly, it can sometimes be beneficial to “split-test” the physical location of kiosks in a store or facility. For example, in a retail setting, it may be beneficial to split test the placement of a kiosk near the entrance, near a POS system, and near the busiest thoroughfares to see not only the volume of users in each location, but also how the kiosks are being used – e.g. wayfinding, product lookup, UPC scanning, etc.
By closely monitoring the performance of a kiosk through the data provided through the kiosk analytic systems, the kiosk deployment can be tweaked and fine-tuned to ensure it is generating the best ROI for your business.
Award-Winning Interactive Kiosk Manufacturer
Olea Kiosks has been building award-winning interactive kiosks for over 40 years. We work closely with our customers in all phases of a kiosk project, including planning, manufacturing, deployment, and post-deployment follow-up to ensure that our kiosks generate the greatest ROI to our customers. Contact Olea today to find out how our interactive kiosk solutions can benefit your business.
Click for full size
The kiosk industry is growing, but the road to self-service success is littered with the remnants of those projects that didn’t quite make the grade.
By Richard Slawsky contributor
Good news for the health of the kiosk industry continues to roll in. A research report issued in early March by Transparency Market Research projects the global kiosk market will expand at a combined annual growth rate of 10.9 percent over the next seven years, topping $30.8 billion by 2024.
Click for full size
A report issued just a few days later Stratistics MRC is even rosier, predicting that the market will reach $88.34 billion by 2022. Another report, from IndustryARC, predicts that growing competition at the retail level will boost demand significantly.
Despite those predictions, though, not every self-service kiosk deployment is going to be a success. Some operators seem to be determined to wrest failure from the jaws of success, either through a lack of clarity on what function the kiosk is supposed to perform or not viewing the deployment from the standpoint of the end user.
Click for Stratistics data
So to help those considering an investment in self-service kiosk technology, here are a few suggestions about what NOT to do when planning a deployment:
Tip #1 – Don’t forget to include ALL stakeholders.
Obtaining input from stakeholders in the project may seem cumbersome in the beginning but is advantageous in the long run, says Janet Webster, president of Washington, D.C-based consulting firm Creative Solutions Consulting. Invite all key groups within the organization to offer their input.
Deduct a few points for accessibility?
“You will be surprised at just how many areas are affected during kiosk deployments,” Webster said. “It’s better to let the groups know up front instead of having an issue later.”
Getting input from stakeholders might have helped the Mayo Clinic avoid a spectacular fail when the Rochester, Minn.-based health care facility deployed health information kiosks in the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., in 2011.
“You could go and look up information, let’s say on psoriasis or heart disease or whatever, and the kiosk would print out information for you,” said Francie Mendelsohn, president of Washington, D.C.-based kiosk consulting firm Summit Research Associates.
Unfortunately, while the idea was good, the execution was lacking. Instead of offering a one-page summary of various health issues in a reader-friendly format, the kiosks dispensed what amounted to a medical-school textbook entry on whatever disease the user chose.
“Let’s say you wanted something about one of the signs of impending heart problems,” Mendelsohn said. “You got maybe 20 pages in at best eight-point font. It was just unusable from a customer point of view. They had the opportunity to allow people to sign up for their newsletters and to promote the sale of their publications while offering information, but they just went about it all wrong.”
Tip #2 – Don’t skimp on components
Placement seems to be a rare skill…
Trying to get by with consumer-grade components in a commercial deployment is a recipe for disaster. Using cheap components may save money up front, but it’s likely to cost much more over time in maintenance, lost sales and the eventual replacement of those components.
In addition, multiple breakdowns are likely to foster distrust of the kiosks even when they are operational. If customers approach the kiosk and it’s out of order they may come back a second time, but if the device is out of order the next time, they’re likely never to return.
Jamie Richter, regional sales manager at commercial touchscreen provider Elo, encountered such a situation with a large deployment.
User enrollment on a budget for sure.
“A kiosk fixture company chose to use consumer-grade flat panel TVs inside a kiosk to save money,” Richter said.
“After running 24/7 the panels overheated and started smoking within the kiosk enclosure,” Richter said. “The fixture company had to not only remove all of the panels inside the kiosks, but also replace them with new panels. The cost to retrofit over 500 kiosks already in field was tremendous and a painful lesson about using consumer-grade equipment for commercial applications.”
Tip #3 – Don’t forget to look at the deployment from the eyes of the end user
Although a deployment may look good on paper from the deployer’s point of view, it’s easy to forget that part of the goal of using self-service technology is to create a great user-experience.
Furniture maker IKEA has long used kiosks that allow shoppers to sign up for their loyalty programs, and those devices generally garnered positive reviews. Unfortunately, the company stumbled in their venture into self-checkout kiosks.
While most IKEA stores featured both self-service and cashier-operated checkout lanes, during the deployment the company only opened the cashier lanes on peak shopping days. On other days, no cashiers were available, and shoppers were directed to the self-checkout kiosks.
The scanners quickly became a source of frustration.
“A lot of the stuff you buy at IKEA comes in big boxes, so you can’t just pick it up and pass it across the scanner,” Mendelsohn said. “They did have these handheld devices that were tethered to the kiosks, but the tether wasn’t very long, and if you didn’t approach correctly the scanner couldn’t read the code.”
In addition, there were no instructions on how to use the handheld scanners, leaving shoppers guessing about what to do.
“Because this was so frustrating, a lot of people, myself included, just picked up the merchandise or wheeled the cart to another one and eventually checked out,” Mendelsohn said.
MTA having some problems. Looks like this board conducted its periodical windows update (auto windows update is probably not turned off), the OS update caused a change with the Autologin credentials. I also see two user accounts, perhaps defaulting to a single account for a kiosk would be ideal? And no doubt the lowest bidder won this contract.
Eventually, the negative feedback from customers grew so great that in 2012 the company yanked all of the kiosks from its U.S. stores.
Tip #4 – Don’t overlook the value proposition
Don’t forget to clearly define the purpose of the kiosk, the value of offering a kiosk solution and the operational impact.
Greeting card maker American Greetings was one of the earliest entrants into the self-service kiosk market, deploying thousands of CreataCard greeting card kiosks in thousands of retail locations in the early 1990s.
The kiosk featured a selection of greeting card templates and a pen plotter, allowing users to choose their own design and personalize it with names and sayings. Once the user made his selection, a number of colored pens created the card.
What the company apparently didn’t consider, though, was how a kiosk that could take up to 10 minutes to print a greeting card at a price more expensive than off-the-shelf cards improved the lives of shoppers. Another point of dissatisfaction was the limited number of templates available compared with the number of card styles on the rack.
The final nail in the coffin, though, was the fact that the kiosks didn’t require payment until after the cards were completed.
“They ended up becoming what I would call a kiosk babysitter,” Mendelsohn said.
“They’d have them in stores and people would say, ‘Johnny, go make a card while Mommy shops,” and come back in ten minutes,” she said. “It was quite an interesting thing for a kid to sit there and watch, but at the end of the day, they didn’t buy the card. Of course, the company lost a tremendous amount of money.”
Note: Janet Webster and Francie Mendelsohn are both principals with DigitalBusiness.us which is the premier kiosk and self-service consultancy. Other principals include Peter Snyder, Karla Guarino, Benjamin Wheeler and Craig Keefner.
Here are spme excellent questions provided by Janet Webster with Creative Solutions Consulting.
Questions to consider when planning a kiosk deployment
Why are you offering this self-service solution?
Don’t presume you know what the customers want/need; validate your rationale for offering a kiosk. Ask your customers what they want, need, and expect of your business and provide examples of planned kiosk offerings to ensure you’re on the right track (multiple focus groups will help clearly define customer expectations).
What is the advertising/marketing strategy?
What are the success metrics and how will you collect the data?
What if it doesn’t work?
Source: Creative Solutions Consulting
Article excerpt from Business News Daily on 3D printers 
Industrial grade 3D printers are still expensive, and many small business owners are unsure of what the technology can do for them. Most viral videos and articles that depict 3D printing showcase extreme cases that are years away from being realistically accessible for most small companies, such as 3D printing houses and cars.
One of the most common uses for 3D printing is prototyping, so it’s no surprise that many of the entrepreneurs we spoke to use their printers to make prototypes in-house, either for themselves or for external clients.
Frank Olea is the CEO and owner of Olea Kiosks. His company uses 3D printing to help clients visualize the custom kiosks Olea’s company makes. For Olea Kiosks, 3D printing prototypes is a vital part of the sales process and the design process. Olea explained, “Without a doubt, the design phase of a kiosk is the most sensitive. Drawings and other illustrations convey a meaningful representation of a concept for a custom kiosk, but 3D printing gives our clients something they can feel … We love it. Our clients love it.” Without in-house prototyping, Olea’s company would have to contract out the work, and the wait time between contracting and receiving a prototype would likely be too long for his clients. In his business, lost time translates into a lost sale.
Read the complete article on Business News Daily
More Information
Xerox on Feb 27th announced their new “Print Kiosk”, only it isn’t really a kiosk in the usual sense. It appears to be more user friendly multifunction printer that also allows for pay-for-use with the usual wart-style POS terminal. It does include an embedded 10″ touchscreen (Android tablet?).
Still, if we were running a coffee shop like Starbucks in Vegas or Chicago business district we might be tempted. Many people do consider Starbucks to be their remote office.
https://www.xerox.com/en-us/office/print-kiosk
With superior performance across all functions, the Xerox® Instant Print Kiosk keeps walk-up users’ jobs moving quickly without hassles. That means more revenue for kiosk owners.
Instant Print Kiosk customers serve themselves with easy print/copy/scan/fax functions. And with EFI™ Self-Serve Admin Central — a cloud-based management portal — administrators have central control of Instant Print Kiosks, wherever they’re located. EFI Self-Serve Admin Central manages payment-card authorization services for all devices with the included FreedomPay card reader, and enables secure credit card payment with chip authorization and P2PE.
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Craig is a senior staff writer for Kiosk Industry Group Association. He has 25 years of experience in the industry. He contributed to this article. |
Reprinted with permission from KioskSimple website 4/23/2019
Today you’ll learn how you can get your first kiosk to market faster and for a smaller initial investment by creating an “MVP kiosk”.
Let’s talk about what an MVP is and why you should create an MVP kiosk.
A minimum viable product (MVP) is a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers, and to provide feedback for future product development
The benefits of building an MVP kiosk include…
Companies overbuild their first kiosk all the time. They assume they know exactly what their customers need and proceed to invest heavily, without gathering early customer feedback. Then they build the wrong thing and waste a bunch of time and money in rework.
If you want to avoid this common pitfall, keep reading…
A “pilot kiosk” refers to the first kiosk you deploy to production to work out the kinks. With any pilot, the tendency is to “overbuild” your feature set and try to get everything perfect on the first release.
An “MVP kiosk” also refers to your first kiosk, but the objective is to gather early customer feedback with a minimum viable feature set.
The MVP prioritizes gathering early customer feedback and helps prevent overbuilding the feature set in your initial kiosk.
You don’t know exactly what you should build until you’ve gathered customer feedback. Starting with an MVP kiosk allows you to learn from your mistakes earlier and with less upfront investment.
The first step before we even start building our MVP kiosk is to define your success criteria.
We begin this process by listing all our key objectives and goals for our kiosk deployment. For example, lowering staffing costs, decreasing customer wait times, building our customer mailing list, etc.
Next, we list all the metrics we’ll be measuring to determine the success of our objectives we just defined. These will be specific, quantifiable metrics like reducing the number of cashiers on staff by 25%, increasing sales by 30%, adding 1000 new email subscribers per month, etc.
It’s important to have quantifiable metrics in order to objectively measure the success of our kiosks.
Our MVP feature set is the list of features that will make it into our MVP kiosk. Warning, this will be a hot topic that will have much debate internally.
The easiest way to define your MVP kiosk feature set is to outline all the features you want in your kiosk.
Here’s an oversimplified example of what your entire kiosk feature set might look like…
All features:
Here is an example of separating the MVP feature set…
MVP features:
Future features:
What we’ve done here is separate the MVP features that MUST be in the MVP kiosk, from those that could be added later to subsequent releases (aka version 2 features).
Less engineering in the MVP means we get to market faster and for less upfront cost, so we can start gathering customer feedback earlier.
It’s time to build your first kiosk and develop your kiosk application. By only building your MVP feature set, your development timeline will naturally shrink, as will your development costs.
Resist the temptation to overbuild your MVP kiosk.
You can save money on your kiosk hardware by going with an off the shelf kiosk model. Most kiosk manufacturers will have standard kiosk builds with their recommended payment devices. The kiosk manufacturer can help you “wrap” your kiosk with your artwork, so it matches your company brand.
Building a custom kiosk is always more expensive than their standard turnkey kiosks and can add significant lead time.
Go with the standard kiosk build for your MVP kiosk and only customize later AFTER you’ve gathered customer feedback from your MVP kiosk.
Concierge service refers to placing a real-live human being at your MVP kiosk in order to help customers and gather their feedback.
You’re probably thinking that this is a self-service kiosk and placing a person by the kiosk defeats the entire purpose of offering a self-service alternative.
It’s easy to get ivory tower syndrome and think customers will know exactly how to use our shiny new kiosk. When in reality, this is probably the first time they’ve ever encountered your kiosk and it’s probably not as “user friendly” as you think.
You’ll learn a lot by listening to your first customers and be able to quickly incorporate their feedback and pivot. Which leads us to our final step…
Here is where taking the MVP approach really starts to pay off. Remember how your team fought over delaying those features until after the MVP release?
Since we’ve listened to our first customers, we know exactly what features they care about and what to add in the next release. We also didn’t waste time overbuilding by adding the wrong features.
It might turn out that adding support for Spanish is way more important than adding support for accepting cash and coin. Or maybe accepting cash is important, but hardly any customers are trying to pay with coin. By offering concierge service, you know what your customers care about and what challenges they’ve encountered.
You don’t know what features your customers really care about until you’ve given them a kiosk to interact with and collected their feedback.
The MVP strategy applies to more than just kiosks and can be utilized by any size organization, not just budget strapped startups.
Building your first kiosk is not like building a custom home, where you have a clear blueprint. A kiosk, and most software projects for that matter, evolve as customers start interacting with them.
The common mistake most organizations make is to assume they know exactly what their customers want in a self-service kiosk. Don’t fall prey to this common pitfall.
This article was largely influenced by one of my favorite startup themed books The Lean Startup by Eric Ries.
We are often asked “How Much Does A Kiosk Cost”. It’s a bit like declaring you are going to buy a vehicle. What manufacturer, what features, etc. Is it a SUV and if so a small one or a large one? The biggest amount of advice we give is that in the kiosk market, you usually get what you pay for. Let’s define kiosk cost so we see the bigger picture.
Contact [email protected] and we can refer you based on your needs and quantity. We also offer free advice and consulting.
Too often iterations that are not really kiosks are called kiosks, usually, because the functionality is close to the same. A handheld tablet can range in cost from $75 to $7500. Which one are you talking about?
Video Examples
Here is a look at the “top end” of kiosk price, a DMV kiosk. Typically they handle multiple payment options and may include a cash recycler. This is one from California DMV by KIOSK. The application likely done by ITI. The simple kiosk cost? Closer to $20K…
Tablet Kiosks
AIO Providers (kiosk in function only)
Service Providers
Contact [email protected] and we can refer you based on your needs and quantity
More Posts
Linux has emerged as the next incremental step in self-service kiosks (see new hardware options from Elo). Cost has always been a major concern and Windows has run its course at typically $80 license for decent CPU. Android native is free but for purposes of self-service must be customized. Linux offers zero cost and total control. No more wondering if a Windows patch cycle has downed your machine. Another entry is Flex from Google. Several kiosk projects in hospitality have been deployed. With any OS you choose it should come with free built-in remote monitoring designed for kiosks. Originally published on KioWare Kiosk Software website. You can view the original release here.
The kiosk industry has been rapidly expanding and evolving in recent years, and as technology progresses, so do the hardware and software platforms that are used to power these devices. Primarily due to a wide range of device support, the Windows OS has long been the leading choice for kiosks; however, Android has been making solid gains in market share recently. We believe that Linux has become a very good OS on which to build a kiosk, and that Linux has the brightest future in the kiosk industry.
In particular, our KioWare OS for Linux® makes it possible to create a kiosk appliance. We have taken a very minimal version of the Debian Linux distribution, added only what’s necessary for a kiosk to run, and integrated KioWare directly into the OS. When the device boots, KioWare loads first and controls any other apps you have configured to be loaded. KioWare is completely in charge, and to exit KioWare is to power down the device. With KioWare, the device has become a kiosk appliance with only one purpose: being a self-service kiosk.
Over the years, Windows OS has become a bulky choice for kiosks. It still holds a commanding lead in device support, but it comes with a lot of operational baggage. With Windows, kiosk software has to spend a lot of effort making sure the kiosk is running efficiently and robustly.
Android has the issue of each hardware manufacturer using their own unique, and sometimes proprietary, low-level OS functions. As kiosk system software, we need low-level access to the OS to provide a safe and robust kiosk solution, and that is challenging when that access varies among hardware manufacturers. Some manufacturers’ APIs are poorly documented or buggy, and others are not available. Fortunately, Samsung, the market leader, does provide quality low-level access to the OS, and our KioWare for Android product supports the Samsung/Knox version of Android. We have integrated the Tinker Board and Raspberry Pi hardware in our KioWare OS for Android product and can add additional Android hardware manufacturers as demand dictates.
iOS has the problem of Apple completely controlling not only the hardware but also the low-level access, and while there are kiosk use cases where iOS works fine, it is not a general-purpose self-service kiosk solution.
Linux has two primary advantages. First, unlike Android and iOS, which are designed to run on specific hardware configurations, Linux is open-source software that works with a wider variety of devices. This makes it easier for kiosk manufacturers and businesses to choose the hardware that best suits their needs and budget, without being limited to a specific set of options. KioWare OS for Linux currently runs on x86-64, Raspberry Pi and ASUS Tinker Board.
The second advantage of Linux is, because it is lightweight and open source, the OS can be designed to contain just the essentials a kiosk needs, and it can easily be modified to enhance security or provide useful features. Windows, Android and iOS come with a lot of extra features, applications, and services that are not necessary for a self-service kiosk deployment. This excess baggage causes performance issues and in the extreme case can cause security issues.
It is worth noting that Linux is already being used successfully in many other sectors, such as healthcare, retail, and industrial automation. With its flexibility, hardware compatibility, and the ability to create customized systems, Linux may very well be the future of the kiosk industry. Only time will tell, but businesses and kiosk manufacturers should keep a close eye on this trend and seriously consider KioWare OS for Linux.
Linux® is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries.
Our most secure product to date, KioWare OS is a custom-built software designed from the ground up, with the customer in mind. No prior experience with Linux is needed to deploy this, as kiosk and system functionality can be defined using our Configuration Tool program, making for an easy set-up. Within the Configuration Tool, you’ll also find convenient access to update your product to the latest version. It is lightweight enough to run on smaller devices, such as the Raspberry Pi or ASUS Tinkerboard, as well as larger Intel-based devices.
KioWare OS is currently available in our Lite model.
Price: $32 per license (see volume pricing)
linux kiosk mode kioware – click for full image
Looking at the new Elo Slates which is also Debian here are the devices supported out-of-the-box (11 total)
Table of Contents
When I wrote the “What’s in Store for 2020” blog last December, I could not have predicted what was to come in three short months. My closing statement promised a bright future for retail and the point of purchase industry in 2020.
Instead, a worldwide pandemic shifted industry conversation from experiential retail and strategic partnerships to more simplified objectives like keeping customers and employees safe, store shelves stocked, and open signs lit. Sadly, the year claimed many longstanding retailers and put countless more in precarious positions as they struggled to stay afloat. But while 2020 will go down in history as the year of the pandemic, for successful retailers, it will also be remembered as the year of the great pivot.
We’ve written this blog year after year, always focusing on the future. But after this year, to discuss the future, we have to appreciate the lessons learned from this most recent past. So, I asked our Frank Mayer and Associates, Inc.’s point of purchase display experts to weigh in on what they foresee for 2021, based on what transpired in 2020.
You’ll be relieved to hear they all agreed on one major point – physical retail will eventually rebound. With recent news of a vaccine, many noted the promise of safer shopping excursions will be met with eager shoppers ready to return to some normalcy.
But they also went further with their predictions of what recovery will look like. Read on to discover their thoughts on what 2021 has in store for retail and the point of purchase industry.
Pivot. There’s that word again. If you picked up a news article, sat in on a strategy meeting, or rewrote a business plan, you’ve likely encountered it over the last year. And to merchants, it became a crucial game plan to weather the storm.
Back in March, retailers found themselves revisiting their playbooks and being forced to implement programs that were still in their infancy stage. Services like Buy Online, Pickup In Store (BOPIS), curbside pickup, locker systems, and self-service technology were all promising concepts in the years leading up to now, with many stores dipping their feet in the water to test them.
Then 2020 fast-tracked these programs. Stores were forced to work out kinks on the fly, while
customers were more willing to participate in services designed to mitigate safety risks.
This quick adoption out of necessity has revealed to shoppers how convenient these programs are – pandemic or no pandemic. Saving time by placing a digital purchase that someone else shops for or ensuring an order is correct by entering it through a self-order kiosk means customers have become accustomed to the expediency and ease these services offer. And with more people becoming adept at utilizing the technology that goes along with these programs, expect to see them as the new norm in top-notch customer service.
We humans are pretty hardwired to form habits. Even long after a threat, we still hold traces of
memory that influence our behavior. Think the fight or flight response left over from our Cro-Magnon days, or why you might remember your Depression-era grandparents saving money under the mattress.
The pandemic will be no exception. “Shoppers are going to be even more aware of microbes and
bacteria that can cause the spread of disease or illness,” Creative Director Ryan Lepianka says. “As a result, touchless demonstration options are going to be more attractive in store, while still allowing consumers to physically see and interact with products.”
These touchless options can be as simple as motion activation or video loops on a merchandising display to grab a customer’s attention; or they can be more comprehensive tools like touchless interactive kiosks, voice recognition, and lift and learn technology to keep contact at a minimum.
Major developments of contactless solutions in the point of purchase industry coupled with a more health-cognizant shopper means we’ll notice displays and kiosk programs incorporating these options more frequently in the future.
While physical stores suffer the brunt of the pandemic’s consequences, e-commerce has stepped in to save the day for retailers that have robust digital platforms. But with brick-and-mortar’s eventual return, customers will be met with a new kind of shopping trip thanks to lessons learned in 2020.
Our experts cited everything from smaller footprint stores to continued creative partnerships between big box and branded stores like the recent collaboration between Kohl’s and Sephora. With the heavy burden placed on our delivery channels this holiday season, we’ll also see more stores using their backrooms as inventory hubs to reduce delivery time and expenses on digital orders.
And while we’d like in-store shopping to bounce back quickly, the reality is that it’ll be a gradual process due to many variables. Because of this, inventory will remain limited, even as store traffic slowly increases.
David Anzia, Senior Vice President of Sales, explains, “In-store traffic will pick up throughout the year, but inventory will continue to be low. If specific merchandise doesn’t exist in store, customers will want to have product delivered to their homes.” He goes on to say, “As a result, contactless kiosks and infinite aisle ordering will be a focus in 2021.”
What about that “experiential retail” buzzword that dominated retail news for the past few years?
“I expect the retail trend will continue in the direction of ‘experience’ over ‘frugality,’” Lepianka asserts. “It’s going to be important to entertain and intrigue customers if we want to give them a reason to return to the brick-and-mortar option.”
If there’s one thing the pandemic revealed, it’s that there’s a very real need for human connection. We bore witness to the creative lengths people went to achieve this, whether it was through Zoom parties, birthday trains, or cardboard signs that dotted neighborhood lawns congratulating their graduates.
The past year has really emphasized the importance of “connection,” whether it’s person-to-person or brand-to-consumer. And this new appreciation for its significance will be key for the point of purchase industry.
“Now, more than ever, ensuring your merchandising display or kiosk grabs attention and emotionally connects with a shopper is vital,” Cheryl Lesniak, Integrated Marketing Manager affirms.
She explains the value of using brand imagery and stories, video, and technology that surprises and delights. “These are all dynamics that get you noticed in a world of constant marketing messages,” she says. “But more so, these elements are going to elicit feelings and response from customers – whether that be excitement, trust, investment, or all of the above.”
So does the 2021 future look bright? I think there is a lot of cautious hope that this year could be a palate cleanser after the last 12 months. It’s been a rocky road that we’re still traveling, but with the lessons learned from 2020, we anticipate retail and the point of purchase industry will reemerge with a better understanding of how to position for a successful future.
Frank Mayer and Associates, Inc. Custom and standard kiosk design
What does the word kiosk mean? It meant one thing 600 years ago.
1620s, “kind of open pavilion” (made of light wood, etc., often supported by pillars), from French kiosque (17c.), which is (along with German and Polish kiosk) from Turkish koshk, kiöshk “pavilion, summer house,” from Persian kushk “palace, villa; pavilion, portico.” They were introduced in Western Europe 17c. as ornaments in gardens and parks. Later of street newsstands (1865), on some resemblance of shape, a sense perhaps originally in French. Modern sense has been influenced by British telephone kiosk (1928).
Wikipedia describes it in the Interactive Kiosk page.
Outdoor view driving up on Charging Station or EV Kiosk
In the modern computerized world the word kiosk means something else altogether.
Characteristics:
And then there are RMUs or Remote Merchandising Units. Think of the Bose headphone “kiosk” at the airport (or Verizon). These are more akin to “store fixtures” and point-of-purchase fixtures that include POS options and typically a person to help you decide.
Here are some of the “kiosk meaning” for the modern-day kiosk. Kiosks today are very much different than those from years ago with photo kiosks from Kodak and ATM machines. Self-check-in from the major airlines (we used to work for Northwest Airlines ourselves and piloted check-in in the Ford Commissary in Detroit.
mcdonalds kiosk
They are self-service kiosks, usually electronic, and can be found in all walks of life. The form factor ranges from a mobile device to a tablet to a larger enclosures (usually metal but also plastic and wood). They are transactional with devices and they are informational only.
Amtrak Ticket Kiosk – click for full size image
Kiosk Meaning – An interactive kiosk is a computer terminal featuring specialized hardware and software that provides access to information and applications for communication, commerce, entertainment, or education.
Early interactive kiosks sometimes resembled telephone booths, but have been embraced by retail, food service and hospitality to improve customer service. Interactive kiosks are typically placed in high foot traffic settings such as shops, hotel lobbies or airports.
Integration of technology allows kiosks to perform a wide range of functions, evolving into self-service kiosks. For example, kiosks may enable users to order from a shop’s catalogue when items are not in stock, check out a library book, look up information about products, issue a hotel key card, enter a public utility bill account number in order to perform an online transaction, or collect cash in exchange for merchandise. Customised components such as coin hoppers, bill acceptors, card readers and thermal printers enable kiosks to meet the owner’s specialised needs.
It is estimated that over 1,200,000 kiosk terminals exist in the U.S. and Canada alone.
Groups who use kiosks in their business environment include: Delta Airlines, United Airlines, JetBlue Airways, GTAA, Future Shop, The Home Depot, Target Corporation, and Wal-Mart.
2020 Update — we did a quick calculation of just restaurants and restaurant kiosks.
There isn’t a fixed number but if I estimated locations for majors in the U.S.
Just in the Restaurant industry in 2020
Excerpt:
The $11.3 billion Inspire/Dunkin’ deal was certainly the talk of the finance world. The deal was completed on Dec. 15. and now gives Inspire Brands an entrance into the breakfast segment, taking the Dunkin’ and Baskin-Robbins brands private.
Another notable acquisition was the growing brand BurgerFi, which was acquired by OPES Acquisition Corp. and announced it would be begin being traded on the Nasdaq on Dec. 17 under the ticker BFI. The company was renamed BurgerFi International Inc.
And this year wouldn’t be complete without speaking of third-party delivery companies.
With demand for delivery spiking after restaurant dining rooms were closed across the country, Grubhub, Uber Eats, and Postmates jockeyed for position with consolidation. Grubhub was acquired by Just Eat Takeaway for $7.3 billion in June, and Uber purchased Postmates for $2.65 billion in July. DoorDash, meanwhile, became a publicly traded company in December.
What is the word kiosk mean? The kiosk originally began as the town square notice board for the community to post notices. Think Turkey. The usual reference in Wikipedia will call out Persia as the originating language for the word. Another Wikipedia page more relevant is the Interactive Kiosk page.
Outdoor view driving up on Charging Station or EV Kiosk
In the modern world the word kiosk means an electronic station where customers or employee can get services
Here are some of the “kiosk meaning” for the modern-day kiosk. Kiosks today are very much different than those from years ago with photo kiosks from Kodak and ATM machines. Self-check-in from the major airlines (we used to work for Northwest Airlines ourselves and piloted check-in in the Ford Commissary in Detroit.
mcdonalds kiosk
They are self-service kiosks, usually electronic, and can be found in all walks of life. The form factor ranges from a mobile device to a tablet to a larger enclosures (usually metal but also plastic and wood). They are transactional with devices and they are informational only.
Amtrak Ticket Kiosk – click for full size image
Kiosk Meaning – An interactive kiosk is a computer terminal featuring specialized hardware and software that provides access to information and applications for communication, commerce, entertainment, or education.
Early interactive kiosks sometimes resembled telephone booths, but have been embraced by retail, food service and hospitality to improve customer service. Interactive kiosks are typically placed in high foot traffic settings such as shops, hotel lobbies or airports.
Integration of technology allows kiosks to perform a wide range of functions, evolving into self-service kiosks. For example, kiosks may enable users to order from a shop’s catalogue when items are not in stock, check out a library book, look up information about products, issue a hotel key card, enter a public utility bill account number in order to perform an online transaction, or collect cash in exchange for merchandise. Customised components such as coin hoppers, bill acceptors, card readers and thermal printers enable kiosks to meet the owner’s specialised needs.
It is estimated that over 1,200,000 kiosk terminals exist in the U.S. and Canada alone.
Groups who use kiosks in their business environment include: Delta Airlines, United Airlines, JetBlue Airways, GTAA, Future Shop, The Home Depot, Target Corporation, and Wal-Mart.
2020 Update — we did a quick calculation of just restaurants and restaurant kiosks.
There isn’t a fixed number but if I estimated locations for majors in the U.S.
Just in the Restaurant industry in 2020
Excerpt:
The $11.3 billion Inspire/Dunkin’ deal was certainly the talk of the finance world. The deal was completed on Dec. 15. and now gives Inspire Brands an entrance into the breakfast segment, taking the Dunkin’ and Baskin-Robbins brands private.
Another notable acquisition was the growing brand BurgerFi, which was acquired by OPES Acquisition Corp. and announced it would be begin being traded on the Nasdaq on Dec. 17 under the ticker BFI. The company was renamed BurgerFi International Inc.
And this year wouldn’t be complete without speaking of third-party delivery companies.
With demand for delivery spiking after restaurant dining rooms were closed across the country, Grubhub, Uber Eats, and Postmates jockeyed for position with consolidation. Grubhub was acquired by Just Eat Takeaway for $7.3 billion in June, and Uber purchased Postmates for $2.65 billion in July. DoorDash, meanwhile, became a publicly traded company in December.
Google’s Chrome OS is already a fine operating system for business installations like kiosks and workstations, and Google’s big reveal of Android support for Kiosk Apps, along with a number of improvements to device management and administration, are poised to make it even better once Chrome Version 57 hits. The
Source: www.androidheadlines.com
Couple of free licenses doesn’t hurt for sure. I use it now and it is good for basic management. I’m not sure how Android apps will help and there is still no device integration.
The American Council of the Blind has sued Eatsa, a fast-food chain that uses automated self-service kiosks and ordering apps, over insufficient access, according to a press release. Disability Rights Advocates (DRA), a national nonprofit legal center, filed
Source: www.fastcasual.com
It’s pretty simple providing some access for the blind, doesn’t have to be every single machine. Somebody did not think this thru…
Eatsa, for example, uses iPads for its in-store kiosks, according to its website. And Apple has for years included screen-reading accessibility technology — which can dictate on-screen items to blind people — in its iOS devices, and has made those tools available to developers.
But “Eatsa has configured its systems so that the [screen reader capability] is not usable on the iPad,” said Rebecca Serbin, an attorney with Disability Rights Advocates, the nonprofit representing the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit. “So the technology to make Eatsa accessible exists, but Eatsa just didn’t care enough to include that in their design.”
Adding things like a tactile keypad with braille, or making the iPad’s headphone jack accessible — currently obstructed by the frame it’s mounted on — would allow customers with vision impairment to still use Eatsa’s ordering system, according to the complaint.
Though it’s possible for customers at the restaurant to never interact with a human worker, each location does have a staff person or two in the front to assist customers if needed. But the suit further points out that the way customers can request help from one of these employees is also via a button on the iPad, which is not accessible to blind and low-vision customers.
Even the cubbyholes where food is served have no way to opt for audible cues. The whole process is silent, thus making it inaccessible, the lawsuit claims.
Two long-standing healthcare vendors join forces to deliver an integrated telehealth kiosk solution.
CHELMSFORD, MA (PRWEB) SEPTEMBER 25, 2017
The future of telehealth depends on our ability to make it as convenient and seamless as possible to deliver healthcare on-demand, and healthcare kiosks do just that
AMD Global Telemedicine Inc. (AMD), the pioneer of clinical Telemedicine Encounter Management Solutions (TEMS) ®, and Olea Kiosks Inc, the premier global designer and manufacturer of self-service kiosks, announce a partnership to deliver customized kiosks for telehealth applications.
The two long-standing healthcare vendors have combined their engineering and technology resources to offer a solution that addresses increasing demands for areas such as chronic disease management, healthcare screening, wellness programs and occupational health clinics. The new customizable telemedicine kiosk solution provides healthcare organizations with numerous options for self check-in, patient assessment, video conferencing, digitization of medical records, and payment.
“The future of telehealth depends on our ability to make it as convenient and seamless as possible to deliver healthcare on-demand, and healthcare kiosks do just that,” commented Eric Bacon, President of AMD Global Telemedicine. “The partnership we have formed with Olea Kiosks elevates our solutions offering to the next level,” added Bacon.
“With the cost of many technologies coming down and the broader acceptance of Self-Service, the idea of self-service healthcare has really taken off,” commented Frank Olea, CEO of Olea Kiosks. “We share a common commitment and passion for delivering customized healthcare solutions and tailored program design”.
By partnering, AMD has combined their twenty-six years telemedicine experience with Olea Kiosks’ 42 years designing and building kiosks, to design completely customizable kiosks that fit specific healthcare requirements and price points. For more information on the customized telehealth kiosk solutions, visit http://www.amdtelemedicine.com
About AMD Global Telemedicine, Inc.
AMD Global Telemedicine, Inc. (AMD) is the pioneer of Telemedicine Encounter Management Solutions (TEMS)® to over 9,000 patient end-points in more than 98 countries. Since 1991, AMD has led the development of clinical telemedicine as a way of bringing quality medical care to rural and underdeveloped areas around the world. AMD provides personalized telemedicine solutions pairing our telemedicine encounter management software technology with specialized medical devices and video communication technologies, in order to connect a patient with a remote clinical healthcare provider. For more information on AMD Global Telemedicine, visit http://www.amdtelemedicine.com.
About Olea Kiosks, Inc.
Olea Kiosks, Inc. is a Los Angeles-based design, manufacturing and services company providing kiosks, self-
service terminals, and interactive digital signage for a wide range of markets, including QSR self-order kiosks, fast casual dining, healthcare, gaming casinos, loyalty kiosk and payment kiosk services. In business for more than 40 years, the company builds “better kiosks through intelligent design” and serves clients across the globe. Olea Kiosks, Inc. 800.927.8063 or by email at info(at)olea(dot)com.
Amazon VR kiosk announced in 10 shopping malls to promote its upcoming Prime Day shopping event. See the Amazon VR experience for yourself. Prepare to be impressed.
Source: venturebeat.com
Amazon VR Kiosk notes — We keep looking for VR kiosk interations for customers especially “trial balloons” and not surprising that Amazon has opted for some extra juice to spur Prime Day. Imagine Prime Day taking on same significance as Thanksgiving or Christmas. With over 50% of ecommerce shopping and buying happening on Amazon, its up to the other retailers like Target and Walmart to react.
Excerpt: Rather than taking the obvious retail angle and depositing you in a computer-generated facsimile of a brick-and-mortar space, Amazon VR kiosk instead transports the shopper into a city filled with Prime Day products — beginning with the fun of a hot air balloon ride. Viewed through an Oculus Rift with full head tracking, the ride lets the shopper briefly see some of the brands and promotions Amazon is featuring before landing in a serene park.
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Craig is a senior staff writer for Kiosk Industry Group Association. He has 25 years of experience in the industry. He contributed to this article. |
Full article Wednesday April 10 from CNBC
Excerpt:
Retailers operating brick-and-mortar stores in California are likely well aware of the state’s requirements for the collection of consumers’ personally identifiable information (PII). The Song-Beverly Credit Card Act of 1971 (the “Act”) imposes civil penalties for certain practices with respect to capturing and recording PII in cardholder transactions. See Cal. Civ. Code § 1747.08. Traditional litigation under the Act challenged retailers’ requests for telephone numbers, driver license numbers, and email addresses in connection with credit card payments at the point of sale. Beginning in 2011, when the California Supreme Court held that ZIP codes constitute PII, retailers most notably faced a wave of litigation regarding requests for customers’ ZIP codes at the point of sale before purchases were consummated. See Pineda v. Williams-Sonoma Stores, Inc., 51 Cal. 4th 524 (2011). As we reported in June 2017, filings in this area have garnered less attention in recent years as prudent retailers have modified certain aspects of their checkout policies and procedures.
https://www.natlawreview.com/article/new-spin-song-beverly-act-litigation-against-retailers
This webinar will make the case for involving people with disabilities in UX research and development activities, and the value this effort brings, and will provide you with some practical advice on how to involve people with disabilities in your UX work.
Attendees will learn:
* How to plan and schedule UX activities with people with disabilities to get the right input at the right time for your project
* Effective ways for recruiting and involving people with disabilities in research activities
* Tips for ensuring that UX activities are inclusive to people with a range of disabilities
* How you can obtain quality results that have impact on your project, and beyond.
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7584161118499647747
Click to visit Neil’s LinkedIn profile
By Neil Farr, Managing Director, Acquire Digital – www.acquiredigital.com and the article is republished with permission from Kiosk Solutions Magazine
It’s hard to believe but when I started my working life in 1991 for an A/V company, it was ground-breaking that we moved from a bank of slide projectors to having a single computer and a projector to show presentations.
For a meeting with a client, we had to use printed maps to get there, and had to stop to ask directions or to find a telephone box to call the client to say we were lost and may be late. Videos were grainy, and VHS tape and even broadcast quality video had problems. But back then, everyone thought it was an amazing time to be alive with all of this technology available.
Later, we started using the presentations in retail stores on big old TVs, using slow 14.4Kbps dial up modems to show in-store TV that we could update remotely (albeit slowly). And then, we realised we could also use the same technology with a touchscreen on the front of the monitor in a box to provide loyalty schemes, or targeted coupon delivery and endless aisles.
Everything then changed – a thing called the World Wide Web appeared, and people could see reams of text and occasionally singing, dancing hamsters appear on their computer screens – so long bulletin boards.
People then realised that we needed a faster way to get the dancing hamsters to our screens, and the speed of the internet went up – faster and faster.
Consoles appeared, and people who didn’t sit at computer desks put them under their televisions in the lounge where the whole family discovered entertainment could be more than simply watching VHS tapes, and could actually be interactive. This led to needing faster and better Internet connections as people were demanding better multimedia and videos and didn’t like reading reams of text on the web.
this new digital age and what could be delivered could never be sated.
Then a company who had been making one of the most popular devices capable of not needing to stop at phone boxes to ask directions – Nokia – announced to the world that the Internet was now truly mobile too with their WAP-capable 7110 phone. But when people realised WAP wasn’t quite as good as their home computer at accessing well, pretty much anything. But they still liked the idea of having a handheld device that removed the need to carry around a diary, notepad, music player, games console and more. They tried device after device known as a PDA which promised to do all this. Shortly after, a company called Apple released a miniature computer, with a touchscreen that did anything you could possibly think of, including accessing the Internet wirelessly, and didn’t need a ‘geek’ to make it work, so people bought it.
In turn, Internet Service Providers made the internet faster, and able to store more information, and now also had to make it accessible wirelessly. The people who had something to put on the web could now put more videos and graphics and information there, and now the public could access that when they wanted to. All this meant that the Website owners had to contend with visitors with a shorter and shorter attention span. Also, now there was a cool place where you could keep videos, as well as ways that people could share social experiences, and links to those videos, too.
With the dancing Hamsters’ now ignored as a wealth of videos showing skiing ostriches, skilful ball trick shots and other seemingly home-created videos, using those now much more advanced mobile phones to film them, have filled the shared social media channels. People realised that the videos could be shared around like a common cold and become Viral.
With all of that technology and media and data, it wasn’t long before the owners of ‘real’ environments got worried – would people still visit their stores when they could access websites instead? So, in their bricks and mortar world, they installed screens with videos that played adverts and occasionally provided computers with Internet access so customers could still get their online appetite sated – the plan was typically to get the customer to just check out the web version of the shop they were in.
Technology has continued to advance where it’s almost impossible to keep up with the latest developments, as well as know what will be adopted, and what will become an unused quirk of technology only remembered in Wiki articles by occasional researchers in the future.
Realising this, other people started getting the computers to track what people are doing in more detail and called it ‘big data’. They even built supercomputers and together with programs that adapt their own rules to learn, they use them to help with looking for trends and patterns in how people int eract with the various forms of technology.
By making technology to ensure people are tracked in the ‘real’ world, this meant that those people can try out something and almost instantly measure the reaction. The results of this can then be used along with our natural inquisitiveness to become more engaged with one thing over the millions of others they could engage with.
In the digital age, advancements in the technology as demonstrated at trade shows every year, tend to drive the Zeitgeist – go on, use the smartphone you probably own to look up what that word means – and then realise that by doing so, you have contributed to it.
While writing this article I intentionally chose to use generic words like ‘people’ when I could to make it appropriate for different vertical markets. The writing style and the content itself was carefully chosen. So I can now make some assumptions about the type of person you are, and how much I can sway your opinions to ones that I think are beneficial to us both.
Do you, reading this article, consider the paper or the screen technology you are viewing it on? Or the Internet that made it possible for me to write it and send it to the publisher?
The fact is that in 1991 when none of this was around and no one other than one man had considered what the Internet could be used for, yet now over 3.2 billion people are connected to it – over 50% of the world’s population – didn’t happen because of the technology. It happened because of what people do with technology. And the success will be measured by the experience of what they interact with – what the experience was like, does it make their lives easier, does it save them (precious) time? Does it become an experience they expect in future, or simply one they can live without?
Throughout the world, people like you and me are working hard to build a solution that will be a success and become part of modern life for people. We can’t control whether it will be a success or forgotten, but by thinking of the people who will interact with it and what they experience, it’s at least more likely to be a success.
Thanks to Andrew Savala of Red Swimmer for this article on Custom Kiosk Software originally published on LinkedIn. One key takeaway for me is getting the in-house IT people onboard and feeling ownership. That usually gets talked about in terms of employee reactions to self-service but in the development phase usually it is IT which wants to justify itself.
CEO / Owner of RedSwimmer Inc. Specializing In Kiosk Software Development
Selling custom software can be tricky in any industry and finding the right clients to build a long-term relationship with is always a challenge.
Custom software is typically expensive due to the lack of reuse (by definition, its custom) and potential clients often have a hard time grasping why their complex solution, with no off-the-shelf alternative, is so expensive.
When you deal with the self-service kiosk industry you add the complexities of integrating your kiosk software with kiosk hardware (payment devices, biometrics, etc…).
My goal for this article is to share some valuable insights on the process of selling custom kiosk software. Craig Keefner @craigkeefner of Kiosk Industry was kind enough to collaborate with me on this article and together we came up with the following list.
Vet prospective clients by establishing their budget upfront
The easiest way to vet potential clients is to start talking dollar figures early in the sales process and see how they react.
Before throwing out any dollar figures make sure to invest the time to talk with them and really understand their requirements and goals for their project. This can often be completed in an hour or less and will help you get a very broad idea of the project cost.
Once you have an idea what they’re wanting try to scare them a little bit by throwing out some large figures. For example, “A custom kiosk application like you’re describing will probably run you somewhere in the neighborhood of $40,000 to $80,000 in software development costs. Do these numbers scare you?”
The last person I asked this to laughed and admitted they had a total budget of around a thousand dollars (including hardware).
No amount of salesmanship on my part would have made this sale possible and the customer appreciated that I didn’t waste their time.
On a final note, if they ask you to be an investor, run! This translates to “I have no budget and I want you to do the work for free.”
The greater the uncertainty, the broader the price range
When estimating the cost of a custom project there will always be some amount of uncertainty.
For example, the client wants to integrate their kiosk software with a piece of hardware which you’ve never worked with. Sure you can review the SDK, but you still have no experience with this device so you’re just guessing.
This is why we do range estimates as opposed to fixed point estimates. The greater the uncertainty the broader the range should be. A great book on this subject is Steve McConnell’s Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art.
The customer needs to have some skin in the game early
By requiring the customer to make a significant payment early in the design process it forces them to get some skin in the game and ensures that they are serious about the project.
It’s easy to spend days or even weeks designing a solution for free only to find out that the customer lacks the funding to launch the project.
Take the time to understand the customer’s requirements and then create a broad range estimate. Then require a 30% down payment before designing the project in great detail.
Once the project is well defined you can come up with a fixed cost, if you like, or just make the range narrower as uncertainty is reduced.
Reliability isn’t always worth the cost
This sounds funny but reliability is costly and it’s not always worth the investment, particularly when the project is a one-off proof of concept.
If the project is for an ongoing business that’s a different matter, but many times the customer just wants a prototype they can show investors to raise money or show their boss to gain support for the project.
If this is the case then with the client’s blessing you can shoot for “good enough” and get to market quicker with the understanding that rework will be necessary for scalability and robustness.
Distract the developers
Let me start by saying that I’m a developer and no disrespect is intended.
If the client has in-house developers you may find yourself stepping on some toes by creating software their developers feel they could create internally. Never mind that they’ve never created a single line of code designed to run on a kiosk and they’re completely slammed with other projects.
Try to involve their developers in the project so they feel a sense of personal ownership by giving them little parts (distractions) to do.
If they can make some minor changes to the project they’ll feel a sense of ownership and defend the project as if it was their own.
When possible allow the customer to own the code
Don’t give aware your super-secret framework or anything but as much as possible allow the client to own the source code and IP. They’ll appreciate that.
Invest in long-term relationships
There are some relationships that are worth investing in and that often requires biting the bullet by giving away your time for free on the front-end.
This is particularly true when dealing with larger potential clients. I’m not talking about becoming an investor in some longshot project I’m referring to investing in a relationship that will bring you sales for years to come.
Hopefully the tips in this article will save you from making some of the same mistake that we have.
Please also checkout my article on How to Choose the Right Kiosk Clients – 22 Useful Vetting Questions.
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ST. PAUL, Minn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–3M and 3M Innovative Properties Co. filed a patent infringement lawsuit in federal district court in Wilmington, Del., today against Elo Touch Solutions Inc.
“3M strives to provide its customers with the most innovative materials and solutions for their products. The company is committed to protecting its investments in research and development for projected capacitive technology and vigorously defends its intellectual property rights”
The suit alleges that certain Elo Touch projected capacitive products infringe 3M’s U.S. Patents 8,179,381, 8,274,494, 8,704,799 and 9,823,786.
Metal mesh conductor technology is widely used in the construction of projected capacitive touch sensors for consumer and commercial applications. Metal mesh conductors have broad applicability across touch sensors of all sizes, in particular, large-format touch sensors often utilized in interactive whiteboards, conferencing systems, casino gaming machines, digital signage displays, and fast-food self-ordering systems.
“3M strives to provide its customers with the most innovative materials and solutions for their products. The company is committed to protecting its investments in research and development for projected capacitive technology and vigorously defends its intellectual property rights,” said Makoto Ishii, vice president and general manager, 3M Display Materials and Systems Division.
Learn more about 3M Touch Solutions at www.3M.com/touch.
About 3M
At 3M, we apply science in collaborative ways to improve lives daily. With $30 billion in sales, our 90,000 employees connect with customers all around the world. Learn more about 3M’s creative solutions to the world’s problems at www.3M.com or on Twitter @3M or @3MNews.
3M Media Contact:
Lori Anderson, 651-733-0831
Notes
Here is the actual complaint — ELO-3M-04313848846
Here are the patents involved:
Technology is coming to town — though it won’t be home for Christmas — for Cleveland Utilities customers who like the idea of paying their monthly bills at any time day or night, and any …
Source: clevelandbanner.com
Kiosk liability remains with the machine’s owner; in this case, U.S. Payments Transaction Management Systems. By contract agreement, CU does not assume liability.
In answer to questions by Cleveland Mayor Tom Rowland, who represents the City Council on the utility governing body, Stinnett said CU’s drive-through business is determined by the day of the week and the time of the month.
He said some 100 CU customers used the drop box during the Thanksgiving holidays. By comparison, 11,000 utility payments were made online or by telephone over the same holiday period.
“We’re finding our customers want to be involved in the technology side,” Stinnett said. “The friendlier we make it for them, the easier we make it … the more accepting they are.”
Bart Borden, vice president of CU’s Electric Division, said TVA reports about a 6 to 7 percent energy savings among those power distributors that use a prepay system.
Having a hard time keeping up with the service support required by your clients? Join Pitney Bowes service delivery experts, Michael Mack and Ron Turlington alongside Craig Allen Keefner as they share details on current service staffing changes and how Service Delivery Innovation can improve your client experiences. https://lnkd.in/giBB3ix2 #servicedelivery #servicesupport #globalservices #pbemp
Here is the signup link
Interesting angle on service automation —
Take, for example, the repair and maintenance of kitchen equipment, a $28 billion annual expense industry-wide. Equipment downtime adds another $46 billion in annual lost revenue. According to ResQ’s 2022 State of Disrepair report, on-demand repairs of refrigeration and kitchen equipment top the list of full-service restaurants’ annual spending on service.
For years, restaurants have been relying on the accumulated expertise of veteran repair technicians to find and solve equipment problems. If service personnel didn’t have much experience, the restaurant paid for the technicians’ “education” through inevitable costs when out-of-service equipment caused kitchen downtime.
Service Intelligence is a new AI-powered technology, however, that puts the accumulated expertise of technicians who specialize in commercial kitchens into the palm of even the most novice technician.
Data stored in the smartphone app walks a technician step-by-step through diagnosis and solution of all sorts of problems on both cold-line and hot-line appliances. With all that experience available to them, technicians are able to get to the root of the problem, order the parts they need, and get the kitchen equipment back into operation as soon as possible.
AI and data-driven maintenance pushes repair companies toward the ultimate cost-saving goal: providing true prescriptive maintenance. Prescriptive maintenance is a concept that collects and analyzes data about an equipment’s condition to come up with specialized recommendations and corresponding outcomes to reduce operational risks. The purpose is to resolve issues before they become a problem while promising cost savings over routine or “time-based” preventive maintenance, because tasks are performed only when warranted. When companies have data across the lifetime of a machine, they will be able to fix problems before they even happen, causing no machine downtime and saving restaurants more money in the long-run.
The savings are subtle, but real: Kitchen equipment is better maintained and operates more efficiently. Problems that take equipment out of service can be resolved more quickly, reducing the hassles and costs of appliances that aren’t working. Service technicians spend less time on fixes and do it right the first time. Article link
Live, interactive webinar:
October 6, 2022 | 2:00 PM ET
Leverage world class service for competitive advantage.
If you’re having a hard time keeping up with the service support required by your clients, our experts are here to help.
Pitney Bowes service delivery experts, Mike Mack and Ron Turlington will be joined by Craig Keefner, Executive Director of the Kiosk Association. Together they will share details on all the current service staffing changes and how they may be impacting your organization and client experience. Join us for this 45-minute session to get your questions answered.
Learn more about:
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Current Marketplace and Service Delivery Challenges |
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Service Delivery strategies for Kiosk and Retail |
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How Service Delivery Innovation can improve your client experiences |
Learn to deliver an improved service experience in today’s changing marketplace. Join us on October 6.
Speakers:
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Michael Mack |
Michael is a senior business leader who has over 33 years of managed services experience with Pitney Bowes leading a broad range of business development, operational and consulting initiatives. His team provides comprehensive, strategic and flexible service delivery and support solutions to grow and optimize a client’s business. His team leverages industry recognized, best in class global technology enabled infrastructure, field technician network and service delivery industry expertise.
Michael lives in Ohio with his wife and two rescue dogs (Pugs) and is looking spoiling his first grandchild.
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Ron Turlington |
Ron Turlington began his career at Pitney Bowes as a member of the Service Delivery Innovation team just over 3 years ago. Bringing with him 14 years of experience in the financial services and armored car industry, Ron was quick to utilize key retail and quick service restaurant relationships to bring awareness of all that Pitney Bowes has to offer, generating several million-dollar opportunities with new logo clients in a variety of industries.
Residing in Florida, Ron can be found boating on the weekends or at dog shows with his Champion Labrador Retrievers, Whiskey and Natasha. With 2 kids of his own, and 3 step kids, all in their 20’s, there’s never a dull moment with activities happening year-round!
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Craig Keefner |
Craig spends most of his time as the manager for the Kiosk Association. In 1995 he served as moderator for the original Big 7 Usenet group. He has continued to work in the kiosk industry since then (27 years). In 2015 the industry players asked him if he would create the association and it has grown exponentially since then. He manages relationships with the U.S. Access Board, PCI SSC and other accessibility groups (NFB, RNIB, etc). He monitors all types of RFPs (100+ each week).
Craig attended the University of Tulsa for English and Philosophy. His English background has served him very well in the SEO world over the years.
*All registrants will receive an on-demand recording.
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TouchPay™ is the country’s only fully automated, real-time, stand-alone bill pay kiosk terminal that, in partnership with over
If you’re tired of getting in line at the bank or the mall for paying up your bills, TouchPay™ is the best solution to cut time and effort. All of the services you can think of are available at your fingertips: from electric bills, to internet, to flight tickets and booking, to remittance, to loading stations. There’s no need to wait in line that feels like forever when you can pay via TouchPay™ – Easy. Secure. Convenient.
Highest encryption on all data and transactions – even exceeding, encryption and protection used by financial institutions nationwide.
Send funds, pay bills, purchase prepaid cards, and load cards are performed instantly.
With a user-friendly interface, say goodbye to long lines to make over-the-counter payments.
… payment terminal that offers the ultimate convenience in all sort of payments incorporating speed, safety, and security, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Article from Brookings Register June 2021 —
Click for full size DMV Kiosk Motor Vehicle Registration
PIERRE – Twenty new license renewal kiosks have been placed throughout South Dakota, now offering additional services.
Previously, the DMV Now License Renewal Kiosks were fully automated motor vehicle registration renewal stations that dispensed only license renewal tags on the spot. Now, these kiosks are able to update contact information and mailing addresses.
Certain documentation is needed when completing your transaction at the kiosks. For all transactions, have your South Dakota Driver’s License or ID Card. For renewing your vehicle’s tags, bring a form of payment (credit or debit card).
Soon, customers will be able to report vehicles sold, print a seller’s permit, and renew their driver license. More information will be coming when those transactions are available on how those new transactions will work.
Ten new kiosks have replaced the old ten kiosks in the same locations they were held before. The other 10 kiosks have been placed in different areas throughout South Dakota.
Locally, one of the new kiosks is at Lewis in Brookings.
To find a kiosk location, visit https://dor.sd.gov/individuals/motor-vehicle/all-vehicles-title-fees-registration/#kiosks.
Please be aware that the new kiosks no longer have check readers. As a result, no ACH payments will be accepted at the kiosks. South Dakotans also have the option to complete these services electronically.
For online services from the Department of Revenue’s Motor Vehicle Division, visit https://apps.sd.gov/RV66Portal.
For online renewal services from the Department of Public Safety, visit https://apps.sd.gov/ps09onlinerenewal/default.aspx.
Not a real kiosk though it says it is. Small business is constantly taken advantage of with the “Ok to go cheap” singsong
Kiosks are easy to define but also confusing. We deal in electronic kiosks. Round structures in Turkey where village notices were published is the origin. And then came computers and electronic kiosks.
You’ll note that we often use the phrase “kiosk kiosks”. That indicates that whatever is being called a kiosk, is actually a kiosk. Many will call a collection of components scattered on a table, connected to touch screen a kiosk. It is not. The Remote Merchandising Unit or RMU is often called a “kiosk” but that is physical booth and not a machine.
From Investopedia
A kiosk refers to a small, temporary, stand-alone booth used in high-traffic areas for marketing purposes. A kiosk is usually manned by one or two individuals who help attract attention to the booth to get new customers. Retail kiosks are frequently located in shopping malls or on busy city streets with significant foot traffic and provide owners with a low-cost alternative to market their products or services.
Retailers want to invigorate sales and entice customers back into physical stores with self-service options that streamline transactions. KIOSK offers a portfolio of solutions for returns, payments, endless aisle, rentals, virtual support services, and more.
A real kiosk! KIOSK in Colorado makes this one for Amazon and Whole Foods it appears to us. Click for full size…
The closest “kiosks” to those might be modern-day RMUs or Remote Merchandising Units. Digital signage displays (airport departure and arrival times) centered in airport terminals are variations of the “informational kiosk”
Here is a collection of “definitions” which have been proffered, attempted by various entities. Public computer systems by Los Alamos has held up pretty well for 30 years.
Until recently, it was a small, rugged standalone structure often used as a newsstand, bandstand, or other commercial enterprise. The definition is evolving to include computer systems found in public places. These public computer systems are designed to provide an alternative avenue to reach information and services. The user is presented with an attractive structure that has been designed to provide a simple, friendly interface to novice computer users. It performs an easily automated task, freeing personnel from boring, tedious labor. Link
— It is a small, free-standing physical structure used for displaying information or selling products or services. It typically includes an interactive screen or touchpad for users to access information or complete transactions. They are commonly found in public places such as airports, shopping malls, and train stations.
Here is a “Shady Kiosk” from a Dollar General store. Is this a kiosk kiosk? Nope. It is desktop monitor stuck on a table. Apparently this kiosk “cost” a dollar to make.
What They Are NOT
Pictures
Hotel Hospitality Kiosk (by Olea)
Marijuana Vending Kiosk
The utilization of artificial intelligence has become a reality for SiteKiosk Online.
Click for full size
Over the past few months, a prototype of an AI-driven product advisor has been developed. This advisor offers suitable product recommendations and information by engaging users with specific questions and providing tailored responses.
The fusion of artificial intelligence and modern kiosk technology elevates the in-store shopping experience. By analyzing customer queries and preferences, the AI determines which products and deals might pique the user’s interest, displaying them graphically alongside detailed background information. Users can explore the product range by following suggested or customized questions, ultimately helping them find their desired product.
The architecture of PROVISIO’s AI Product Advisor bears a resemblance to the widely recognized AI software, ChatGPT. The AI advisor’s dataset encompasses all essential product information and can be continuously expanded by incorporating knowledge from various sources, such as user manuals.
Thanks to its extensive dataset, the AI can also tackle unexpected inquiries. For instance, if a customer needs guidance on activating a specific feature on their smartphone or tablet, the AI product advisor can promptly provide the relevant instructions, whereas a human employee might need to consult a physical manual. It’s important to note that the user manual must be available in digital text format for semantic search to function. Therefore, the AI product advisor not only aids customers during the product discovery phase but also assists on-site employees by streamlining manual look-ups.
Expansions to prompts and datasets are implemented manually, allowing adaptability to search trends and the incorporation of new products and special offers. Outdated data can be easily removed.
The use of AI in conjunction with kiosk solutions can enhance a wide range of product advisor and sales use cases. Through AI integration, even products outside the mainstream or niche markets can be effectively targeted toward end consumers.
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The PROVISIO team is ready to address any additional inquiries regarding the integration of AI into kiosk projects and is available for live demos of the software!
The full news article:
https://www.sitekiosk.com/
