21st Century, 20th Century Vending

Our industry has an incredible amount of creative manufacturers - in my time, innovation has happened faster than you could blink. From LED lighting and touch screen technology to wave and pay systems, there is an abundance of new technology.

Unfortunately the majority of those in the industry are what I would call "traditional" operators; although open to looking at new technology, their processes and business ultimately stays the same as they decide investing in a new piece of technology would not be cost effective and require a large amount of man hours that, in a period of recession, they simply don't have. It's these business that are now starting to suffer towards the end of the year, as their clients are being approached by more pioneering operators that promise an enhanced level of reporting, account management and customer satisfaction.

Investing in change and innovation can improve business performance on a level that can't be replicated by simple cost cutting. Our business was one of the first UK operators to roll out the Vendman series of products throughout our business  - http://www.vendman.com/ - Sales, Service, Operating, Cash and Invoicing and all other departments gradually saw an improvement, and it's highlighted areas where we have had too much man power, or not enough, and in turn allow us to monitor how we improve our business. By monitoring our operators using their blackberries, we reduced stock loss and cash loss by over 10% - a huge increase on cash collection and that alone has paid back the investment.

There have of course been downfalls and limitations, and the sheer level of groundbreaking technology in the software means that it has taken over 20 months to get it fully implemented across our fleet. The man hour invested has been incredible and all our staff have had to be trained on the useage, a huge cost there. But here on in, there is only room for improvement.

As we come to the close of the first decade of the 21st Century, our industry has experienced the best decade of innovation, I believe, since the inception of the first vending machine.

What does the next 10 years hold for us?