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Technology is increasingly essential in the world of vending. It used to be that coin mechs and bill validators were the biggest vending solution focuses for an operator. But today, the modern operator has many different types of vending technology to focus on. From cashless readers to vending management systems, smartphone apps and remote monitoring solutions – operators have never had so much technology to help grow their operation.
According to Vending Market Watch’s 2019 State of the Industry Report, adoption of vending technology continues to grow substantially. From 2017 to 2018, the number of operators collecting vending data via telemeter or cashless device increased from 38.4% to 41%. Plus, the number of operators using a Vending Management System increased from 65.9% to 72.7%. Also, active micro market locations have increased from 2,642 in 2012 to over 25,000 in 2018 – an increase of over 800%. All this data points to one thing: modern vending operations are becoming more and more reliant on technology.
Turning to technology can have great returns for an operator, and businesses that implement a tech-based vending solution early can find huge success. But, with all the different technology available, implementation can be difficult. Using many different technology providers and suppliers can be a headache. If an operator can find a business that supplies all their vending solution needs, implementation is much easier, and ROI can be much higher.
We’ll look at two scenarios with ABC Vending Company who runs a modern day operation focusing on vending services, office coffee, and micro markets. The company sees the value in cashless readers, vending management systems, and micro market kiosk technology. In Scenario 1, they’ll use many different suppliers for their technology needs. In Scenario 2, they’ll use one supplier for their vending solution.
Scenario 1:
ABC Vending Company picks three different providers for the three services: they buy cashless readers from Company A, use a vending management system from Company B, and utilize Company C as their micro market provider. In this scenario, they don’t have one single provider for their vending solution, and ABC Vending Company has significant challenges.
Communication is difficult.
ABC Vending Company has three different salespeople, three different support teams, and three different logins for their three technology providers. If something goes wrong, like their cashless reader won’t export data to their VMS correctly, who do they call? Who takes responsibility? How quickly does the issue get fixed? With two suppliers trying to figure it out, fixing issues can be a pain.
A big picture view is hard to come by.
These three service providers can’t talk to each other without specific integrations. So what does that mean for the operator? It means that ABC Vending Company cannot get a holistic view of their company without time-consuming importing / exporting of data. Costs, revenues, and profits from their different lines of businesses aren’t easily identifiable – it takes work to make their figures match up.
Training is time intensive.
With three service providers, the company will have to train warehouse personnel, route drivers, service techs, and other workers on how to use each platform. This can take a massive amount of time and can lead to confusion when utilizing different services. Plus, new hires will need to learn all three systems – making the onboarding process much more difficult.
Scenario 2:
ABC Vending Company picks a single, all-in-one provider for all of their services: they buy cashless readers, a vending management system, and micro market kiosks all from Company A. In this scenario, ABC Vending Company takes a streamlined approach, uses one provider for their vending solution, and finds many benefits from using an all-in-one provider.
Communication is simplified.
The vending company has one point of contact to satisfy all of their technology needs. If something goes wrong, like their micro market won’t communicate with their management system, they know exactly who to call. They call the support line for their all-in-one provider, and the issue gets resolved. No finger-pointing, no lack of accountability, no back and forth. Since the all-in-one provider runs both the kiosk and the management system, the issue can be fixed with ease.
A holistic view of your company is easy to see.
All of your company’s data is in one place – no integrations required. Hundreds of reports can be generated for all of your company’s business lines – micro market, vending, and office coffee data all lives in one place. You can see the exact figures about the entirety of your company and take informed actions as a result.
Training is easy.
With one service provider, training your personnel is a breeze. Each employee has one platform to login to, one system to learn, and one system to use. There is no confusion coming from switching back and forth between web pages or apps. Plus, new employees only have to learn one system, not multiple.
In this thought experiment, embracing an all-in-one system like the one provided by Parlevel is the clear choice. With one service provider, communication is simplified, it’s easy to analyze your company as a whole, and training your employees is easy.
Parlevel provides an all-in-one system to help modern day operators run multiple business lines with ease. By offering credit card readers, vending management solutions, micro markets, and other services that run off the same platform, injecting technology into a vending company is simple and easy. By switching over to an all-in-one system, vending operators can reap all the benefits of modern technology without the headaches of dealing with multiple providers – increasing their ROI as a result.
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