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Wireless Inventory Monitoring


jerrybrecko

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I just found out about soda and snack machine Wireless inventory monitoring. you can go on the internet before you fill the location and see exactly what was sold and what you need to refill.

the only issue I see is it is expensive. we have machines in high traffic and low traffic locations. I wouldn't want to put it on just a high-traffic ones, and it seems too expensive for the low traffic ones. so I was hoping someone could tell me if there is better pricing out there.

the price I was quoted was an initial fee of $375 per machine and the monthly fee of $12 per machine.

are there cheaper programs out there?

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That's about what you will pay from every source.  This is the dilemma that all vendors who are wanting to rollout route telemetry face - the expense of it versus the return, and how to justify it on low volume accounts. 

 

Telemetry is a great tool that can save you tons of labor hours by saving your route drivers one trip into the account for inventory purposes.  It can save you further hours if you then use the telemetry data to prekit your products in the warehouse so that when the driver arrives at the account they simply pull the prekitted bins for those machines, load the pre-counted soda and go into the location.  You can probably imagine the scale of savings that a large multi-route vending company can achieve.  A small vendor will obviously not save the same amount of money with telemetry but if you are planning on major growth or very rapid growth and you install telemetry now and as you grow, you will be building in the cost savings as you grow. 

 

To install telemetry your machines must have the DEX data standard built in to the logic boards, or you have to add a DEX box that can extract that data from the machine.  You then need a modem device to transmit the data via cellular service to the server that compiles the data and sends it to you.  This hardware and the monthly backoffice work is where the costs come in.  One feature that the telemetry software utilizes, when available in the machine, is that you can program it to extract data such as door open times, product temperatures, bill validator and coin mech status and out of service conditions allowing you to be proactive with your machines.  This can avoid major product meltdowns and allow you to repair a machine even before the location knows it's broken.

 

If you are considering credit card readers, incorporate the DEX data telemetry at the same time.  This will probably save you some money up front and possibly on a monthly basis.

 

Many people get into vending and want to use all the electronic tools available so that they can be on top of their business.  What they don't realize is that there is a large cost to that ability and that you have to purchase late model multiprice machines in order to use it effectively.  Most members on this forum, myself included, direct new vendors to used single price machines to start with so that the new vendor can learn the business from the ground up and truly decide if this is the business for them before they are in too deep.  Unfortunately those types of machines don't lend themselves to the use of fancy DEX data devices so when the new vendor wants to move to telemetry, it can be very difficult.  I will add that even the majority of large vendors don't use telemetry either because it's too big an undertaking for them or they simply don't feel a need for it.  There are members here who use it and rave about the features I described above because they are real time reporting features, but most vendors don't use telemetry yet.

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thanks for the info.  I see the people offering the wireless inventory tracking also offer vehicle tracking.   years ago vehicle tracking was 3-400 for the equipment and $40/mnth.   now i pay 100 for the equipment and $5/mnth.   so hopefully prices will come down soon.

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I just found out about soda and snack machine Wireless inventory monitoring. you can go on the internet before you fill the location and see exactly what was sold and what you need to refill.

the only issue I see is it is expensive. we have machines in high traffic and low traffic locations. I wouldn't want to put it on just a high-traffic ones, and it seems too expensive for the low traffic ones. so I was hoping someone could tell me if there is better pricing out there.

are there cheaper programs out there?

 

 

You may want to check out the Currenza C2 Airport Coin Changer with Alarm System. There are no fixed monthly fee as you only pay for alarm SMS and readout charges.

 

http://support.nri.de/download/PDF_Englisch/B_c2_%20airport_EN.pdf

 

 

 Most members on this forum, myself included, direct new vendors to used single price machines to start with so that the new vendor can learn the business from the ground up and truly decide if this is the business for them before they are in too deep.  Unfortunately those types of machines don't lend themselves to the use of fancy DEX data devices so when the new vendor wants to move to telemetry, it can be very difficult.  I will add that even the majority of large vendors don't use telemetry either because it's too big an undertaking for them or they simply don't feel a need for it.  There are members here who use it and rave about the features I described above because they are real time reporting features, but most vendors don't use telemetry yet.

 

Nri also have a 4-Price Converter which allows single price machines to be converted to multi-price. Not sure how cost effective this hardware would be in the US. It might be cheaper just to buy MDB equipment.

 

http://www.nri.de/download/PDF_Englisch/DB_c2_4PC_EN.pdf

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What does that have to do with anything? Not sure I understand

 

 

I was suggesting the C2 Airport Series "Alarm System" as a cheaper option for your low volume accounts that you said don't justify paying the $12/mth monitoring fee. 

 

The alarm is sent via SMS or e-mail to your mobile phone or back office. It can be set to alert errors with machine or a fixed set turnover amount reached but you will only get charged when an alert is sent.

 

The advantage I see with the alarm system is that you don't pay a fixed monthly software or online fee.

 

I don't know all the ins & outs of this system as I have never used it personally but I am meeting with our local NRI distributor over the next few days so I will have more info on the system then.

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I mean the sms monitoring is exactly what I'm looking for. I have heard about it for vehicle locating and I know it's cheap because you only pay when you want to update it. But does it tell you....you sold 10 Pepsi 20 diet 30 snickers etc etc

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Or does it just report when the machine is broke.

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A lot of systems only tell you which SELECTIONS have been sold.  I am pretty sure that some software can be programmed to tell you the selection number and the product that it is in it but I don't think any program *knows* what is in any selection.

 

Think about it this way, if an alert says "Selection B5 is sold out", you know that whatever is in selection B5 is sold out.  I don't know about you, but I move products around all the time.  I might have NO idea what is in B5 and the machine sure doesn't know either, but it might be programmed to say "Lays Potato Chips" which may or may not be correct.

 

I think the software that a lot of people use for pre-packing has actually been programmed AND they use plan-o-grams to check the inventoried list to see exactly what is missing.  If the plan-o-gram says B5 is Lays Potato Chips, then you know that you need to grab 10 Lays Potato Chips to pre-pack yourself for that machine.

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Think about it this way, if an alert says "Selection B5 is sold out", you know that whatever is in selection B5 is sold out. 

 

 

vending.com charges $8/month thats the cheapest i found so far.  and with their software it allows you to program whats in b5 a4 etc.   i very rarely move selections around(just slow movers, sometimes) i never move the good sellers.   you actually shouldnt move them.  the customers want to see their favorites in the same place each time.  consistency 

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There are companies that do what you would like to do. Cantaloupe should be able to do that, but they are really expensive and want you to buy a ton of units just to start up. I use InOne Technology, and have included some screen shots from their website. I don't actually use their site that often because I have my data transmitted to Streamware (really expensive), but when I first got it, I did use them for prekitting, and it can be as accurate as you make it. If you don't put in exactly what the prekit says, then you have to go in and manually adjust the numbers, or your prekit will be off the next time you go there. If you are only doing telemetry, then I think its around $6 or $7 a month. I don't have any telemetry only devices anymore so I can't say for sure, but it was around those numbers. With the card reader also, you will pay about $12 a month plus 5.95% per transaction. They also have several alerts that could be beneficial to you. I think you can also lease the equipment rather than buy it, so you just pay an extra $2-$3 per month per machine, but you don't have the upfront cost. I went with InOne because I felt they were more well rounded. USA technologies I think is more superior with the card readers, but they weren't doing any telemetry when I started remote monitoring except sending the raw dex file wherever I wanted it, and with no alerts, it just wasn't worth it to me. For the same price with InOne, I got card readers, telemetry, pre kitting, and alerts which have saved me thousands in saved products from melt downs and machines being unplugged. Hope this helps.

InOne.pdf

InOne-2.pdf

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Hey Jerry,

 

Feel free to take a look at our solution. It may or may not be what you're looking for, but thought it would be of interest to you. We integrate with USA Technologies credit card readers and we have our own telemetry devices that send frequent machine sales updates via the WiFi networks of your locations  or through the cellular networks. Take a look at our recent news article at http://www.vendingmarketwatch.com/news/11258610/vagabond-introduces-wifi-telemetry-hardware-insight-series

 

I'd be happy to answer all questions at 202.695.8228 x202 or via email: juan at vagabondvending.com

 

You can also visit our supplier pipeline page at http://vendiscuss.net/index.php?/forum/73-vagabond-vending/

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There are companies that do what you would like to do. Cantaloupe should be able to do that, but they are really expensive and want you to buy a ton of units just to start up. I use InOne Technology, and have included some screen shots from their website. I don't actually use their site that often because I have my data transmitted to Streamware (really expensive), but when I first got it, I did use them for prekitting, and it can be as accurate as you make it. If you don't put in exactly what the prekit says, then you have to go in and manually adjust the numbers, or your prekit will be off the next time you go there. If you are only doing telemetry, then I think its around $6 or $7 a month. I don't have any telemetry only devices anymore so I can't say for sure, but it was around those numbers. With the card reader also, you will pay about $12 a month plus 5.95% per transaction. They also have several alerts that could be beneficial to you. I think you can also lease the equipment rather than buy it, so you just pay an extra $2-$3 per month per machine, but you don't have the upfront cost. I went with InOne because I felt they were more well rounded. USA technologies I think is more superior with the card readers, but they weren't doing any telemetry when I started remote monitoring except sending the raw dex file wherever I wanted it, and with no alerts, it just wasn't worth it to me. For the same price with InOne, I got card readers, telemetry, pre kitting, and alerts which have saved me thousands in saved products from melt downs and machines being unplugged. Hope this helps.

 

What were you doing with the dex files?  Do you have information on how to parse the dex files? 

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What were you doing with the dex files?  Do you have information on how to parse the dex files? 

I don't do anything with the raw dex files. They get sent to Streamware and they parse them and turn them into information that I use for dynamic scheduling and prekitting.

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