By Ian Reynolds-Young
Remember when cars had dashboards that were composed of an array of buttons, dials and switches?
Controlling your vehicle these days is altogether a different experience. Functions are accessed via a giant tablet-like screen that does far more than a ‘dashboard’ ever did: it’s now a sat nav, an audio interface, the air con controller… You name it, it happens through the screen.
The same thing is happening in the world of vending management software. SB Software’s Dan Varney – now Chief Operating Officer, EMEA for Cantaloupe, shares his screen with me. On it is the company’s brand new VMS interface and as he says to kick off our meeting, ‘the word ‘dashboard’ doesn’t do it justice.’
‘Our reinvented interface allows us to present data in a way that our current system cannot do. It’s been designed and built with the likes of Power BI, business intelligence, in mind and many clients are starting to use it for various areas of their business, not just the VMS part. The feedback we’ve had so far has been outstanding in terms of both how it looks and feels, and the data that it’s able to surface and show.’
The development process began with SB Software’s team examining how people were using their system and identifying which parts they were exploiting effectively and which they weren’t. ‘We’ve listened to our clients to understand what they want’, Dan says, ‘which has meant an 18-month roadmap to get to this stage. It’s been a long process partly because the whole system has been reviewed in order to maximise the benefits of the BI Dashboards. There are features included that we didn’t have in the previous system.’
The upshot is a ‘business intelligent dashboard’ that provides real-time insights, which are comparable to those you’d expect to find in more traditional business intelligence tools. The nuance is that these insights are within the context of the machine park. This ease of access to crucial data significantly empowers MDs to manage their businesses proactively. They can log into the system and instantly access critical business metrics, enhancing transparency and control. From anywhere…
‘The user experience is designed to be far more intuitive than traditional reporting methods’, Dan says. ‘The information is collated on one screen, eliminating the need to navigate multiple tabs or reports – and that’s not just about aesthetics: it empowers users to extract and interpret complex data easily and practically.’
Over the course of an hour, via the shared screen, Dan gives me a demonstration, so I can see for myself how the system works and how simple it is to reveal the data you need to make your vending business run more smoothly, more economically and more effectively. I’ll share just one example to give you a taste of what’s new…
‘Let’s start with machine health’, he says. ‘In our world, that encompasses any error on a machine that could cause you a problem. Firstly, you can see which of your machines are Operated and which are DIY.
‘Then over on the right-hand side, we’ve got your machine count by month presented as a graph, so you can actually see what’s trending in both Operated and DIY. If you’ve installed more machines, you would see your DIY lift. Likewise, if you’ve installed new operated kit, you’d see that lift. If you’ve lost an important client, you might see a drop. That’s just showing you your trend; but your next step might be to hover your pointer over individual months to see exactly how your machine count has fluctuated.
‘By going a little deeper the new dashboard’s facilities really come to the fore. If you click on Operated, it filters your entire data set. And then, if you click on a category of machine, for example, Snack, Can and Bottle, you can see that trend clearly represented in the form of a graph – and all of that data is updating in real time.’
On my screen, I can see that these actions all take place in lightning quick time. Dan’s commentary keeps pace: ‘And then, at the bottom of the screen, you’ll see tiles that summarise more information. You can see at a glance how many of your machines are cash, how many are cashless, how many are free vend.’ There’s a click and the screen morphs again. ‘In this example, you can see that 58% are cash, 10% are cashless and 32% free vend.
‘Let’s click again on Snack Can and Bottle ‘, Dan says. ‘I can order the view by the estimated stock level. You can see that there’s clearly been an issue at this machine, because it has identified as a machine with 50% stock or less and has not been visited for 14 days or more. Let’s drill further down to see when the machine has been visited, what the current stock levels are, how many vends it completes per week and where it is located. This is an example of how clicking two tiles within the dashboard gets you to an actionable position for the business. The question will be asked of the operations manager to ensure the machine is restocked and prioritised accordingly. This could improve revenue, customer service and your customers overall experience working with your business. Intelligent, actionable insight within a few clicks.
‘On the left of the screen, you can see which machines haven’t had telemetry data for 24 hours and how many machines haven’t had any transactions for 24 hours. In short, you can interrogate every machine in your park – where are they, how busy they are – and then decide what action you need to take. Do you need to log a service call? Do you need to reboot the telemetry device? How many machines haven’t had visits for more than 14 days? Which of them present a problem?’
Dan then expands into other areas of potential concern. ‘There are numerous practical examples like this within our offerings, enhancing the user experience of monitoring service calls. Operators will receive insights on their service metrics in real time, identifying trends over varying periods. For instance, if certain machines require frequent service, this signals a potential issue. The dashboard enables users to derive actionable insights quickly, enhancing service efficiency.’
And so it continues until every aspect of running a vending business has been put under the microscope of the SB Software dashboard’s thoroughly impressive new capabilities.
‘In terms of ongoing innovation and technological investment’, Dan concludes, ‘it’s important to note that this project is not just a response to a market event. We’ve been developing these capabilities for a long time. Our clients can expect continuous enhancements as we invest in more advanced technologies.
‘The user interface overhaul is an integral step toward expanding our platform and continuing to provide a market leading product and service to our customers.
‘Overall, our development focus has always been on creating intuitive data access points for our users; streamlining the process of extracting valuable insights from data that was previously more fragmented and difficult to analyse. As we finalise this transition, we anticipate even greater user satisfaction and operational efficiencies.’
The capabilities of the new system Business Intelligence dashboards are exhaustive and comprehensive. In this article, I’ve revealed no more than the tip of the iceberg. There’s much, much more to the story and Dan is the man to tell it.
Give him a call, I’d say…
More from SB Software on Planet Vending here.
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