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Smart Mech Question


philo

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Are any of you familiar first hand with smart mech technology? I ran across ths last week being used by an outfit called first vending partners. This technology appears to able to allow management of large numbers (>150) of bulk machines. I think if they can get the cost per unit down (currently $24 per head) it can be very practical. It appears to count exactly how many vends have occurred and can be uploaded into a PDA. It would make hiring additional help to handle bulk service very practical.

 

Regards,

Philo

 

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Not sure never heard of it. This has a microchip attached to the coin mech. Everytime a vend occurs it registers on the chip. At service time you sync with a PDA via IR interface to record the dollar amount. Seems secure.

Philo

 

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Yes probably similar to EZ Count. With EZ Count you can actually read your vends from a computer over the internet so you know exactly how much you have before you even get to the location.

Steve

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Maybe if you had a large amount of machines and you utilize employees to do your collections. Most smaller operators I believe would not benefit from this. It would be really nice to have but even I can not justify the expense.

Steve

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  • 2 weeks later...

caserri Thanks for directing me to this topic.

I have to disagree with your comment about good for large operators.

As a small operator your margins are even smaller and all information is good. Information can be the most usefull tool that you have in making it or not.

Upfront expense is $24.00 per head, yearly cost per head is $3.60 or .30 a month (less than 2% of sales). This will give you a good bookkeeping service mapping software and alerts to bad trends. But even better, what would happen if you had to have someone else take care of your route for a little while while you are sick or on that long deserved vacation. CASH is a great temptation even for the most honest! From anywhere you can check how they are doing after they connect to the servers. Taxes, commision, charity fees are all done for you, nobody will question your honesty (they shouldn't anyways but..) and this service can be as big or as small as you need. You could expand your current operation while still maintenaing your current route without this added cost but use it on any new addtions were you may add employees. Personaly I would do the whole route.

Check out the demo, maybe this is for you or not. I belive I will use this tool when I finaly get a route because I also know I will not be doing this alone. Oh one other note I think you could also give a charity a password to thier own section and they could check how they are doing with your business. Or you could show that section to potential location owners.

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Grumpy,

I have to admit, I have not researched this particular product. Smart mech. I didn't realize how inexpensive it is. I read somewhere that the EZ count system was out of my reach. You do make some very valid points to consider. I will look into this especially if they have a demo. I'm all about the demo's!

Thanks,

Steve 

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What about your locking mechanisms. Does everyone simply keep what the manufacture installs or as a precaution do you upgrade after? Or re-key the locks?

I'm worried that a vendor can simply unlock my machines and take my $$$.  

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