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News Archive |
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Friday, 29 August 2008
ECT News Network: As the general population becomes more comfortable with high-tech gadgets, retailers are looking for ways to incorporate them into the shopping experience. An assortment of devices, including touchscreens, kiosks and so-called "smart" shopping cards, are now available to help customers buy smarter and faster, reducing the need for customer service while boosting satisfaction.
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Friday, 29 August 2008
Philly.com: The bicycles were red, shiny and inviting, lined up along a rack near a bustling farmers market. Max Menna, 37, noted the chain cover to protect clothing. He used his hands to measure the front rack — good for securing briefcases or backpacks. He stepped back to inspect the vehicle's construction. "I was just in Paris, and I was thrilled to see their program and all the bikes on the street," Menna said. "If we can approximate that, we'll achieve something."
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Thursday, 28 August 2008
Coolfer.com: Borders issued its Q2 2008 earnings release today. For the quarter ended Aug. 2, the company had a loss of $2.6 million on revenue of $758.5 million. In a conference call, Borders chief executive George Jones disclosed his company's plan to roll out interactive kiosks to all Borders Superstores later this year.
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Thursday, 28 August 2008
FRESNO, Calif. — Continental Prison Systems Inc., a provider of prison kiosk technology that streamlines the inmate release process and a growing provider of the cost-reducing process for loading funds onto an inmate's account over the Internet or through a kiosk, has announced that the EZ Kiosk and EZ Card divisions of Continental Prison Systems Inc. have successfully completed and signed a service agreement with a 550-bed Colorado prison facility.
"This agreement will allow our EZ divisions to begin installing EZ Card and EZ kiosks that include a booking kiosk which will handle bookings and bail, a trust funds kiosk that will handle all monies deposited to inmate accounts, as well as online bail trust fund loads and EZ Cards debit release card," said Ron Hodge, president and chief executive of Continental Prison Systems. "CPSZ expects financial services revenues during the initial three-year term to exceed $400,000."
Thursday, 28 August 2008
Business of Cinema.com: The seven-screen multiplex Fame Malad in Mumbai, India, has introduced a specially designed ticket ATM kiosk, which provides tickets on the spot. This machine is the first of its kind in the western region. The ticket ATM kiosk has been in use for a week now, however the official launch is likely to take place Aug. 28.
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Thursday, 28 August 2008
Australian IT: The ABC has forged partnerships with fellow public broadcasters in Britain and Canada to pool ideas on emerging broadcasting technologies as it seeks to cement its foothold in the rapidly evolving digital world. The national broadcaster's next digital drawcard, planned for a November launch, would be a mobile interactive kiosk that would enable viewers to tape themselves talking about whatever they want.
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Thursday, 28 August 2008
Business of Cinema.com: The seven-screen multiplex Fame Malad in Mumbai, India, has introduced a specially designed ticket ATM kiosk, which provides tickets on the spot. This machine is the first of its kind in the western region. The ticket ATM kiosk has been in use for a week now, however the official launch is likely to take place Aug. 28.
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Thursday, 28 August 2008
WCBS (New York City): If you're on the outside looking in at Manhattan's Ralph Lauren Rugby Store not only can you find out how much the new fall looks cost but now you can buy them all without ever stepping foot inside the store. WCBS highlights this popular digital merchandising project in this video segment.
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Wednesday, 27 August 2008
BERKSHIRE, England — Black Cat Displays has announced that 21 of its customised Opus interactive touchscreen kiosks are installed in the prestigious National Cold War Museum, Cosford, U.K. The customised version of the information kiosks was chosen for its compatibility with the museum building and its existing signage.
One of the advantages of the Opus interactive kiosks is the ability to deliver multimedia content about visitor information on the exhibits and museum, along with a timeline of the cold war, in addition to educational games to entertain children.
The ergonomic design of the Opus interactive kiosk does not dominate its surroundings and allows for easy wheelchair user access and operation, without compromising its compact size or shape, in addition to a design that caters for children and tall adults.
Opus interactive kiosks are elegant, functional, yet robust terminals designed to provide solutions in a wide range of applications. With a small footprint, the rugged steel construction allows for silk-screening and color customization, along with optional illuminated bezels. Designed for easy access, with a lockable front-opening panel, the Opus interactive kiosk is available in informational or transactional versions to suit the application.
The Opus interactive kiosks feature a high-brightness 17.1-inch color TFT display, with optional resistive or surface wave touchscreen technology. It comes with a PC with network support, an integrated kiosk speaker and complete system power supply. It includes options for a magnetic or smart card reader, thermal printer, keyboard, track ball mouse, telephone handset and camera.
Wednesday, 27 August 2008
ATLANTA — Insight Imaging, a national provider of diagnostic imaging services, and Clearwave, a health care technology company focused on streamlining administrative processes, have announced that 16 Clearwave kiosks have been deployed at Insight's centers to ease the patient check-in process.
Eight kiosks were introduced at Insight's Dallas-Fort Worth area facilities while eight were installed in certain California locations.
The Clearwave kiosk system affords Insight Imaging the ability to verify insurance eligibility in real time, increasing the company's capacity to manage its health care operations more efficiently, while streamlining financial and administrative processes.
Through HIPAA-compliant standards, Insight's front desk staff are now able to check in patients and verify eligibility in real-time, as well as determine benefits and patient responsibilities at the time of service. This provides Insight Imaging the opportunity to increase cash flow, lower collection costs and decrease potential year-end write offs related to bad debt.
During the roll out, Clearwave also successfully integrated with Insight's practice management system via Clearwave's Health Level Seven interface. Through this new functionality, Clearwave provides the only fully integrated kiosk solution that also provides a real-time eligibility check.
"At Clearwave, we are working to help the health care industry shift its mentality to one that is focused on conducting business at the time of service where eligibility and benefits can be immediately verified and patient payment accepted," said Gerard White, chief executive of Clearwave. "Insight Imaging fully recognizes this sense of urgency and the importance of advancing within the healthcare industry. This is evidenced by its commitment to work with us to provide technology capable of enhancing customer service and reimbursement efforts while offering a positive and convenient patient experience."
Wednesday, 27 August 2008
NORTH CANTON, Ohio — Diebold Inc. is strengthening its presence in the South American financial self-service market. After signing one of the industry's largest ATM deals in May with Brazil's Caixa Economica Federal, Diebold has further strengthened its position through a deal with Brazil's largest financial institution, Banco do Brasil.
According to a news release, Banco do Brasil will use the more than 5,400 ATMs and check dispensers it has purchased from Diebold to expand its reach to new and existing customers at its branches and new retail locations.
Diebold is providing around 3,500 ATMs and 1,900 checkbook-printing terminals. The new ATMs, which are replacing older units, will include encrypting PIN pads and advanced anti-skimming technology, electronic-access control and safe-locking capabilities.
Diebold also will provide the software platform and operating system to drive the ATMs.
"We're excited to assist Banco do Brasil in expanding its network, increasing ATM security and promoting its brand at a time when Brazil is experiencing such exceptional growth," said Joao Abud Jr., president of Diebold Brazil. "This expansion will enable the financial institution to reap significant benefits from its high-visibility position, as well as from its top-quality customer service."
Banco do Brasil has 40,000 ATMs in Brazil and is participating in a countrywide trend to replace ATMs 10 years of age or older.
Wednesday, 27 August 2008
LONDON — Leading technology company Knowledge Online announced the launch of its E-SURVEY software to the vending and kiosk industry. The new technology will significantly improve the speed and accuracy of surveys through the convenience of real-time and automated survey creation on a PDA, according to a news release.
The new venture will see field-based sales employees equipped with handheld PDAs, loaded with the E-SURVEY software. All the traditional paper-based forms will be programmed into the new electronic format. This new system will provide real-time survey submission to the business, resulting in a faster sign-off process for site selection.
With less need for manual survey write-ups, which in turn reduces the margin of error and double entries, the software ultimately raises sales levels through improved productivity and accuracy.
Other benefits that this new solution can deliver include the increased productivity of employees, notably:
- Field-based staff are no longer required to write up survey submissions manually, which includes processing multiple photographs. This allows them more time to spend with customers and prospects.
- The accuracy of information submitted via automated screen prompts on the PDA ensures that all surveys are correctly filled in, resulting in no return visits or delays in the submission process.
- The faster approval process improves the communication process with the client providing differentiation from any competitors.
"E-SURVEY is an essential component to industry where real-time data collection is a vital part of the company's business model," said Andy McDonald, managing director of KOL. "Unlike paper-based reporting, it allows clients to build their own complex task-based forms and download these to their mobile workforce. By working in real time, long decision processes can be instantly reduced, increasing the profitability and productivity of a company."
Tuesday, 26 August 2008
Grocery self-checkout systems please consumers by providing the ability to manage purchases and control the experience quickly, but some shoppers still prefer cashier-supported systems for scanning, bag packing or taking payment.
Retailers like the systems because they are reliable, cost effective and user friendly · benefits that, for many, outweigh the deployment expense.
New self-checkout systems now combine the best of full- and self-service options.
Fujitsu U-Scan Genesis
Fujitsu Transaction Solutions recently added cashier support to its Hypermarket U-Scan Genesis Payment Station. The concept joins the payment station with the company's iPAD handheld mobile computer and any standard checkout conveyor belt.
This capability allows customers to unload items from their carts onto the cashier-operated conveyor. The cashier then scans items using an iPAD or an integrated Metrologic scanner/scale, and the items are passed to a collection area for bagging. The customer tenders payment at the payment station. Highlights of the payment station include three levels of security against theft and human error: overhead video cameras, a bagging station with weigh scale, and an attendant.
The move to add a cashier support option was fueled by customer demand.
"This really was a customer-driven solution coming from one of our larger European customers who wanted a large basket solution that could move customers forward faster," said Paul Burel, U-Scan marketing manager for Fujitsu Transaction Solutions. "They already had U-Scan lanes and wanted to find a way to use automation to improve customer service via reducing queues at their staffed registers."
By splitting transactions into two steps · itemization and tendering · customers are pulled forward in the queue 40 to 50 percent faster and spend less time waiting in line. Cashiers can focus exclusively on the customer and their items. The payment process takes place at a separate payment station so there is never an issue with cashier balancing, till counting, or till audits.
"When customers unload their cart onto the belt, they can then move forward to the payment station," Burel said. "Since the customer moves down beyond the end of the belt to begin bagging, the space is free for the next customer. In addition, the customer can tender while the cashier bags the customer's items overlapping tasks and times to shorten the overall transaction time."
NCR FastLane
NCR Corporation has also added a cashier-supported option. FastLane systems combine barcode scanning and cashier assistance. The system also offers a variety of unload and bagging options to accommodate any retail environment including a one, two or three-and-a-half bag station or a take-away belt with collection area.
"An attendant mode option allows the cashier to scan items, provide intervention immediately for restricted items, and complete the transaction at the self-checkout," said Carrie Smola, FastLane product marketing manager. "This feature can also allow the consumer to tender the transaction after the cashier completes scanning."
Smola says this feature was requested by retailers to help increase their front-end throughput during peak periods and is currently featured as a software option on all current NCR FastLane configurations.
Wincor Nixdorf iCASH
Wincor Nixdorf International has added a cash and coin recycling solution called iCASH. "It can be cashier-facing and assist with transactions with self-service features, or it can be totally customer-facing where the cashier never touches cash, or it can be a combination of both," said Chad Wagner, Wincor Nixdorf director of marketing.
The iCASH 15 is a closed coin recycling system with attended self-service inpayments and outpayments. It features automatic coin handling instead of a cash drawer. The iCASH 10 features automatic note handling at the point of sale, and the iCASH 50 and iCASH 100 are both closed note recycling systems at the point of sale or cash office. With cash recycling, cash that is deposited in a POS system can be made available for dispensing after it has been authenticated by the system. This drastically reduces expenses associated with counting, sorting, and transporting cash, and stores are able to cut the volume of change held in storage.
This reduces waiting times at the checkout, and provides greater customer satisfaction and considerable operational savings.
"With iCASH cash solutions a customer can enter coins and notes without a cashier touching the money," said Mark Vanvoorden, vice president of Wincor Nixdorf U.S. retail. "The cashier doesn't have to go to the back office to count money, but can drop the money into a machine and in seconds will see how much money has been entered into the iCASH machine, which saves a lot of time and frustration."
The system has been deployed in Europe over the last few years and in April 2008 it was officially introduced to the U.S. market.
Not everyone is sure about how this technology is changing the role of the cashier. Vanvoorden pointed out a successful pilot project Wincor has with a large gasoline c-store industry leader · Wincor's Shell convenience stores in Germany · that is using iCASH. Customers can insert coins as part of their transaction and receive coin change directly to them with the cashier handling only the note part of the transaction.
"We have connected each store with a POS system and an iCASH 15 coin recycler and iCASH 50 note recycler," Vanvoorden said. "The customer pays for gasoline and buys some other items, scans the items and is told the amount to pay. The customer enters payment notes into the recycler and is automatically accepted and verified because he is using real money. The cashier creates a higher customer satisfaction by providing better customer service and is also able to sell and promote more, and shrinkage is eliminated to the maximum because everything is driven via the machine."
Fujitsu's Burel offers up a few points about the changing role of the cashier as well. "There are now so many metrics, reports, write-ups, complex processes and stress in the cashiering job that it's really a pressure cooker of a job," he said. "At the end of the day, they do more than their share of the 'heavy lifting' in retail. On the other side of the counter, that 'personal interaction' may be far less valued than it once was."
In recent years, studies have pointed out that customers simply want to get out of the store and, if automation is the faster path, then so be it. "Cashier friendliness is still a primary customer service metric, but it's not at the top of the list," Burel said. "Speed of checkout and accuracy are interchangeably ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in most studies. Basically, time has literally become a form of currency and customers are telling us that they expect us to be more cognizant and respectful of their time, or they'll shop somewhere else."
Tuesday, 26 August 2008
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Advisory Board of the Digital Signage Association has elected its first executive committee, with Stu Armstrong, president of EnQii North America, named the first president of the Association.
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Newly-elected DSA president Stu Armstrong.
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Along with electing a president, the DSA Advisory Board also elected vice presidents representing various constituencies. Those elected include:
- President – Stu Armstrong, EnQii North AmericaVice
- President, Vendors – Charles Ansley, Symon Communications and Dick Trask, Scala
- Vice President, Users – Margot Myers, United States Postal Service
- Vice President, Integrators & Pro A/V – Tom Johnson, Digital AV
- Vice President, Network Operators – Rocky Gunderson, SeeSaw Networks
- Vice President, Agencies/Brands – Jacquelyn Corbett Cyr, Espresso | Brand Infiltration
"The contribution of the Digital Signage Association and its membership is critically important to the growth of the industry," said Armstrong. "As the DSA Advisory Board's first president, I hope to start paving the way for the Association to contribute to the accelerated industry growth and excellence of digital signage deployments worldwide."
"We're delighted to have the high caliber of people on our Advisory Board and their enthusiasm for helping the Association and the industry it serves," said Dick Good, chief executive of NetWorld Alliance and DSA chairman.
The Digital Signage Association was formed in October 2007 and now has more than 100 members. The Advisory Board will hold its next meeting Sept. 16 in Philadelphia, in conjunction with the Digital Signage Expo East.
Tuesday, 26 August 2008
Yahoo! News: Baljeet Singh, who lives in the Indian village of Bhainsa, receives a fatty sum every year during the sugarcane season, which he places in his bank account. Being a valued customer, his bank manager offered him an ATM card, explaining the card's numerous benefits. But the septuagenarian farmer turned down the offer and still adheres to old practices of money withdrawal. A majority of farmers from this sugarcane belt are averse to using an ATM card, a new banking technology that is being promoted by bankers in order to reduce pressure on banks.
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Tuesday, 26 August 2008
DAYTON, Ohio — NCR Corp. today unveiled NCR Prescription Drop-off, a secure self-service kiosk solution that makes it simpler for retail pharmacy customers to drop off and pay for prescriptions during and after business hours.
On display this week at the 2008 National Association of Chain Drug Stores Pharmacy & Technology Conference in San Diego, this multichannel solution helps customers avoid lines and eliminate multiple trips to the pharmacy by simplifying routine transactions. New prescriptions are submitted via kiosk while refill requests can be made via kiosk, phone or Web. Once the request is made, the patient receives a barcoded receipt and the request is forwarded to the pharmacist. When the order is ready, an e-mail, phone or text alert is generated and sent directly to the customer, who presents the barcoded receipt to the cashier or pays for the prescription on the kiosk.
According to a 2007 study conducted by Wilson Health Information, an independent health-care consumer research company, convenience is one of the top three drivers of pharmacy customer satisfaction along with price and overall professional services. The same study also found that short lines, convenient store hours and 24-hour pharmacy access are key drivers to customer satisfaction.
A leader in self-service solutions across industries, NCR is extending the dependability, ease of use and convenience of its self-service solutions to new areas, including health care.
"Retail pharmacies face a significant challenge when it comes to meeting consumer demands and building loyalty," said Chakri Toleti, vice president of health care industry marketing for NCR. "Self-service technology gives pharmacies the opportunity to minimize wait times for their customers — a key factor for increasing satisfaction and overall convenience. It also enables pharmacists to spend less time receiving prescriptions, which frees them up to focus on more productive tasks, such as answering medication-specific questions."
The pharmacy drop off solution also allows pharmacies to target the distribution of relevant health information to customers. When picking up prescriptions, customers have the option of printing information about specific drugs or conditions at the kiosk or requesting that this information be sent to them as an e-mail.
Tuesday, 26 August 2008
(Green Point, South Africa) News24.com: Open source software costs nothing to own, and now costs nothing to obtain thanks to a group of entrepreneurs determined to get around the problem of expensive bandwidth in South Africa. The Freedom Toaster originally started in 2005 as a project by the Shuttleworth Foundation as a software kiosk where anyone can burn — or "toast" in Linux jargon — open source software such as Linux and other information onto CDs and DVDs.
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Tuesday, 26 August 2008
MarketingVOX.com: Five dozen bands played to thousands at the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park Aug. 22-24. And the three-day event was well-documented — not by local cable stations and newspapers, but by the thousands of digerati that attended. To complete the scene, pavilion kiosks were spread throughout the venue. From those kiosks, concertgoers could upload and tag digital content, which was aggregated into an online media stream. Site visitors can search by tags (e.g., "stage one tree grove") to find specific content and interact with others through posts and comments, much like on a social network.
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Tuesday, 26 August 2008
United Press International: The Internet networking site MySpace is hosting a bevy of activities and events related to this week's Democratic National Convention in Denver, the site said. The MySpace activities are part of the company's IMPACT initiative, a statement said Monday. The MySpace Cafe is serving as a home base for, among others, bloggers, journalists, delegates and the general public where they can enjoy free wireless Internet, kiosks to check their MySpace and blog about convention happenings.
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Monday, 25 August 2008
Progressive Grocer: Increasing wait-times are fueling consumer demand for self-service options at the pharmacy counter, according to consumer research that claims seven out of 10 pharmacy shoppers expressed interest in having a kiosk to pickup and drop off their prescriptions — including when the pharmacy is closed — according to a new study by pharmacy research firm Wilson Health Information LLC. In the The WilsonRx Pharmacy Satisfaction Survey, more than 70 percent of pharmacy shoppers said they wait in line five or more minutes to pick up their prescriptions, a 10 percent increase from last year.
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Monday, 25 August 2008
In-Forum News: A screaming child with a late-night earache will make any parent’s skin crawl. Not only may the pain trigger a trip to the emergency room, but the chances of getting needed medications before morning often are nil. Hospitals can’t stop ear infections, but several are addressing the prescription problem by installing ATM-style machines that dispense drugs.
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Monday, 25 August 2008
TechJournal South: After 9/11, governments worldwide increasingly sought ways to assure that a person using a passport or other ID documents was who he claims to be. That opened large government markets for Daon, which sells biometric security software. Now the industry is moving from fingerprints and iris scans to multimodal biometrics, says Cheryl Walker Waldrup, Daon director of global marketing.
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Monday, 25 August 2008
The Times of India: By 2010, all train passengers would have instant access to unreserved tickets from even the remotest corner in the country. What is more, they would be able to buy a ticket not just from the stations but several public kiosks as well, according to India's Centre for Railway Information System.
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Monday, 25 August 2008
MediaWeek: Paul King, the chief executive of Hercules Networks, was all set to be a lawyer. Three years ago, his bags were packed for Northwestern University, but he couldn't shake his "big idea": a network of cell phone and PDA recharger kiosks that would be as ubiquitous as ATMs. Days before he was supposed to show up at Northwestern, King changed his career plans and became an out-of-home media entrepreneur instead. "My parents disowned me for a little while," recalls King. "But I knew I only had one shot at this."
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Friday, 22 August 2008
Eastbourne Herald Gazette: Hailsham, England, now has an improved tourist information service. An electronic touchscreen kiosk, incorporating the latest technological features, allows residents and visitors to access a wealth of tourist and community information, health advice and local education and employment opportunities. Other features include the ability to print digital photographs and an e-mail service for those with or without an e-mail address.
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Friday, 22 August 2008
TechCrunch.com: There are plenty of self-service applications for Microsoft Surface. Among them is software created by VectorForm for BMW. The consumer can place a small model of the car he wants to learn more about on top of the Surface. The display then brings up an interactive brochure, and the consumer can change the color of the vehicle by placing different colored tiles on the table.
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Friday, 22 August 2008
The Times of India: Vansh Infotech Ltd., an India-based kiosk deployer, will receive a special award from the Indian state of Maharashtra. Nearly 65 CFC kiosks operate in the city, where citizens can pay property tax bills, electricity and telephone bills. Nearly 200 citizens visit the kiosks every day.
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Friday, 22 August 2008
(New Delhi, India) Business Standard: State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. is converting the public call offices in Karnataka, India, into information and transaction kiosks with multiple service offerings like Web browsing, easy recharge of mobile phones amd ticket bookings. BSNL has entered into an understanding with chip maker Intel, multipurpose prepaid card firm ItzCash Card and Karnataka PC Owners' Association to launch the initiative.
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Friday, 22 August 2008
Kitchen & Bath Design News: Kimball Distributing, a leading distributor of luxury appliance lines with showrooms in Denver and Salt Lake City, has added Viking appliance kiosks to each of its showrooms, the company announced. The kiosks offer touchscreen access to Viking appliances, and display color choices, configuration options, product finishes, available accessories and pricing information for many of the Viking products that Kimball distributes.
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Thursday, 21 August 2008
ABERDEEN, N.C. — Mediaport Entertainment Inc., a provider of digital media content and global distribution, now provides the capability to offer digital entertainment in partnership with Meridian Kiosks, according to a news release.
The kiosks are full-service solutions that bring the ability to sell a library of more than one million songs from all the major recording labels, including the newest releases, which are updated on a weekly basis. The point-of-sale systems allow customers to burn or download custom mix selections or full album content to CDs, mobile phones, USB storage devices, flash cards and compatible digital music players in minutes. Other digital-on-demand products with download capability, such as ring tones, audio books, games and a movie downloads, also will be added later this year. Customers now can purchase their digital content on the go.
The advantages of deploying this technology, according to the news release, include:
- Customers spending more time in the deployer's location.
- Customers return to the deployer's location because they know they can get their favorite selections via a self-service experience.
- The customer can burn to a CD, DVD or download to a compatible portable music player, digital device or USB drive.
- The deployer can make additional money on the devices; Mediaport will help the deployer source and brand them.
Thursday, 21 August 2008
STAMFORD, Conn. — Pitney Bowes Inc., a mainstream technology company, and Asteres Inc., a provider of automated prescription pick-up kiosks, have announced a new agreement whereby Pitney Bowes will provide nationwide, on-site maintenance services and support for Asteres and its retail, health care and military customers.
Through the agreement, Pitney Bowes will act as an independent service provider, offering nationwide on-site repair and maintenance services to Asteres for its ScriptCenter kiosks. The automated prescription pick-up kiosks, which work like an ATM, allow consumers to pick-up and pay for their prescriptions when pharmacies are closed or without waiting in line when pharmacies are open. This enables retailers to extend prescription pick-up hours without adding staff and alleviating long lines at the pharmacy counter.
"Asteres is an innovator and industry leader in developing secure self-service kiosks for the storage and delivery of pharmaceutical products to consumers," said Joanne Boyd, vice president of business development and multi-vendor services for Pitney Bowes. "We are delighted to be collaborating with Asteres to help offer flexible repair services and maintenance solutions to their retail pharmacy customers for their automated prescription pick-up kiosk devices."
Thursday, 21 August 2008
(Lincoln, Neb.) KOLN-TV, Channel 10: For now, it's business as usual for Raul Omar Lobo; but just hours before, he chased down two men suspected of taking money from an ATM at his store. "We had a couple of guys come through the past couple days committing some ATM frauds. They hit our store and hit a few others around too," Lobo said.
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Thursday, 21 August 2008
SOUTHLAKE, Texas — Checking in for your flight from a taxi, in a café, even while dropping the kids off at school is now a reality with the launch of Sabre Airline Solutions' new Mobile Check-In.
Launched in conjunction with Italian carrier, AirOne, Sabre's latest innovative breakthrough allows passengers to check-in for a flight, and even select their seats, using a Web-enabled mobile phone. Mobile Check-In is part of the SabreSonic suite, Sabre's flagship customer sales and service solution, and integrates with other SabreSonic self-service check-in options including Web and kiosk check-in, providing airlines with the broadest range of check-in options across all customer touch points.
"Self-service check-in is now a priority for many airlines as they look for ways to cut costs," said Gordon Locke, vice president of Airline Marketing for Sabre Holdings. "Sabre's Mobile Check-In solution not only provides the cost benefits, more importantly it improves the customer experience, making check-in more accessible, easier and faster — a real bonus for time-constrained corporate travelers."
Thursday, 21 August 2008
Travis Kircher, editor of SelfService.org, contributed to this article.
U.S. Bank ($247 billion in assets), the lead bank of U.S. Bancorp and owner of Elan Financial Services, announced plans this week to acquire most of Palm Desert National Bank's Electronic Banking Division.
The deal includes the sale of California-based PDNB's ATM and kiosk-management services, as well as its cash-management and vault-cash operations, which manages nearly $1 billion in vault cash for more than 22,000 ATMs and kiosks in the United States.
PDNB's merchant processing, prepaid/stored-value cards and ACH services are not part of the deal. And financial terms of the sale, which is expected to close by late third-quarter or early fourth-quarter 2008, were not disclosed.
About 60 PDNB employees are expected to become part of Elan Financial Services, including key executives such as Sandra Hartfield, the president and chief executive of PDNB's Electronic Banking Division. Elan also plans to maintain PDNB's operations centers in Palm Desert, Calif., and Lafayette, La., where PDNB offers complete terminal-management and vault-cash solutions to financial institutions and independent sales organizations.
A changing industry
The sale marks a turning point for both companies — for U.S. Bank, a sign of continued growth; for PDNB, the ending of an era.
For the last three years, U.S. Bank's Elan, founded in 1997, has been on a buying spree to bulk its ATM-services portfolio. In May 2005, U.S. Bank acquired Genpass Technologies, operator of the MoneyPass, MoneyMaker and Money Belt ATM networks. The purchase made Elan the second-largest third-party ATM processor in the United States — second only to Colorado-based First Data Corp., which operates the STAR Network.
Elan operates more than 37,000 ATMs nationwide.
This deal with PDNB, says Gary Staub, Elan's executive vice president for strategic initiatives, offers similar rewards.
"We believe this deal makes us the largest provider of ATM and kiosk vault cash in the United States," Staub said. "We definitely have a solid presence in the ISO business now. The goal is to grow our payments business, and this deal expands our product offering."
For PDNB's Electronic Banking Division, founded in 1994, the sale marks a turning point, one that will take it from being a leader in vault-cash services for independent ATM operators to a provider of targeted services, such as prepaid and stored-value cards — which, among other things, target cash-preferred/underserved consumers.
PDNB is best known for its reverse-cash methodology — part of its TRAKKERSM software program, which automates backroom management, from cash forecasting and ordering to reconciliation and settlement. The system helped to revolutionize cash services for the ATM and kiosk industry.
The reverse-cash service developed by PDNB enabled deployers to provide more advanced financial self-service solutions, such as bill payment, which targets underserved consumers who prefer to use cash to pay bills.
"Palm Desert National Bank has been a pioneer in the ATM industry and we are proud of the part we have played in the ATM industry's growth," Hartfield said. "We have always been committed to providing exceptional products and service."
The sale to U.S. Bank, Hartfield says, will allow Elan to offer more comprehensive services to the industry.
PDNB's cash services helped fuel growth in the late 1990s for newcomers like Burnaby, British Columbia-based TIO Networks Corp., a billpay service provider that has worked closely with PDNB's Electronic Banking Division since its inception.
But Hamed Shahbazi, chairman and chief executive of TIO Networks, says the sale to U.S. Bank is a good and merely supports PDNB's desire to focus on "growth" businesses, like prepaid/stored-value services.
"I think a lot of this comes down to where the ATM industry stands currently, and vault cash not being a growth business," Shahbazi said. "I think it's an excellent event for the industry. Bringing together the two key innovators for vault cash, and eventually the whole back-office of the ATM, at a time when I think the industry needs leadership and innovation more than ever, brings together a lot of leadership to one company. All in all, two thumbs up. We love it."
Sam Ditzion, chief executive of Boston-based Tremont Capital Group, a strategic-planning, merger and acquisition ATM consultancy, says the deal is further example of the industry's consolidation.
"This transaction represents yet another example of the significant and continuing consolidation in each and every sector within the ATM industry," Ditzion said. "Stay tuned, as there will be much more to come."
Ditzion agreed that the deal may reflect PDNB's interest in other business opportunities.
"This is a very significant acquisition, as it clearly solidifies Elan's position as the overwhelmingly dominate player in the nation's non-bank ATM-vault-cash space," he said. "This deal might also be an indication that Palm Desert has reduced its appetite for risk and could reflect a decision to focus more on its core and higher growth businesses.”
Wednesday, 20 August 2008
USA Today: The demise of touchscreen voting has produced a graveyard of expensive corpses: Warehouses stacked with thousands of carefully wrapped voting machines that have been shelved because of doubts about vanishing votes and vulnerability to hackers. What to do with this high-tech junkyard is a multimillion-dollar question. One manufacturer offered $1 a piece to take back its ATM-like machines. Some states are offering the devices for sale on eBay and craigslist. Others hope to sell their inventories to Third-World countries or salvage them for scrap.
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Wednesday, 20 August 2008
CNET News.com: Internet companies including Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are planning to use this year's political conventions to show off their technology and products and, of course, host massive parties for employees, celebrities and politicians. Among one of the technology features at the conventions: Kiosks at which anyone can upload videos to YouTube.
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Wednesday, 20 August 2008
Newham Recorder: Three futuristic kiosks that help people get health information at the touch of a button have been launched in Newham, England. The free Wellpoint kiosks, in three Newham community centres, are interactive and use touchscreen technology. They offer health tests and signpost people to local and national health information. The tests give readings of height, weight, body mass index, body fat percentage, heart rate and blood pressure.
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Wednesday, 20 August 2008
The (Vancouver, Wash.) Columbian: Vancouver-based New Edge Networks has signed a three-year, $1 million contract to build and manage a private data network that connects airports across the United States. The network will be used by Florida-based InMotion Entertainment, which rents DVD and video game-playing equipment as well as DVDs through 55 stores in 30 airports. It will allow InMotion to sell digital downloads of movies and music through in-store kiosks.
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Wednesday, 20 August 2008
FREMONT, Calif. — Nexcom, an embedded Industrial PC provider, has expanded its digital signage territory by launching the new NDiS 161, according to a news release. The NDiS 161 is a reliable yet cost-effective digital signage media player with rich graphics, multiformat multimedia support and versatile connectivity.
NDiS 161, powered by Intel 945GME Chipset with support of Intel Core 2 Duo/Core Duo/Celeron M family, is designed to present versatile media content for maximum advertising impact. For the highest possible image quality, NDiS 161 integrates DVI-I, S-Video, SPFD and composite display output, and provides outstanding graphic and high-resolution (up to 1920 x 1080) performance with multiscreen display capability.
With the revolutionary fanless design, NDiS 161 has no rotary parts, no dust accumulation and no noise concerns during the operation. It saves system maintenance costs and is highly reliable for 24/7 operation. Thanks to its slim size (11" x 8.2" x1.6",WxDxH), NDiS 161 easily can be mounted behind large LCD screens. Moreover, the media and contents can be updated from a content management server via Gigabit Ethernet and optional wireless connectivity. Various interfaces included SATA 2.5" HDD, CF (Type I/II) and u-DOC are optimal for media and content storage.
If you are looking for highly expandable multimedia computer with rich I/Os, Nexcom provides another great solution. Digital Signage media player NDiS 361 provides the optimal solution with two PCI slots and one PCIe x16 expansions. NDiS361 targets high-end digital signage applications demanding large-size display devices.
Applications:
• Dynamic advertising and promotions in retail stores and grocery stores.
• Real-time flight information in airports, bus stations or train stations.
• News and event updates in casinos, gas stations and pubic environments.
• Entertainment in hotels, ocean liners, trains and airlines.
• Movie trailers and movie schedules in cinemas.
• Programs/schedules in museums and theaters.
NDiS 161 product highlights:
• Supports Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo/Core Duo/Celeron processors
• Intel 945GME chipset
• Fanless design and ultra-slim size (11" x 8.2" x 1.6")
• Wide-screen video resolution of up to 1920 x 1080.
• Multiscreen display supporting capability
• Storage: 1 x SATA 2.5" HDD, 1 x CF (Type I/II), 1 x u-DOC
• Video Interface: DVI-I, S-Video, S/PDIF, Composite video output
More info can be obtained by visiting Nexcom's Web site.
Tuesday, 19 August 2008
Two California companies have joined forces to bring self-service to a new type of deployment, one that improves the visitor-check-in process at businesses.
Santa Clara-based Sun Microsystems Inc. and San Diego-based APUNIX have launched a self-service application that not only allows Sun Microsystems employees and visitors to check themselves through security, but also allows employees to pre-register their business visitors online before they arrive. The system has worked so well that it's garnered quite a bit of attention from other companies.
"We've been approached by several companies who want to take a look at it and see how it functions," said Larry Kanzaki, security technology group manager for Sun Microsystems.
In an average year, about 150,000 visitors and 33,400 employees pass through the doors of one of Sun Microsystems' campuses, which are located in places like California, Mass., Singapore, India, and Japan. So Sun needed an efficient way to deal with the constant flow of security checks.
Sun conducts business in 160 countries around the world, and the system can be tailored to meet different security laws in different countries.The kiosks also feature a marketing video about Sun Microsystems in several different languages.
The new system has a number of advantages, said Steve Kruschke, manager of new technologies and applications at Sun. When employees register business visitors online before they arrive, not only does it take the paper trail out of the equation but it also saves visitors from having to wait in long lines at the security desk when they arrive.
The lobby officer already knows that a specific visitor is expected at a specific time. If a person will be visiting several days in a row, they only need to be registered once. And since visitors cannot pre-register themselves, the system has inherent levels of security.
"By having employees pre-register visitors, it greatly assists people with the speed in which they can check in," he said.
The system also runs background checks to ensure no visitor is on the Commerce Department Denied Persons List · a list of people who have been denied export privileges by the Commerce Department. The system also identifies the visitor's country of origin.
Before the new system, security officers manually issued paper badges. After the visit ended, the badges were returned to the lobby officer, who then filed the badges alphabetically in an archive.
With pre-registration, unmanned kiosks used at the security check save time as well, since a visitor can print out his own badge using a self-service touchscreen interface. Once a visitor is pre-registered, he simply keys in his name and a badge is issued. The employee being visited gets an e-mail or a page informing him that his guest has arrived.
The system also is helpful for employees who lose access cards. Employees can print out temporary badges at the kiosks.
The back end
In June 2005, Sun and APUNIX released the visitor-management system, which uses Sun's Solaris operating system on a Java platform. Sun wanted a system that used its own OS, as opposed to Windows, for business and marketing reasons. An off-the-shelf Solaris solution was not an option, since none existed.
APUNIX built the system with a content-development tool that designed the application without creating a completely new program.
"The real challenge was more in the self-service photo ID," a Sun requirement for security check-in, said APUNIX co-founder Peter Berens.
To work properly, the kiosk needed high-resolution image-capturing capabilities and automatic photo production. It also had to be fully integrated with the company's HR database.
Storing the information electronically has also made research more efficient and has cut costs. Before the new system, Sun stored old badges at an off-site location.
"It was a labor-intensive process to find those sheets of papers and logs," Kruschke said.
Sun said the system is also helping them cut costs.
"They needed to save money by automating the lobbies of their mini-campuses," Berens said.
Instead of having to pay a person to man each security desk in each location, the process is streamlined. But the human element is not completely removed. A central operator monitors the issuing of IDs, ensuring nothing slips through the cracks. Overall, however, the number of people needed for security is reduced.
Now APUNIX is working to expand its own customized product to new markets, allowing the company to break from traditional self-service applications for retail environments.
"We haven't found a vehicle to market it yet," Berens said. "We're looking for a distribution partner."
Tuesday, 19 August 2008
SMARTHOUSE: Sanity Entertainment has launched the first online music subscription service in Australia for Microsoft's Windows Media Player, and one that will be available through retail kiosks soon. According to the company, for $29 AUD (U.S. $25) a month, subscribers can download up to 300 music tracks each month, which equates to 3,600 tracks per year. The cost works out to be less than 10 cents per track, which compares to the recently released BigPond Music, which charges $1.49 AUD (U.S. $1.29) per track.
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Tuesday, 19 August 2008
ExpressIndia.com: The Delhi Jal Board is putting up collection kiosks at its offices across the city to ease the process of paying water bills. The agency has planned at least 12 user-friendly kiosks within its various offices. While the kiosk at the Jal Board's headquarters is ready and waiting to be inaugurated, the other 11 are likely to be commissioned soon, the Board's chief executive, Arun Mathur, said.
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Tuesday, 19 August 2008
The Irish Independent: Tim Hortons, the coffee and doughnut chain with self-service kiosks in Ireland, has reported growth in Canada and the United States. The chain, which is involved in a joint venture with food group IAWS, said second-quarter profit rose as it opened more restaurants and charged higher prices. Internationally, the company said the number of Tim Hortons sites in Ireland and the U.K. has expanded to 213 licensed locations, comprised primarily of self-serve kiosks.
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Tuesday, 19 August 2008
DUBLIN, Ireland — Research and Markets, an Ireland-based research firm, has released "Self-Service Strategies in South Africa 2007," a look at the current state and growth of the self-service industry in the area of South Africa.
The survey, conducted by Arthur Goldstuck, is based on in-depth interviews with major South African companies that represent an aggregate base of nearly 50 million customers. Respondents to the research include many of the country's largest banks, insurers, retailers and telecommunications firms.
"This report shows South African companies have realized that self-service is an imperative in a market where customers are looking for convenience and where customer support costs are spiralling out of control," said John Ziniades, chief executive of Consology, a South African self-service vendor. "Those businesses that embrace an integrated self-service strategy will outperform those that don't."
The report may be accessed by clicking here.
Tuesday, 19 August 2008
Scientific American: Navigating the complexities of everyday life depends on an array of cards and passwords that confirm a person's identity. But lose a card, and the ATM will refuse to give out money. Forget a password, and the computer may balk at a command. Allow cards or passwords to fall into the wrong hands, and what were intended to be security measures can become the tools of fraud or identity theft. Biometrics — the automated recognition of people via distinctive anatomical and behavioral traits — has the potential to overcome many of those problems, experts say.
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Tuesday, 19 August 2008
News.com.au: It's an invention that police have been keeping quiet, but now the Raminator's creator is revealing how his contraption has helped make ATM ram raids a thing of the past. The device, comprising a dual metal plate that acts as a shock absorber, has helped stop hundreds of ATM thieves since being introduced in Australia. Inventor Richard Gould, who will unveil the Raminator on ABC Television's The New Inventors program tomorrow night, says it is a simple idea that basically tilts the ATM on an angle and bolts it firmly in place when attacked.
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Monday, 18 August 2008
(Palm Beach, Fla.) WPBF-TV, Channel 25: A new postage system in West Palm Beach got a stamp of approval on Thursday. The main post office in West Palm Beach debuted its automated postal center. The self-service system allows customers to weigh and mail packages at any time.
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Monday, 18 August 2008
CUPERTINO, Calif. — Solidcore Systems Inc., a provider of software to detect and prevent unwanted change, has released POS Check and Control for easily securing and controlling distributed retail point-of-service systems and kiosks. The solution is based on Solidcore's "runtime control" technology that is designed to solve the rigors of POS security, malware protection and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard compliance with minimal system and operational overhead.
Solidcore protects nearly 100,000 POS systems worldwide. Unlike application whitelisting, host intrusion prevention systems and antivirus, Solidcore provides runtime control capabilities that deliver comprehensive security with low overhead. Runtime control ensures only pre-authorized software and code can run on POS systems while securely allowing software updates from trusted sources, such as those generated by retail coupon engines. Solidcore's runtime control also prevents disk tampering, and provides advanced memory protection to authorized software to defend against buffer overflow vulnerability attacks and zero-day exploits.
"Financially motivated, targeted attacks are definitely focusing on POS systems," said John Pescatore, vice president and analyst for Gartner. "As with all business-critical systems, merchants must ensure they start with secure POS software and configurations, and then implement and enforce strong change control and vulnerability management processes to make sure that only authorized updates are allowed."
A retailer can use Solidcore's POS Check and Control to quickly validate field-deployed POS images against a gold image standard. Once POS systems are established as "clean" systems, Solidcore's runtime control works to prevent any malicious code or other unauthorized programs from executing. This unique security solution will allow an in-store technician to login as an administrator and perform routine maintenance while simultaneously preventing that technician from adding to or tampering with the set of software that is authorized to execute on the POS device. This level of protection extends across all forms of access, from network to USB key.
Once secure, POS Check and Control reports on POS system changes in real-time for continuous PCI DSS compliance verification. This includes providing continuous information about change events such as who is making changes, where changes were made, when the change was made, how the change was implemented and what content changed.
"With both margin pressure and the number of publicized and unpublicized data breaches on the rise, retailers cannot afford to cobble together combinations of audit, antivirus and list-based security tools on their critical POS systems," said Anne Bonaparte, president and chief executive of Solidcore. "POS Check and Control goes beyond the security flavor-of-the-week by giving retailers the power to ensure their POS systems remain secure and only change when the merchant wants them to."
Monday, 18 August 2008
Progressive Grocer: Total transactions at self-checkout units in Strack & Van Til, a grocer, have surpassed $1 million, according to Progressive Grocer. Strack & Van Til installed self-checkout units in six stores in May. The chain was the first to install Pan-Oston's Utopia self-service check-out solution, which was developed specifically for independent grocers.
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Friday, 15 August 2008
Nashville (Tenn.) Business Journal: Nashville International Airport is the first airport to get a redbox, a fully automated DVD rental system with new release rentals for $1 per night. The system is being installed this week. Wright Travel Agency's agreement with the airport includes two rental kiosks.
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Friday, 15 August 2008
PaidContent.org: Jim Keyes is very passionate about setting the record straight about Blockbuster, after being declared dead at every point during the last decade. The year-old CEO of the video retailer is eager to clear up the misinterpretation about Blockbuster's competition with Netflix, only being a brick-and-mortar store, its now-abandoned quest to buy Circuit City and its recently-announced partnership with NCR to develop digital download movie kiosks. A complete transcript of the interview is only a click away.
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Friday, 15 August 2008
LONDON — Now in its third year, KioskCom Self Service Expo Europe, Europe's premier event for customer-facing technologies, is gearing up for another show this fall, according to a news release. This year, The Digital Signage Show Europe will run alongside Self Service Expo Europe for the first time, reflecting the growing synergy between these two technologies.
It's an exciting year for customer-facing technologies and a time of considerable change driven by the current economic climate and a need to reduce costs, increase revenues and improve customer service — the three biggest benefits of self-service technology deployment.
Returning to the show for 2008 are companies such as 3M, Key Technology, Protouch, Dicoll, Ritall, Verifone, GWD Media, YesPay, Rafi, St Clair and Star Micronics, among many others, and visitors will benefit from the show's expansion with first-time exhibitors including the likes of Box Technologies, New Vision, Storefront.com, Roku, Next Window, Nexcom, Wincor Nixdorf, Ingenico and RFID provider Freedom Shopping.
As well as providing great education and networking opportunities through its seminar program, Self Service Expo Europe and The Digital Signage Show Europe represents a unique opportunity for visitors to benefit from the depth of experience and expertise on offer from exhibitors in what can seem like a baffling array of technology to the untrained eye.
Visitors can sign up to receive their free visitor badge for the event by pre-registering at the shows dedicated Web site, www.selfserviceexpo.co.uk. Tickets will be issued before the event, allowing visitors to bypass the on-site registration procedures and avoid the inevitable queues on the day, guaranteeing fast-track entry.
Join us Oct. 1-2 in Olympia, U.K., and take a look at how your organization can get ahead with the latest in customer-facing technologies.
Friday, 15 August 2008
MEQUON, Wis. — D2 Sales LLC has announced that the Bert Fish Medical Center of New Smyrna Beach, Fla., has chosen the My Patient Passport Express kiosk for its patient check-in program, according to a news release.
The My Patient Passport Express kiosk allows patients to check in, make future appointments and update their medical history, all using a user-friendly touchscreen. Patients can use their credit card to make co-pay payments, and sign documents using the integrated electronic signature pad.
"The kiosk allows our clients to provide outstanding patient care and service while at the same time improving efficiency for the medical facility," said Sandra Nix, D2's chief executive.
The D2 My Patient Passport Express kiosk provides patients with the convenience of easy check-in, records updating, co-pay payment acceptance, wayfinding and mapping features.
Friday, 15 August 2008
MANCHESTER, England — MaxBox Digital Retail Ltd., a provider of leisure, entertainment and retail kiosks, has announced a partnership that makes Advanced Integrated Systems in Jamaica as exclusive distributors for the Caribbean. Advanced Leisure already has placed its first order for 300 kiosks, according to a news release.
The three year distribution deal gives the company exclusive rights for distribution  of MaxBox digital retail kiosks and all of its applications across the whole of the Caribbean.
AIS initially will focus on Jamaica to deploy the first order of 300 MaxBox kiosks, capitalizing on the long-standing links they already have with Jamaican companies across all business sectors, including government, retail, tourism and banking. They then plan to expand into other parts of the Caribbean.
Read Biography of Maxbox founder.
The AIS project team from Jamaica will join MaxBox in Cheshire in September for an intensive training and development session on software/hardware and application development and marketing of the MaxBox.
"We are very excited about achieving the official exclusive distributorship in the Caribbean for MaxBox," said Stacey Halsall-Peart, chief operating officer for AIS. "We firmly believe that with our existing government, tourism, banking and retail clients, AIS will be able to offer another great solution to our clients for either sales or data capture. AIS specialise in putting together IT solutions and MaxBox now gives the opportunity for communication directly with the consumer, not just business to business. The initial order of 300 kiosks will get us started with our immediate clients, but we can really see this taking off in the Caribbean and hope to have 500 placed before Christmas."
Friday, 15 August 2008
SINGAPORE — Wincor Nixdorf International has secured a deal to provide ATMs to Banktech, an independent ATM provider in Australia.
According to a news release, the Sydney-based Banktech has agreed to purchase and deploy 100 ProCash 1500xe's as part of its 'CashConnect' ATM network via Wincor Nixdorf's local partner ITS, a subsidiary of Australia's Armaguard. Banktech's wholly owned subsidiary, EFTEX, will drive and process the ATMs with deployment commencing in October.
"We are pleased to be working with Wincor Nixdorf," said David Glen, Banktech's managing director. "They understand that helping Banktech grow its business will also grow their business in Australia. This long-term view is reflected in the high quality of their products and their significant on-going investment in R&D. We are confident they are excellent global partners."
The ATMs will run on an open-architecture-software platform allowing multivendor implementation with an existing infrastructure. Additionallly, 100 units will be protected by Wincor Nixdorf’s latest IT security solution.
"What we bring to the table is additional value to our customers in order to excite them and create fresh business ideas together," said David Yip, Australia business development manager for Wincor Nixdorf.
Thursday, 14 August 2008
Wired Blog Network: When it comes to strange kiosks with bizarre applications, the self-service industry has seen some doozies. Charlie Sorrel, a blogger with Wired.com, has come up with five of them. Check out which kiosks never quite made the cut. Umbrellas, anyone?
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Got any kiosks you'd like to add to the list? Let us know about the strangest kiosk you've ever seen
Thursday, 14 August 2008
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: In a move to encourage more passengers to check in for flights electronically, Delta Air Lines will roll out an upgraded check-in system on some of its kiosks in Atlanta and in several other airports Aug. 14. Travis K. Kircher, editor of SelfService.org, the official site of the Self-Service & Kiosk Association, explained how important having a user-friendly interface can be when attempting to get consumer buy-in to a self-service deployment. "If consumers who are nervous already about using the technology actually walk up to a kiosk and find it's too difficult to operate ... that can discourage adoption," Kircher said.
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Thursday, 14 August 2008
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — ImageXpres Corp. has announced that it has officially launched the first member of a new class of interactive digital kiosks, designed to bring high-impact digital advertising content, accompanying discounts and rewards to consumers at high-traffic locations such as airports, shopping centers, restaurants and vacation resorts, according to a news release.
The ImageXpres iPowerStation Kiosk incorporates a number of unique features, including an eCharging Station that can recharge cellphones, iPods and laptop computers for free while simultaneously providing the consumer free online access, e-mail access (send and receive), and photo sharing at the kiosk.
The featured advertisers provide consumers discount coupons and rewards, in return for viewing the digital thirty-second advertisement(s).
"The ImageXpres iPowerStation Kiosk and accompanying LitePix Digital Advertising Screens signal the beginning of a new systems architecture for digital interactive kiosk systems from ImageXpres," said John Zankowski, ImageXpres president and chief executive. "This is the first of several new kiosk systems we have been developing for the past year, and one that should prove to be very attractive to paid advertising customers desiring to reach large numbers of consumers where they shop, where they work and where they travel about during the day."
Like previous LitePix Digital Displays, ImageXpres offers several options for retailers to own, license or revenue-share the iPowerStation Kiosk systems, wherein digital advertisements are created and managed by ImageXpres technical support personnel on ImageXpres network servers.
Thursday, 14 August 2008
Inquirer.net: Consumers are increasingly going "digital" but companies are not putting enough money on advertising and may be missing out on a lucrative market, according to marketing firm OgilvyOne. "Based on studies, people are spending 30 percent of their time on digital but only about 10 percent of advertising spend is devoted to this emerging medium," said Damien Cummings, digital marketing lead for OgilvyOne Singapore.
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Thursday, 14 August 2008
Physorg.com: A quick stop at the supermarket: Balancing bananas, peppers and tomatoes in her arms, the consumer rushes from the vegetable counter to the self-service scales in order to print out the respective price label. But what was that number again, the one you had to enter for the tomatoes?
Soon there will be an end to this constant running back and forth between the vegetable counter and the scales. Working on behalf of the industrial weighing company Mettler-Toledo, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Information and Data Processing IITB in Karlsruhe have developed a webcam module for self-service scales.
"The scales automatically recognize which fruit or vegetables are to be weighed and ask the customer to choose between only those icons that are relevant, such as tomatoes, vine-ripened tomatoes and beefsteak tomatoes," states IITB scientist Sascha Voth. Customers can confirm the correct variety on a touchscreen.
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Thursday, 14 August 2008
With the closing of a U.S. manufacturing hub, withdrawal from one European market and consolidation of operations and services throughout the world, the world's third-largest ATM manufacturer says it's expecting 2008 to end on a high financial note.
Yesterday, North Canton, Ohio-based Diebold Inc. released preliminary earnings for the second quarter of 2008, with some guidance for the rest of the year and early 2009.
Among the takeaways from the investors' call was the announcement that Diebold is closing its Newark, Ohio, manufacturing facility — a closure that will lead to the cutting of 100 jobs. Tom Swidarski, Diebold's president and chief executive, said the cuts are part of the company's plans to reduce its global workforce by 5 percent (800 jobs) by the end of the year — a plan Diebold announced in February.
And when the United Technologies Corp. bid hit the wires back in March, it only fueled ever-growing suspicions among industry observers that Diebold was in some serious financial trouble.
Diebold shrugged off the UTC bid, saying the proffer was unsolicited and unexpected. But some industry insiders question Diebold's response, saying the UTC offer could be a viable one.
No mention, however, of the UTC offer was made during the call Monday. More attention was paid to Diebold's restructuring efforts and anticipated growth in financial-self-service products and services.
Diebold said the loss of its Newark plant, which makes security equipment, will be absorbed by Diebold's Lexington, N.C., plant, which currently manufacturers the Opteva ATM line.
Layoffs are expected to begin in October.
"A total of 800 is the number we communicated in February, and to date, we are 75 percent of the way there," Swidarski said during the Aug. 11 investors' call. "Some of that has to do with (what we are doing in) other parts of the world."
VIDEO: See Tom Swidarski on CNBC during Power Lunch.
Over the next several months, Diebold will move production of its Opteva line from Lexington, N.C., to Shanghai, China, and Hungary, where Diebold already has production facilities that manufacture financial self-service products.
From there, Swidarski said, Diebold will focus the last six months of the year on closing 86 of its U.S. warehouses — reducing the total number of warehouses in three "strategically" located areas.
"We are improving our supply chain and production distribution," he said.
Earlier this month, Diebold also announced plans to exit Germany, where strong market competition has prevented Diebold from making significant inroads. Instead, the company plans to place greater attention on business growth in Central and Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas.
In 2006, Diebold closed a manufacturing facility in Cassis, France, also part of its plans to restructure and realign costs.
"Europe is our slowest market," Swidarski said. "We are making strategic decisions there because we don't have the infrastructure in Western Europe like our competitors do. But we feel good about Eastern Europe and we will continue to invest there, and we will be more dependent on Hungary as we go forward."
Diebold anticipates an 11 percent increase in revenue from the second quarter of 2007 to the second quarter of 2008, with most of the growth coming from the financial self-service and outsourced-servicing growth. Second-quarter revenue is expected to hit $771 million. The company plans to hit margin targets of 7 percent in 2008 and between 9 percent and 10 percent in 2009.
Year to date, Diebold's revenue is $1.5 billion, up 9.3 percent from last year.
"In the Americas, I feel like we're in a very strong position," Swidarski said, "even though the market is up and down in the Americas. Brazil is just in a very unique position, because of their trust over the years and their move toward outsourcing. We received one of the biggest ATM orders in history, and we’re taking that and leveraging that across the board."
Growth in its servicing business will be key going forward.
"A lot of the investments we have made benefit the service business," Swidarski said. "Plus, those are longer-term projects, which are sticky and good for the customer."
Diebold reported preliminary net income of $25.6 million, 38 cents per share, for 2Q 2008, down from $26.9 million, 40 cents per share, reported for 2Q 2007.
Growth in the company's financial self-service revenue, which is expected to be up 15 percent from 2Q '07, has been fuelled by the Olympics, Swidarski said, but he expects Diebold's growth in China to continue.
"If you look at the Asia region, we had a very successful early part of 2008, especially from China," he said. "We face stiff competition there, from manufacturers in Japan, but we are building out our Opteva line there and it looks promising."
Despite challenges in the U.S. financial market, Swidarksi says Diebold continues to see growth in its product sales.
"This is partly driven by an increased demand for deposit automation, where approximately one out of every two Opteva full-function ATMs shipped in 2008 is equipped with deposit-automation technology," he said.
From there, Diebold will move from product relationships to servicing relationships.
In Brazil, where Diebold says it holds 60 percent of the market, product and outsourced-servicing relationships go hand in hand.
"In the U.S. we have 10,000 banks, and we are just beginning to scratch the surface there (with deposit automation)," Swidarski said. "We are taking various vendors down to one, when we start looking at all of our service. From that perspective, we are starting with the smaller FIs and credit unions, with the smaller ATM networks of 20 or 30, and moving our way out."
Wednesday, 13 August 2008
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Digital Signage Association recently signed its 100th member when Ingram Micro joined the association.
Based in Santa Ana, Calif., Ingram Micro is one of the world's largest distributors of technology solutions as well as a technology sales, marketing and logistics company.
It was a milestone for the association, which launched in Nov. 2007 and held its first meeting in Feb. 2008.
"We are pleased to welcome Ingram Micro into the Digital Signage Association," said David Drain, DSA executive director. "The fact that we were able to reach the 100-member milestone so quickly demonstrates the sheer amount of interest there is in an association dedicated to digital signage for all market segments."
Other companies to join in recent weeks include Cables To Go, KenCast, John Ryan, MosChip Semiconductor, netFaze, NEXCOM, PRN and X2O Media.
Wednesday, 13 August 2008
Examiner.com (Denver, Colo.): Washington D.C. is set to officially roll out its SmartBike D.C. bicycle-sharing program after months of delays. Starting today, 120 bikes will be available to registered subscribers at 10 docking stations throughout the city. About 150 people have subscribed, said Jim Sebastian, manager for bicycle, pedestrian and transportation demand-management programs for the District Department of Transportation.
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Wednesday, 13 August 2008
Progressive Grocer: Following a successful pilot in one of its flagship supermarkets last year, Brookshire Grocery Co. has installed recipe information kiosks in the meat departments of 10 additional stores in Texas and Louisiana. According log data from the kiosk supplier, the units are already proving popular. "We see customers printing out recipes and we're translating that to products being sold in the store," said Gary Butler, chief information officer of the Tyler, Texas-based chain of 156 stores. "Chances are that when they print out a recipe, they don't have all of the ingredients."
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Wednesday, 13 August 2008
(Salt Lake City, Utah) KSTU-TV, Channel 13: Tourists visiting the Cache Valley in Utah will be able to learn about the area from new touchscreen kiosks. The kiosks are filled with information about 31 places to stop in Logan Canyon.
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Wednesday, 13 August 2008
BBC: Dundee is set to join Barcelona, Paris and Stockholm by introducing self-service bike rental kiosks. People would be able to pick up a bike at places like the train or bus station, and then drop it off at certain points across the city. Riders could use the bike for free for half an hour, then rent it for longer.
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Wednesday, 13 August 2008
Boston Business Journal: The Sheraton Boston Hotel is one of five U.S. Sheratons on Wednesday that has launched a "virtual concierge." The display, on a table, consists of a 30-inch surface computer designed to allow multiple guests to seek self-service concierge services at the same time. Customers will be able to access tourist information, details about other Sheraton properties and on-demand music selections. The technology represents the debut of Microsoft Surface, from Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft Corp.
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Tuesday, 12 August 2008
Don't look now, but the short, bald guy reclining with a laptop in his beat-up white Oldsmobile may not be surfing for reviews of "The Dark Knight." He might be hacking into a nearby store's database of debit and credit card numbers · and if he's really high-tech, he doesn't even have to leave the parking lot to do it.
TJX Companies Inc. · owner of popular apparel retailer T.J. Maxx · Barnes & Noble and seven other retailers found out the hard way how easy it is for the nefarious to peer into their point-of-sale systems. Last week, at least 11 suspects were indicted for allegedly accessing the stores' unsecured wireless Wi-Fi systems · via a technique known as "wardriving" · and stealing consumer card data.
Now, the question that should be on the minds of self-service deployers, say some experts, is this: Just how vulnerable are their deployments to attacks from wardrivers? What is wardriving, and if losers with laptops and too much time on their hands can hack into a POS system, what is the likelihood they could compromise the data stored on a self–service kiosk?
Wireless sniffing
The term "wardriving" refers to the act of searching for open or unsecured Wi-Fi networks to fraudulently access, says Nicholas Percoco, vice president of consulting for Trustwave, a global provider of information security and compliance. Wardriving can be as simple as someone in an apartment leeching off his neighbor's wireless Web access, or an expert hacker with high-tech equipment trying to gain access to the POS.
"Basically, you can take a laptop or wireless device and put it in discovery mode," Percoco said. "You can drive around a strip mall in a car with a laptop and a high-gain antenna and see what networks are out there, and if you find one that's not secured, or secured using old technology or weak technology, you could potentially gain access to it."
Points of vulnerability
So just how concerned should self-service deployers be about wardriving? Very, according to some experts. They argue that vulnerable deployments fall into two groups: Deployments that transmit data over wireless networks and deployments that are integrated into a POS system connected to a wireless network.
Alex Richardson, founder of Selling Machine Partners LLC and president of the Digital Technology Alliance · an amalgamation of deployers and vendors in the digital signage and self-service industries · says the number of kiosks that fall into the first group is small.
"I've done 250 kiosk projects worldwide and I can say that 95 percent of my installations are wired," he said. "In the past three years, 100 percent of my installations have been wired. That's for two reasons · No. 1 is security. No. 2 is broadband speed."
The real threat, according to security experts, is to transactional kiosks that fall into the second group. Transactional kiosks can be hard wired into the POS system, but if that POS system is in any way connected to an unsecured wireless network, hackers have an open gateway to the kiosk.
"Let's take the perfect example," said Karim Hijazi, managing partner and chief technology officer for RBTI Information Security. "Let's say you're sitting in an environment with a photo kiosk. It's clearly not wireless in its own right, but it's sitting on a network that has a wireless access point and I want to get to something on that kiosk remotely. I would get in by way of the wireless, find my way to the network to find the address of that kiosk system, and then target it and go to it by way of wireless."
Plenty of information improperly stored on a transactional kiosk can be of interest to criminals. They could use the unsecured wireless network to upload keyboard sniffers (software programs that record personal information typed into keyboards such as PINs or Social Security numbers) and memory dump software that collects latent card numbers, to the kiosk. Later that data can be downloaded back through the unsecured wireless network.
In extreme instances, wardrivers could, in theory, use a single wireless network to gain access to the POS and self-service deployments in an entire chain of stores around the world · all from the parking lot, assuming they’re all linked on the same unsecure network.
"In some cases that we've seen, once they get into a local store network, there are then connections back to corporate and to other stores as well," Percoco said. "If you think of it as sort a spider web out there, once you land on one piece of the web, you can traverse the other links to get everywhere else within the environment."
Time for action
Both Hijazi and Percoco say they have yet to see a case of a wardriver accessing a wireless network specifically to compromise a kiosk. After all, they say, once the hacker has access to the data available in the POS, a kiosk can seem like small cheese.
But they say it could happen, in theory.
They say there are several things deployers can do to protect themselves. First, according to Hijazi, is to have someone keep track of every wireless network installed by the company. A system, no matter how secure, can be instantly laid bare to hackers by a single unprotected access point.
"Sometimes the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing," Hijazi said. "I could lock down the network and then one day one of my colleagues could come in and very innocently put in a wireless network thinking it's no big deal. All of a sudden, my theoretically solid network is now open."
Percoco said the deployer should understand that securing networks is a never-ending pursuit. Installing operating-system patches and antivirus updates in a timely fashion is a must. When it comes to data encryption, he says deployers should be using recent encryption standards · WPA or WPA2. Many, he says, still are using the outdated WEP standards.
"That version, if you're running it in your environment, is relatively easy for someone to crack," he said.
Richardson said deployers should be careful not to demonize wireless in particular, but work instead to close all security loopholes.
"I'm not sure the enemy is wireless," Richardson said. "Wireless can be as secure as Fort Knox. The enemy is not following standard security protocols · leaving the doors of your house unlocked and letting people walk in."
Richardson recently headed up the Digital Technology Alliance's creation of the S3 Storefront Security Initiative, a certification program for digital technology deployments that take certain precautions to prevent identity theft, as well as protect consumer privacy and promote data security. He said he hopes that program can be expanded to include certification for retailers.
"I'd like to see our association, along with the government, create a sort of UL certification that you put on the front door of retailers," he added. "It would be essentially like S3 · so that consumers know when they walk in the door that they're not going to have their identities stolen or their credit cards stolen based on a couple of technology terrorists sitting out front with a sniffer."
Read also: Four lessons learned from the TJX fiasco.
Read also: DTA president reacts to TJX indictments.
Read also: SSKA releases library of 10 best practices documents.
Tuesday, 12 August 2008
ContactMusic.com: The introduction of Blu-ray movies at DVDPlay rental kiosks at Safeway-owned supermarkets in California has been described as "a great experience" by Tom Szwak, vice president of video for DVDPlay. "Throughout 2009, we look forward to seeing the number of kiosks we operate in their stores expand." DVDPlay is the first major video kiosk operator to offer the high-definition Blu-ray disks for rent.
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Tuesday, 12 August 2008
The (Lynchburg, Va.) News & Advance: Chuck Kain was on a tight budget when he took a vacation to Myrtle Beach, S.C., last month. Before buying food and souvenirs, he checked on his cell phone to make sure he had enough money in his checking account. Kain, 30, also looked at his last transactions without visiting a bank, going to the ATM or being tied to his computer. "I used it in the middle of a campground when I didn't have a laptop," he said. It's mobile banking, the newest way for consumers to do personal banking — on their mobile devices.
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Tuesday, 12 August 2008
Bloomberg.com: The U.K.'s first "fiver-only" ATM is being introduced in London's East End as banks shun the smallest monetary bill by size and value. Situated on the Roman Road in Tower Hamlets, the ATM is expected to increase the number of 5-pound (U.S. $9.60) notes in Britons' wallets when it goes into circulation today.
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Tuesday, 12 August 2008
The (Halifax, Nova Scotia) Chronicle Herald Metro: Some people with scheduled appointments at clinics in the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre now can check in via touchscreen kiosks. The Express Check-in system, similar to those in airports, has been in use in the cardiology and endocrinology clinics at the Halifax hospital since mid-April.
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Tuesday, 12 August 2008
 Fujitsu Comnputer Products of America -- Seller of digital media and kiosk solutions. Focused on retail, restaurant, hospitality markets as well as healthcare for kiosks.
Monday, 11 August 2008
The (New Delhi, India) Business Standard: In an attempt to enhance the role of e-commerce in the retail space, India Transact, a kiosk maker, plans to install multifunction kiosks to help customers carry out transactions. The company has partnered with Hindustan Petroleum, and is in talks with business process outsourcing service providers such as Accenture and multiplexes such as Cinemax to base these kiosks. India Transact would be investing Rs 50 crore (U.S. $11.9 million) in the next six months for this purpose.
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Monday, 11 August 2008
The (Phoenix, Ariz.) Business Journal: Craig Pozen got tired of not knowing where he was going, so he developed a method to find his way. Pozen founded The Kiosk Store, a Scottsdale-based business that develops software for electronic kiosks used in public places ranging from malls to hospitals. The stations guide people to their destinations and sometimes provide a range of other services.
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Monday, 11 August 2008
I4U News: Best Buy has announced the official launch of its Best Buy Express automated kiosks in airports around the U.S. The launch of the kiosks is part of a pilot program to offer familiar products at the same prices found in stores. Products that will be available in the kiosks will include computer accessories, digital cameras, flash drives, MP3 players, headphones, speakers, unlocked phones, portable game devices, gift cards, travel adapters and chargers. The kiosks will be found in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and San Francisco. The kiosk rollout will continue through the beginning of September.
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Monday, 11 August 2008
The Dallas Morning News: On any given Sunday, about 5,000 kids come into the children's ministry at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas. Families form lines and check in at 32 kiosks spread among the church's six entrances, swiping "Quick Passes" at the self-service machines. Parents register the kids for classes, then a kiosk spits out sticky name badges for both parent and child with identifying information: child's and parent's names, classroom and any food allergies.
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Monday, 11 August 2008
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A spokeswoman for Transport Canada, Canada's ministry of transportation, has told SelfService.org that an investigation into alleged card fraud originating at check-in kiosks in Toronto's Pearson Airport has turned up no evidence of a data breach.
Late in July, the Greater Toronto Airports Authority announced that VISA had flagged what were believed to be suspicious patterns of credit card kiosks at the airport. Shortly thereafter, an investigation was launched to determine whether the patterns indicated criminal activity.
The Canwest News Service is reporting that VISA's investigation will continue, despite the finding.
Monday, 11 August 2008
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Friday, 08 August 2008
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Alex Richardson, president of the Digital Technology Alliance, reacted late Friday afternoon to the indictments of 11 suspects allegedly involved in the infamous TJX card breach.
On Aug. 5, 2008, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted the suspects for the alleged theft and sale of more than 40 million credit and debit card numbers. Officials called the hack the largest card-compromise scheme ever prosecuted in U.S. history.
"It's good news and it's bad news," Richardson said of the indictments. "The good news is that it appears that we've got the bad guys and we have techniques to do research — technology research — to find the bad guys. It was a challenge, given the technology and given the international nature of the group."
"The bad news is I'm shocked to see how many faulty security procedures were in place in blue chip retailers," Richardson said. "They're not following standard PCI, they're not following computer standards and they're certainly not following our new S3 Storefront Security Standards. So I'm surprised how many other stores were still doing that. I guess the question is, now, who else is vulnerable?"
Friday, 08 August 2008
BELMONT, Calif. — Microtech Systems has announced the launch of the X100 Robot, a kiosk that automates digital content burning onto popular consumer media, including CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs, according to a news release. It also prints photo quality artwork onto the disc surface.
The X100 robots are targeted at retailers looking to increase their revenues by offering more titles to their customers without inventory carrying costs.
"This is an exciting time for content publishers. Consumers now have access to virtually unlimited choices in entertainment titles," said Microtech's Jon Hodges, vice president of sales.
The X100 was released earlier this year for on demand disc production of video DVD titles. The X100 is a perfect digital delivery platform, that when properly configured, can provide access to hundreds of thousands of DVD titles. Content providers and retailers finally have a solution that provides virtually unlimited content choices to consumers.
The X100 has key features that make it the perfect choice for on-demand entertainment fulfillment in a retail environment.
- Industry standard copy protection for DVD video titles — The X100 can be equipped with disc recorders capable of producing industry standard CSS (copy scramble system) copy protected DVD discs.
- Interactivity — The touchscreen enabled X100 can be used for consumers to make product selections directly from the production machine. Alternatively, the X100 can be installed back counter and accept order fulfillment requests from industry-leading retail kiosk partners.
- Integration with the market leaders — Microtech Systems partners with all the major content and technology leaders, providing access to the long tail of content to consumers, satisfying demand for more entertainment choices, and increasing profits at the same time.
Friday, 08 August 2008
OLYMPIA, London — Industry giants Samsung and Microsoft both have announced that they will have booths at KioskCom Self Service Expo Europe and the Digital Signage Show Europe in London Oct. 1-2, according to a news release issued by KioskCom Ltd.
"With the announcement that both Microsoft and Samsung are exhibiting at Self Service Expo, we can safely say that both the way we shop and the way the advertisers want us to shop is set for a revolution," the release states.
3M, Cammax, Protouch, Dicoll, Box Technologies, Ritall, Verifone, GWD Media, YesPay, Rafi and Star Micronics are just some of the other vendors that will be exhibiting at the show.
Friday, 08 August 2008
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Stretching resources is a concern for business owners in this turbulent economic climate — especially in the retail sector as consumers are doing more to preserve their disposable income.
Friday, in a poll on NBC's Today show Web site, 56 percent of respondents said they are cutting back by driving less (e.g. buying less gas), and 25 percent said they are cutting shopping trips in half to save money.
Such consumer efforts to pinch pennies mean the time for retailers to seriously explore money-saving solutions is now. In an effort to help guide them, KioskMarketplace.com has released a special report, sponsored by ArcaTech Systems, that details how cash-recycling devices can be just that. Reduce Retail Labor Costs: The Business Case for Cash Recyclers takes a look at these machines and the ways in which they can help business owners cut costs.
"Retailers are suddenly realizing that the thing that’s costing them the most is handling money," said Phil Garvis, retail-cash-management solutions expert for Wincor Nixdorf International, a manufacturer of cash recyclers. "It costs them more labor to handle money. Times are tough and competition is tough, and retailers have to squeeze every dollar out they can."
According to the report, cash recyclers help reduce spending overall by eliminating the need for an employee to handle a store's money supply — freeing that employee up for other duties and saving valuable time. Furthermore, the machines offer more security than traditional cash-management methods and are easy for employees to operate.
Click here to download the guide.
Friday, 08 August 2008
ATLANTA — SoloHealth, the deployer of the award-winning EyeSite eye-testing kiosk and an SSKA member, has been selected as a top 20 semifinalist in the 2008 Forbes.com "Boost Your Business" $100,000 entrepreneurial contest.
SoloHealth, along with 19 other companies throughout the U.S., is now in the second round of the contest. To advance, online voters will determine the "top five" by going to the Forbes Web site, watching the companies' 30-second videos and voting for their favorite entrepreneur now through Sept. 30. The top five winners will then go to New York later in the fall to compete in the finals.
SoloHealth caught the judges' attention with its EyeSite kiosk, developed in partnership with KIOSK Information Systems and Netkey Inc. for use in high-traffic retail and commercial locations. EyeSite uses sophisticated optical software and an interactive video interface to give users a quick, easy and accurate way to test their vision.
EyeSite is currently in a test market phase in the Atlanta area, with 15 units planned for placement at major retail and commercial locations.
"To be a top 20 finalist in the Forbes.com Boost Your Business contest is an incredible honor and opportunity for SoloHealth," said Bart Foster, chief executive and founder of SoloHealth. "Should we win the contest's top prize, we'll use the capital to invest and grow our business in 2009. With more EyeSite kiosks in place we'll be able to reach more people about the importance of vision exams and eye health."
According to Foster, people go to the dentist three to four times more often than they get an eye examination — every 36-48 months, about half as often as recommended.
Earlier this year, SoloHealth's EyeSite kiosk won three Awards of Excellence, including "Best in Show" at the Kiosk.Com Self Service Expo and The Digital Signage Show in Las Vegas.
Friday, 08 August 2008
ShareCast: ATM operator Payzone has confirmed that it is considering offers from a number of parties interested in buying Payzone's Spanish, Italian and French businesses. The Dublin-based electronic payments group responded to speculations that it could net €50m by disposing of its European divisions.
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Thursday, 07 August 2008
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — With more complex banking transactions moving to the ATM, deployers are relying more heavily on innovative software solutions to manage their networks.
Many ATMs now have features like envelope-free deposits, as well as enhanced advertising and personalized transactions. The devices have moved beyond basic cash dispensers, and the software that guides them is growing more complex as well.
Those software trends and developments are outlined in ATM Software: Trends Analysis for 2007-2008, which is sponsored by KAL, a global ATM-software company based in Scotland.
"Running a single software application across an entire ATM network was in most markets a revolutionary concept just three to five years ago," said Tracy Kitten, editor of ATM Marketplace and the report's author. "Today, it’s quickly becoming commonplace."
Rather than using proprietary software, ATM deployers are increasingly moving to multivendor programs that can run across any Windows-based ATM network, regardless of the type or brand of hardware.
According to Retail Banking Research Ltd., a research firm based in England, 15 percent of the world's ATMs had moved to multivendor software at the end of 2007.
"Ultimately, those banks that made the move are at a level where all the infrastructure issues have been resolved — meaning they are able to, relatively speaking, seamlessly work with multiple (ATM) vendors," said Aravinda Korala, KAL's chief executive.
The 50-page report, a must-read for those in the banking industry, explores the issues that are driving these changes in ATM software and looks at other industry trends, like the evolution of the ATM as a marketing vehicle. The report also highlights leading software companies and the solutions they offer.
Click here to download this guide.
Thursday, 07 August 2008
DAYTON, Ohio — TNR Entertainment Corp., the second-largest operator of DVD kiosks in North America under the New Release and MovieCube brands, has named NCR Corp. as its exclusive supplier of self-service technologies and services.
TNR has approximately 2,200 DVD-rental kiosks deployed in the grocery channel.
TNR says it intends to place volume orders for NCR Xpress Entertainment DVD vending kiosks this year and in 2009.
In addition, TNR signed a multiyear Managed Services agreement with NCR, focused on kiosk high availability, which is critical in the consumer self-service market. With its suite of Managed Services, NCR is able to offer a turnkey solution that allows enterprises to deploy quickly and focus on growing their businesses.
NCR also announced it has made a minority equity investment in TNR. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
"NCR's technology, combined with its development resources and global services capabilities, will help provide TNR the resources we need to continue our success going forward," said TNR president and chief executive Tim Belton. "This agreement will help unify our fleet of kiosks onto a single software platform, improve our quality of service to consumers and enable TNR to meet growing demand from our channel and distribution partners."
The NCR Xpress Entertainment portfolio includes a multichannel software platform and a high-capacity DVD-vending kiosk that enables rentals, sales of shrink-wrapped media or a combination – with a capacity of nearly twice that of competing units on the market today. Other NCR Xpress Entertainment options include digital download kiosks, as well as bare-disk handling capabilities and support for other types of digital media such as music and video games.
NCR also offers the ability for consumers to interact via the Internet or their mobile devices.
Thursday, 07 August 2008
The Indianapolis Star: Many people can't imagine banking without an ATM card to grab cash and the Internet to pay bills. And millions of travelers head straight for the electronic check-in kiosk when they get to the airport. Now Community Health Network, an Indianapolis-based hospital system, wants to bring that same sort of computerized convenience to health care through its new myCommunity program.
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Thursday, 07 August 2008
FRESNO, Calif. — Continental Prison Systems Inc., a provider of prison kiosk technology, has reported that its exhibit at the Texas Sheriff Association Conference show in San Antonio, July 19-21, received strong interest from show attendants.
Sheriffs visiting CPSI's booth showed enormous interest in its prison financial products and services, according to a news release. The Sheriffs were primarily impressed with the booking kiosk that takes all the cash handling away from the facility when an inmate is booked, as well as the EZ Exit Card program that gives the inmate a debit card upon release instead of a check.
The work release kiosk, which allows inmates to pay their work release fees, either through CPSI's kiosk or from the online Web site, also raised eyebrows, according to the release.
"The Texas Sheriff's Conference was a huge success for us," said Ron Hodge, president and chief executive of CPSI. "Word of mouth advertising of both the EZ Card system and the EZ Kiosk system caused a real buzz around the floor of the show.''
Thursday, 07 August 2008
Valley Morning Star (Harlingen, Texas): Officials at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College are hoping to reach a tech-savvy generation with the university's first interactive kiosk, which was unveiled Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2008, at Sunrise Mall. Equipped with a webcam, microphone, speakers and even a printer, the UTB-TSC Virtual Info Shop allows potential and current students to videoconference live with university staff in admissions, financial aid, registration, enrollment, testing and other areas. Officials and students called it a "technological breakthrough."
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Thursday, 07 August 2008
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Financial breaches and identity theft cases seem to be in the headlines on an almost regular basis. Just last month, hackers broke into a Citibank-branded ATM network and stole millions. What's more interesting, though, is that the criminals gained access to customer PINs — the pieces of data that are seemingly most secure.
The security landscape is definitely changing, and in a new ATM Marketplace guide, Bank Branch Security in the 21st Century, FIs can find help navigating their way through the security labyrinth.
"Criminals are becoming ever more imaginative when it comes to stealing cards and identity codes required to fetch cash from ATMs around the world," said Uwe Krause, director of banking marketing for Wincor Nixdorf International, which sponsored the report. "Subsequently, many bank customers are increasingly concerned about the security of their confidential data and savings."
Written by Tracy Kitten, senior editor of ATM Marketplace, the report examines security-enhancing methods and products, and offers a look into the future of security in the banking industry. Packed with informative data and sound tips, the key take-away from the publication is that, for financial institutions, the time to get smart about 360-degree branch security is now.
"In short," Kitten said, "security is about ensuring that all of an FI’s banking channels are communicating with one another."
Click here to download this guide.
Thursday, 07 August 2008
Gizmodo: Tests conducted for the U.K.'s Times Online have concluded that the new high-tech e-passports being distributed around the world can be hacked and cloned within minutes. A computer researcher proved it by cloning the chips in two British passports and then implanting digital images of Osama bin Laden and a suicide bomber. Both passports passed as genuine by U.N.-approved passport reader software. The entire process took less than an hour.
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Wednesday, 06 August 2008
Phoenix Business Journal: ESoles Custom Footbeds of Scottsdale is partnering with Trek Bicycle Corp. of Wisconsin to launch a line of customized cycling footwear. Trek's Bontrager brand next week will introduce cycling shoes with eSoles customizable footbeds, the companies announced Tuesday. ESoles' eFit footbed will be used in all Bontrager shoes and can be customized through a kiosk scanner designed to identify the need for specific inserts that will be available for an additional charge.
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Wednesday, 06 August 2008
BusinessWeek: On Monday, the Cleveland County Memorial Library in Shelby, N.C., launched its first self-checkout kiosk. The simple touchscreen technology should be familiar to those who have used the self-checkout at stores like Wal-Mart. If patrons should also need to pay fines and fees there is a coin box attached. There are just two restrictions to using the self-checkout kiosk.
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Wednesday, 06 August 2008
TORRANCE, Calif. — Seiko Instruments USA Inc. Thermal Printer Division, a manufacturer of thermal-printer technology and a member of the Self-Service & Kiosk Association, has introduced a low-cost direct thermal mobile printer for wireless applications.
The compact and lightweight DPU-S445 runs on a long-life lithium-ion battery and produces 4-inch-wide printed output at 90 mm/sec. IrDA and Bluetooth connectivity options make the printer a valuable alternative for users who need convenience and reliability, without the high price of a ruggedized device, according to a news release.
"The DPU-S445 is a welcome addition to our lineup of mobile thermal printers," said Kaz Onishi, vice president and general manager of Seiko Instruments USA. "The new printer offers customers exceptional value in a challenging business climate, and is a great fit for budget-conscious users in Latin America and other emerging markets."
With no need for toner or ribbon, and with very few moving parts to compromise reliability, thermal printers are a must-have for a growing number of untethered applications, from route accounting to mobile citations. The DPU-S445 is designed for fast, simple, no-fuss operation. Two well-placed buttons control power and paper feed, and the Seiko Instruments EZ-OP clamshell-style tray enables quick paper replacement, by simply dropping a new roll into the printer.
Weighing just over one pound and measuring 5.7 inches wide, 5.3 inches deep and 2.3 inches high, the DPU-S445 is both small and light. The printer offers 203 dpi resolution, and USB, Serial, IrDA and optional Bluetooth interfaces, making it a solution for a wide range of mobile applications. Pricing starts at $300 per unit.
Wednesday, 06 August 2008
NORCROSS, Ga. — Postilion, a provider of software solutions for self-service banking and payments and a division of S1 Corp., announced in a news release that Marks & Spencer has completed the implementation of a gift-card program based on Postilion solutions.
Marks & Spencer is a high-end fashion retailer with more than 600 stores located in the United Kingdom and 240 stores worldwide.
The Postilion Card Issuer solution enables retailers to manage the entire life cycle of their gift cards, including traditional paper vouchers, gift-card certificates and electronic vouchers. This comprehensive solution controls the issuing, authorization and account management for individual gift cards and batches of gift cards that can be offered as corporate incentives. Cards can be identified either by a magnetic stripe or a barcode and value is only loaded at the time of purchase. For multi-national retailers, such as Marks & Spencer, Postilion also provides the ability to issue and manage gift cards in multiple currencies, with the currency type loaded at the point of sale.
Following a successful pilot in the company's Irish stores, the Marks & Spencer gift-card program was launched in all UK stores in November 2007.
"Gift cards are proving increasingly popular with consumers in the U.K., and the project with Marks & Spencer serves to highlight this," said Grant Wyatt, general manager of Postilion Europe. "We see a growing awareness in the retail community of the benefits of running a gift card program in-house. Not only does this provide the retailer with greater control and flexibility, but as volumes of gift-card sales increase, the cost advantage of running these programs in-house becomes obvious."
Wednesday, 06 August 2008
Shreveport (La.) Times: A proposed amendment to city and parish law in Shreveport, La., could limit the hours one ATM can be open. Currently, the Ouachita Independent Bank operates a 24-hour ATM, but the proposed zoning amendment would limit the ATM's hours of operation to between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. The bank's management says the amendment unfairly targets the bank's business.
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Wednesday, 06 August 2008
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A Web site created by NSA, provider of field-marketing and image-presentation services for large-scale ATM deployments, is supplying ATM deployers with access to the new universal ATM pictogram recently released by the ATM Industry Association.
"We anticipate 85,000 ATMs will be signed using the pictogram in the first year, with some 20,000 in the U.S. alone," said Chuck West, NSA's chief executive. "The usage will increase exponentially as more ATM sites realize its value."
According to a news release, NSA is helping ATMIA market the new pictogram and is allowing users from the across the world to order pictogram signage from its site.
"Partnering with an organization that delivers swift, dependable service and cost advantages in image solutions is a natural fit with our aligned visions of increasing foot traffic to ATMs and improving transaction volumes," said Lana Harmelink, ATMIA's international director.
Customers can place pictogram orders by accessing the NSA Web site.
"This will really help travelers and merchants alike," said Kirk Huddleston, former chairman and current commissioner of Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority. "It's a simple and effective public service to travelers who need cash. Strange airports or travel destinations can be confusing places. The pictogram makes it easy to find an ATM — and even eliminates language barriers. Also important is that airport merchants should see more purchases made with cash from increased ATM usage."Add/Edit Blog Categories
Tuesday, 05 August 2008
If the International Air Transport Association has its way, paper boarding passes soon may be a thing of the past as mobile devices such as smart phones and Blackberries become an air traveler's ticket to fly.
In October 2007, the IATA, an association of roughly 230 airlines representing 93 percent of scheduled air traffic worldwide, issued a mandate for member airlines to replace all magnetic stripe and one-dimensional barcode ticketing with boarding passes containing two-dimensional barcodes by the end of 2010.
The two-dimensional barcodes · which contain information about both the passenger and the scheduled flight · can be read and verified by gate attendants via special handheld scanners. Beyond it being a more cost-effective and efficient means of data storage, two-dimensional barcoding has an additional advantage over the alternatives, according to Eric Leopold, project manager of IATA's Bar Coded Boarding Pass project.
Not only can barcodes be scanned from paper tickets, he says, but unlike mag-stripes, they can also be ripped from mobile device displays, effectively turning a passenger's cell phone into a boarding pass.
"When you board the aircraft, it will scan the barcode whether it's on the phone or on paper," said Leopold, who said that passengers still will have a paper option.
Getting 'on board' with the technology
The IATA mandate has spurred some airlines to investigate the advantages offered by mobile ticketing technology. Already, Leopold says, 151 member airlines have upgraded their software to generate two-dimensional barcodes on paper · and although the mandate doesn't specify that it be transferable to mobile devices yet · the leap in technology is a small one that many airlines might be eager to make.
So far, only a dozen or so airlines spread across the globe are trialing the mobile option. In the United States, those include Continental Airlines, Northwest Airlines and Delta Airlines. Internationally, the technology is being explored by Air Canada, British Midland Airways, Japan Airlines, China Southern Airlines and a handful of others.
Ronnie Forbes, the founder and chief executive of Mobiqa, is one of mobile-ticketing's staunchest proponents and believes this number will grow.
Based in Scotland, Mobiqa provides mobile-ticketing solutions for airlines, railways, cinemas and other venues.
Forbes says the IATA's mandate has been a powerful motivation for airlines to get on board with the new technology.
"I'd say it's absolutely fundamental," he said. "I'm not sure it would have happened · at least not on much of a scale and certainly not in any short timeframe · without it."
The mobile option
Mobiqa is currently partnering with several airlines to provide mobile ticketing, including Northwest, which has been trialing the mobile option on all non-stop flights out of Indianapolis since May.
Forbes says Northwest's e-ticketing system is easy to use. When the user books his or her flight, either through a computer or mobile device, the interface asks whether he or she would like to receive the boarding pass on their cell phone. If they say yes, they then have to review a catalog of mobile devices and select the one that matches their handset.
Forbes says Mobiqa has patented software that is able to format the barcode to fit a variety of phone types and screen sizes.
"Blackberries, iPhones, very small-screened Nokias · there are literally hundreds of different types of mobile phones out there that have different screen sizes," he said. "If we just used a one-size-fits-all barcode with a very high resolution phone like a Blackberry or an iPhone, then the barcode would appear very tiny and wouldn't scan, so we actually have to scale up the barcode based on the mobile-phone screen."
The barcode · along with relevant flight information such as the traveler's name, the pertinent gate and the seat number · is later transmitted to the user's mobile device 24 hours before the flight leaves.
Mutual benefit
Forbes says the advantages of mobile ticketing, both to the airlines and to the passenger, are obvious.
"The whole IATA directive is about cost savings," he said. "They really want to take as many of the passenger processes out of the airport and make them as self-service as possible to save on costs."
He points to IATA estimates that indicate each passenger who checks in at the desk costs the airlines $9.00. A passenger who checks in at a kiosk costs $2.50.
Mobile ticketing, on the other hand, shifts more of the burden to the consumer, who furnishes both the labor and the technology platform. He said it also frees up more airport space as they won't be waiting in line for the desk or the kiosk.
"The more they can encourage self-printing and mobile check-in, the better," he said.
Michelle Aguayo-Shannon, a spokeswoman for Northwest Airlines, is quick to point out the value to the consumer, who often has trouble finding a printer, laptop and Internet connection to print out a boarding pass for a return flight.
"You're juggling your carry-on bag and your computer bag, and you know you're about ready to go through and have to take off your shoes and your jacket," she said. "You have your ID and everything else. Now you can put so much of it on your Blackberry, and it’s right there."
Aguayo-Shannon said Northwest is pleased with the results of its mobile ticketing trial and hopes to begin offering the service in Detroit and Minneapolis later this year.
"The test phase has gone extremely well," she said. "We've gotten positive feedback from the customers using it and also from the TSA. They're beyond pleased with how this is moving and working. It's just been very advantageous all the way around."
Tuesday, 05 August 2008
VideoBusiness.com: Don't expect to find many kiosks burning DVDs on demand in stores this fall. Despite expectations of large-scale pilot tests and a commercial rollout this year of kiosks that would save retailers aisles of shelf space while offering thousands of movies and TV shows on demand, technical and economic challenges have led to a shakeup among DVD manufacturing-on-demand players that is likely to push most retail launches back into 2009.
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Tuesday, 05 August 2008
DALLAS — Blockbuster Inc., a global provider of media entertainment, and NCR Corp. a global provider of self-service and assisted-service technology, have entered into an agreement to deploy Blockbuster-branded, state of-the-art DVD vending kiosks in a pilot program that could be the first step of a national rollout of thousands of units.
The initial deployment of 50 Blockbuster-branded kiosks should begin in the third quarter of 2008 with all units expected to be installed by year-end.
The pilot vending kiosks initially will offer DVD rentals, but the machines will allow for future applications, including digital downloads and other services, such as sales of DVDs and video games.
The companies have not announced the markets or site locations for the first units.
Earlier this year, Blockbuster and NCR announced an agreement to test digital movie downloading kiosks in select Blockbuster locations. The first of those units is expected to be installed in two Dallas stores this summer.
"With NCR's advanced technology, these machines will dispense a wide array of DVDs and could offer digital downloading in the future, all under the Blockbuster brand," said Jim Keyes, Blockbuster chairman and chief executive. "This initial rollout provides consumers increasingly convenient access to their favorite movies and is one more step in the fulfillment of our mission to transform Blockbuster into a multichannel provider of media entertainment."
Analysts are projecting DVD vending kiosks could grow by more than 60 percent over the next three years, increasing from 9,300 units at the end of 2007 to more than 22,400 by the end of 2010. Additionally, consumer spending on movies from vending machines during that same period is expected to grow from $197 million to more than $760 million.
Tuesday, 05 August 2008
The Indianapolis Star: ATA Airlines closed its doors in April. But remnants of the business didn't leave the company's Westside headquarters until Tuesday. Hundreds of office items were auctioned as part of the airline's bankruptcy case. Assets included items you would find in any office setting: 350 file cabinets and bookcases, 500 chairs and 127 desks. And aviation-specialty equipment that included 67 touchscreen kiosks once used by passengers for check-in.
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Tuesday, 05 August 2008
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Visitor management solutions provider STOPware Inc. has selected North Carolina-based Meridian Kiosks to produce security kiosks for its PassagePoint global visitor management solutions.
According to a press release, PassagePoint is used worldwide by the U.S. government, many Fortune 500 companies and smaller organizations to provide a visitor self-registration solution. The kiosk guides visitors through the sign-in process by scanning a driver's license, business card, visitor e-pass or after a user enters his name and the name of his company. Seconds later the kiosk generates a visitor badge.
"PassagePoint's power and convenience lets users tailor the registration process to meet their needs," said Terschuren, STOPware vice president of sales and marketing. "Using the PassagePoint Kiosk can help ensure that only the right visitors are allowed into a facility, improving guard productivity and service, enhancing company image and making a facility more secure."
Tuesday, 05 August 2008
AUBURN, ME — KICTeam, manufacturer of cleaning cards, has developed the Waffletechnology Cleaning Card for Epson's CaptureOne Check Scanner.
According to a news release, the cleaning card provides CaptureOne customers with a way to clean all of the scanner's parts, including the transport, track, MICR head and scanner glass.
The CaptureOne desktop scanner is a check-capture device for back-office capture and remote-deposit capture applications for financial services and retail applications.
Tuesday, 05 August 2008
The (Sarasota, Fla.) Herald Tribune — Some theives just can't read the handwriting on the wall — or at least the 'out of order' sign. When an employee of the Lox 'n Egg Bread Company showed up for work over the weekend, he was surprised to discover that the ATM was missing. What was even more surprising was the fact that the thieves bothered to steal an ATM that was not only empty, but had a yellow sign attached to it that indicated it was out of order.
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Tuesday, 05 August 2008
Fox News: The Department of Justice has indicted 11 people allegedly involved in the hacking of nine major U.S. retailers and the theft and sale of more than 40 million credit and debit card numbers. Officials are calling the hack the largest card-compromise scheme ever prosecuted in U.S. history. Those charged include three U.S. citizens, one Estonian, three Ukrainians, two citizens from the Peoples Republic of China, and one from Belarus. One individual is just identified with an online alias. The 11 charged allegedly targeted retailers TJX Companies, BJs Wholesale Club, OfficeMax, Boston Market, Barnes & Noble, Sports Authority, Forever 21 and DSW. An informant, who also has been charged in the indictment, was allegedly able to tap into computer networks using a technique called "war driving," where he would drive around looking for open computer networks.
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Monday, 04 August 2008
The Jerusalem Post: If you've ever had difficulty finding a specific grave in a cemetery or your designated seat at a reception, help is on the way. Lod-based Kadouri Industrial Design Ltd. has created interactive "computer kiosks." Upon keying in a name, the kiosk displays the path to your destination. A thermal printer can be integrated into any model and to print slips or documents of any kind.
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Monday, 04 August 2008
CAMPBELL, Calif. — DVDPlay Inc., a DVD rental kiosk operator and developer, has announced it is celebrating this summer's Beijing Olympic Games by giving away free rentals nationwide through its new 'Lucky 8' promotion, according to a news release.
In the Chinese culture, eight is regarded as a lucky number and represents good fortune. In light of the international games taking place in China this year, 'Lucky 8' calls out eight of the most buzz-worthy Olympic competitions and rewards movie renters with a free DVD rental every time the U.S. wins the gold in these categories.
DVD renters who visit a DVDPlay kiosk on the designated lucky days are eligible for a free DVD rental by using a promotional code posted on the DVDPlay Web site, giving consumers the potential to win eight free rentals during August.
The 'Lucky 8' events include:
- Men's Swimming 400M - August 9
- Women's All-Around Final, Gymnastics - August 14
- Women's 50M Freestyle, Swimming - August 16
- Men's 100M Final, Track - August 16
- Men's BMX Final, August 20
- Women's Beach Volleyball Final - August 20
- Women's 200M Final - August 21
- Men's Basketball Final, August 23
"The Olympics are an exciting time to show our national pride and we wanted to salute the achievements of U.S. athletes," said Chuck Berger, chairman of the board and chief executive of DVDPlay. "With 'Lucky 8' when America wins, essentially everyone wins — possibly eight times. It's a fun way for people to bring the excitement just a little closer to home."
Monday, 04 August 2008
GLENDALE, Calif. — Nero, creators of liquid media technology, and Polar Frog Digital, a provider of innovative on-demand video services for DVD and downloadable solutions, has announced an exclusive U.S. agreement to bring on-demand video DVD creation and distribution to retailers and consumers, according to a news release.
Together, Nero and Polar Frog Digital are extending digital entertainment content beyond its traditional confines, enabling on-demand DVD production for online and traditional retailers and making the much-touted commercial DVD kiosk delivery model a reality.
"The Kiosk format and ability to manufacture commercial DVDs on-demand brings countless benefits to retailers in terms of reduced overhead and increased customer satisfaction," said Kurt Scherf, vice president and principle analyst with Parks Associates. "Many have argued that digital downloads would serve this need, but while consumers have seen the benefits of downloads, there are still limitations to how they can be used across devices."
While there has been significant industry discussion on the importance of on-demand video DVD manufacturing, the use of proprietary standards and file formats has inhibited the ability for other organizations to bring a viable solution to market. Nero is able to deliver on this new content frontier because of its commitment to aligning and developing with industry open standards, such as those put in place by the DVD Forum, and platform interoperability.
Polar Frog Digital is the only on-demand company to offer the ability to burn, buy, download and rent multiple medias. This is made possible by their adoption of Nero’s vision for liquid content distribution and creation options for consumers. With the Polar Frog solution consumers have the ability to choose where and when they want to buy their media. Agnostic delivery options will serve to expand the sales of media in traditional and nontraditional retail channels alike.
Each year thousands of movies, television programs, educational and special-interest titles are created. However, due to shrinking shelf space and cost of manufacturing, only a fraction will become available on DVD, and fewer still will remain available six months after release. By using kiosks, retailers can stock an entire physical DVD inventory in as little as two square feet of store space. Gone are the days of needing to anticipate how many copies of a new title release to have on hand or worrying about DVD theft. With a kiosk format, inventory "shrinkage" can be eliminated and retailers are able to offer their consumers an unlimited quantity and assortment.
"On-demand manufacturing of commercially released DVD video content will revolutionize both the retail marketplace and the way that consumers experience and access video,” said Todd Rosenbaum, chief executive of Polar Frog Digital.
With the joint Nero/Polar Frog Digital solution, consumers will have access to a full range of commercial video copy-protected content with Content Scrambling System (CSS) encryption.
Available in late 2008, the offering will be based on Polar Frog Digital's patented "DVD On Demand" software and licensed library of digital movie and television content. This library is the world's largest database of on-demand content available at retail.
Monday, 04 August 2008
ITBusinessEdge.com: Which does more to create a more enjoyable experience for customers in a retail environment: a self-service kiosk or a salesperson? Ann All, a blogger for IT Business Edge, argues in favor of the kiosk. Read about her recent experience at Target and discover why she's so enthusiastic about Staples' deployment of Experticity kiosks.
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Monday, 04 August 2008
The Dallas Morning News: Retail giant Best Buy has teamed up with Zoom Systems, a supplier of kiosk vending, to deploy its first-ever vending kiosk in an airport environment at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. But don't look for sodas and candybars here. This kiosk dispenses iPods, headphones and other high-end electronic goods.
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Friday, 01 August 2008
NEW YORK — PSI Corp. has announced that several of its E-Banking Kiosks now are working in the field.
The locations are in New York City and New Jersey and include both supermarket and credit union locations, according to a news release.
"I am personally very satisfied with the initial launch of the E-Banking Kiosks," said David Foni, chief executive of PSI Corp. "PSI is having customers using the various services such as ATM, bill pay, check cashing, purchase of phone cards and gift cards among the kiosk's many services. Although we are in the beginning of a 90-day beta field trial, the results have been excellent and, as such, additional potential customers are viewing the kiosk and are excited by consumers' rapid utilization of the kiosk. By the end of August, PSI anticipates a total of six kiosks being deployed. PSI will be attending significant supermarket and credit union tradeshows in September. Further, PSI believes it will begin accepting orders at those tradeshows."
Additionally, Foni said PSI will have approximately 100 digital signs in various New York City hospitals by the end of August. He said this signage will be used to promote the kiosks, which are in close proximity to the hospitals.
"PSI will heavily promote the E-Banking Kiosks to the hospital workers and patients as their urban demographic are the same as the users of the kiosks," Foni said.
Friday, 01 August 2008
Foster's Daily Democrat (Dover, N.H.): The city of Dover is on track to become the second Seacoast city to test the waters of a "pay-and-display" metered parking system. Transportation Planner Bruce Woodruff said the city is looking to participate in a pilot program that would add the pay-and-display meters to street parking spots along Henry Law Avenue. The meters work by allowing motorists to insert nickels, dimes, quarters, dollar coins or a credit card into one central meter, which serves several parking spaces.
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Friday, 01 August 2008
(Las Vegas) KTNV-TV, Channel 13: Obtaining driving records soon will be easier for Nevada residents, thanks to some new kiosks at local DMV offices. For $7 the kiosk can give you a 3-, 9- or 10-year driving history.
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Friday, 01 August 2008
PADERBORN, Germany — PrivatBank, based in Ukraine, has further strengthened its self-service business with the purchase and installation of 3,100 Wincor Nixdorf ATMs for sites in Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Cyprus and Latvia, according to a news release.
In addition, the bank plans to test the use of ATM-based advertisements as part of an extensive pilot project. Alongside an application designed for personalized interaction with customers at the ATM, all systems will be equipped with special monitoring software.
The monitoring and IT service management software, ProView, connects the ATMs with the bank's IT management center, thus allowing PrivatBank to monitor its systems online around the clock and to maintain maximum availability of the self-service network. Additionally, ProView is designed to provide a wide range of other useful features, such as the management of software updates and remote access to the ATMs.
In total, 100 systems within the network will be equipped with ProSales Marketing, a software developed specifically for direct marketing via self-service devices. Prior to this extensive pilot project, initial tests had been successfully completed on five systems. In addition to promoting bank-related products and services, the bank also is looking to implement a system that allows customers to provide direct feedback by means of response functions incorporated into the ATMs.
The approach pursued by PrivatBank is to evolve its self-service business into a fully fledged communication, sales and service channel. The bank already offers services such as the recharging of prepaid cards for cellphones, the payment of bills and international money transfers. The systems are capable of processing banknote deposits.
In installing the new generation of ATMs, PrivatBank will phase out its portfolio of older systems supplied by other manufacturers and create a homogeneous network based on state-of-the-art technology developed by Wincor Nixdorf. The decision in favor of a consistent system platform will produce tangible benefits in the area of servicing and maintenance. At the same time, new products and services can be developed faster and more cost-effectively, according to the release.
PrivatBank has issued a total of 16.6 million bank cards to its customers. It operates 2,910 bank branches and has a network comprising 4,700 ATMs.
Friday, 01 August 2008
NORTH CANTON, Ohio — Diebold Inc. a provider of ATMs and security systems and services, is planning to close its German subsidiary, Diebold Germany GmbH, and exit the country given the additional investment required to maintain an acceptable level of customer satisfaction in that market.
This decision is the result of careful consideration of the company's international business operations. Diebold's global strategy concentrates on a clearly defined growth plan focusing its international resources on the most profitable markets within Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America. Germany is a saturated market in all segments with limited growth potential driven by the existing installation base. Therefore, Diebold doesn't expect to achieve profitable growth for its products and services, or to enhance its market position in Germany.
Approximately 50 Diebold employees in the current German operation will be affected by this decision. Diebold will ensure a seamless migration of all its existing customer service contracts in Germany, including hardware and software maintenance for existing installations. In addition, Diebold is focused on ensuring continuity in its German customer operations by developing plans on a customer-by-customer basis. Support will be conducted through partners and reliable service companies.
Read also: Diebold rejects offer from United Technologies.
Read also: Rent-A-Center signs with Diebold for cash recyclers.
Friday, 01 August 2008
NORTH CANTON, Ohio — Diebold Inc. will release preliminary financial results, including earnings estimates for the second quarter and a full-year outlook for 2008, on Monday, Aug. 11, before trading begins on the New York Stock Exchange, according to a news release.
Thomas W. Swidarski, president and chief executive, and Kevin J. Krakora, executive vice president and chief financial officer, will discuss the results during a conference call scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. (ET) that day.
The conference call will last approximately one hour. Participants should plan to dial in 15 minutes prior to the session. Details on the call are as follows:
Call-in number: (913) 905-1086
Passcode: 2498086
Live access, as well as a replay of the call, will be available on Diebold's Web site.
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