At this year’s NAMA OneShow, MEI previewed its telemetry for full-line software and hardware solution. Many operators are excited about the productivity improvements they’ll be able to achieve by taking their machines online. But ironically, even if they had funding today, most operators wouldn’t be in position to deploy this technology for maximum benefit.

I recently moderated a panel at the NAMA OneShow called “Roadmap to Technology” and was very surprised at the level of interest in this topic. Close to 100 attendees participated to hear from "real users", which included Stuart Riemann from D&R, Scott Meskin from Black Tie and David Sours from CCBCU. 

The session revealed a lot about operators' current attitude towards technology. They sincerely believe that technology is necessary for business success in today's competitive environment.  But they still question what is the right approach to technology adoption. And they question what technology is the "right" technology, how much is needed, and at what cost.

I was impressed with the thoughtfulness of the questions as to how best to choose, implement and utilize technologies in a cost effective way. The participants really seemed to get the point that technology in itself is not a magic bullet. It is part of a larger strategy where business success is dependent upon the intersection of disciplined processes, responsible, accountable people, and technology suited to business and ROI objectives.

Joel Kota from Total Office Management recently posed this question, which I wanted to share with other operators,"We are looking to setup our vending machines with remote management and logging. We want to develop our own software to run on our web server and was wondering weather you supply the telemeters only? We have 10 machines for a test run and will be moving to 300 within a 2 year period."

I recently got this question from Daniel, a vending operator. Unfortunately, there is not a simple answer, but here is how I responded:

Whether deciding to add a banknote recycler or to go cashless or to integrate some combination of payment accepting devices, we are typically asked the same question: What criteria do you use to determine what payment device to invest in and when?

We usually respond with with three or four criteria such as vend price, but the one thing that we always include is location. The specific location of your vending machine is a critical element in the equation because it affects what is being sold, the volume, the risk for vandalism, and what types of payment are most prevalent. Here are just a few examples:

The technology in the vending community is expanding the ability for vending operators to enhance the user experience, deliver more payment options, keep machines running, and increase the efficiencies of operations.

Much of this new technology lies in the telemetry arena, enabling the use of credit cards and closed payment systems, along with alarm management and dynamic scheduling applications.  While there is a significant upside to having telemetry in your machines, until now, once you choose a vendor for dynamic scheduling or alarm management, you’re effectively locked in.

An operator recently asked us what equipment he would need to monitor a 6 vending machine location. I wanted to share my response:

In order to remotely monitor 1 or more vending machines, you’ll need an MEI telemeter in each machine. MEI is unique in only requiring 1 of the machines to use a cellular modem to call out with all the others networked to talk to the one machine calling out. You can set the type of alarms you want to monitor and whether you want the machines to call out at a set time or as soon as an alarm is triggered.