|
 |
Blog: David Drain, SSKA Executive Director |
 |
 | David Drain (bio)
Executive Director
Self-Service & Kiosk Association |
Monday, 08 February 2010
It's election season again for the Self-Service & Kiosk Association.
For the first time, we are going to conduct an election from among our Deployer Members to join the Advisory Board of the Self-Service & Kiosk Association. We have six Advisory Board positions open for election, each with a two-year term.
We also have five Advisory Board positions open for election from among our Vendor Members to fulfill a two-year term.
You are invited to nominate yourself or any member you think would make a good candidate for the board.
Deployer Member Nomination Form
Vendor Member Nomination Form
Requirements:
• The company is a member in good standing
• No company may have more than one representative on the board
• Two in-person meetings per year
Nominations will be open until February 9. After that date, we will compile information on each of the candidates and send a ballot to the primary delegate from each member company.
Elections will be held in late February/early March. Elected board members will be announced in mid March and will assume their roles immediately. The first meeting of the new Advisory Board will be held April 13 in Las Vegas in conjunction with the KioskCom Self Service Expo. At that meeting, the newly elected Board will elect the officers of the Association from among the Board.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Monday, 18 January 2010
Four years ago, I was offered the opportunity to be the executive director of the Self-Service & Kiosk Association. At the time, I didn't know a lot about kiosks, but I did know quite a bit about managing associations.
While I didn't know a lot about self-service technology, I had certainly used it as a customer. Light bulbs went off in my head as I started to think about all the applications I had used: photo kiosks, self-checkout, airline self-check in, purchasing movie theater tickets and of course ATMs and pay at the pump.
As I told friends and family about the industry in which I'd be working, I would get an enthusiastic response - "that's cool!" and "you're right, it's everywhere." Not only did I think the technology was cool, but I really thought (and still do) that self-service makes people's lives easier.
During my first week on the job, NetWorld Alliance CEO and SSKA Chairman Dick Good gave me an assignment: take a week a month over the next year and visit as many members as I could. Combined with attending trade shows, it was a great education.
I visited companies in Illinois, Connecticut/Rhode Island, England, Texas, Colorado, New York State, Wisconsin/Minnesota, Los Angeles and North Carolina. All told, I visited with 74 companies in one year. I learned about a lot of neat technology and met some really interesting people. If you click on the places I linked, you can read the reports I wrote from those road trips (note: Bill Yackey wrote the North Carolina piece).
It's now four years later and I think we've come a long way as an industry. Kiosks and other self-service technology have become woven into the fabric of our daily lives. Some applications have failed (electronic voting - though I'm still a fan) and some have wildly succeeded (DVD-rental kiosks).
And I'm still in love with it all.
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
You know the saying, "you get what you put into it"? That is certainly true of participating in the Self-Service & Kiosk Association. Since I often counsel our vendor members on how to get the most out of their membership, I thought I would put it down into a top-10 list. I’m sure there are more than 10, but this is a good start.
1. Write a carefully crafted company description for your membership directory listing. Include all the keywords individuals might use to search the Internet to find you. Make sure we have a clean company logo. Review your listing periodically to make sure it’s up-to-date and let us know of any changes.
2. Send us press releases on a regular basis. Every time your company lands an important new client, launches a new product, wins an award, speaks at a conference or makes an important hire, tell us about it and we’ll publish your news on our Web site.
3. Submit case studies for publication. People love to read real-world stories of how companies implemented a new technology successfully. It doesn’t have to be long. Simply describe the scope of the project, any challenges faced, the solution provided and the results. Include at least one high quality photograph.
4. Write a “Perspective” article. You’re an expert in your field. You can help the industry by writing about what you know best. Or give your opinion on an industry trend in this 500- to 1,000-word column. If you’ve ever written a blog post (or read one), you can write a “Perspective” article. We have editors on staff that can take care of the grammar and punctuation. The article will contain your picture and reference to your company.
5. Take action on sales leads received. Each week we’ll send you sales leads that are generated through our website. Carefully review these for opportunities that fit your company’s offerings. Even if the lead is not requesting your specific product, they may still want to hear from you. They may not know they need your product until you inform them! Consider adding the contact information from leads to your database and/or your company newsletter distribution list.
6. Use the project help form to receive quotes and information from fellow members. No one company does it all. You can use the same online form users do to find information on products needed for the project you’re working on.
7. Sign up your staff to receive our e-newsletter. You can sign up as many people on your staff as you wish. Just send us a list of names and email addresses and we’ll add them to our distribution list. Your staff will stay abreast of industry news and trends. They’ll thank you for it!
8. Use the Member logo. Promote your membership in the Association by using the member logo on your website, business cards, brochures, etc. At major industry trade shows we participate in, we’ll have a floor decal for your booth to publicize your membership.
9. Join a committee. Have you been looking for a chance to get involved, meet other people and help advance industry issues? Now is your opportunity! If you have an area of interest not currently covered by one of our committees, please let us know; we may want to organize a committee or task force to address that topic.
10. Ask us! Do you have a question you can’t find the answer to? If we don’t know the answer, we’ll probably know where to find it. Is there someone you would like to meet, or do you need help contacting a company or finding a particular product? We are happy to make an introduction for you or provide the contact details needed.
As you see, it takes a little work on your part to take advantage of all that membership in our Association has to offer. But I promise you it will be worth it.
Tuesday, 19 May 2009
The self-service and kiosk industry is alive and well, in spite of the difficult economy. KioskCom and the biannual Self-Service & Kiosk Association Advisory Board meeting, held recently in Las Vegas, is always a good opportunity to get a pulse of the industry.
Joel Davis, CEO of JD Events, reported on numbers for KioskCom: 1,382 qualified attendees. Davis said that while it might be tempting to let anyone in the show to keep the numbers up, the organizers stuck to their policy of only approving buyers so as to retain the quality of the audience. So while attendance may have been down from 2008, it still meant that there were plenty of good folks for the 162 exhibitors to talk to.
I reported on membership growth. Through our deployer membership campaign, we've added over 100 deployers since August and we project that deployer members will exceed vendor members in the Association by the end of the year as planned.
Chris Rezendes of VDC Research presented some very interesting figures on the size and projected growth of the industry. The self-service market in North America in 2008 was a healthy $4.9 billion and projected to grow to $9.8 billion by 2013. Rezendes noted that these numbers include all spending associated with self-service implementation, including hardware, software and services.
I also reported on our foray into social media with LinkedIn and Twitter. Our SSKA LinkedIn Group, established on April 10, 2008, now has 366 members and counting. It's free to join; I encourage you to join the group, get connected to other members, post discussions, news and job opportunities. You can also follow me on Twitter.
The SSKA board re-elected Miller Newton of Netkey to a second year as president and elected vice presidents from the deployer, vendor and international communities. We also welcomed newly elected board members and, with "fresh blood" come new ideas. Board members expressed enthusiasm for promoting membership in the Association, but requested an "elevator pitch." These talking points can be summarized as follows:
1. Advocacy. The Association advocates for the use self-service technology, which saves consumers time, deployers money and improves the customer experience. Since we are the voice of the self-service industry, we've been called upon by the likes of Newsweek, CBS MarketWatch, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Airport Innovation magazine and Credit Union Business magazine.
2. Education. We want deployers of self-service technology to be successful, so we arm them with valuable information through this website and through newsletters and our library of members-only best practices. Deployer membership is currently free, so there's no reason not to join. Our Speakers Bureau helps connect conferences and trade shows seeking speakers and our member experts.
3. Networking. Both deployers and vendors of self-service technology benefit greatly by meeting other people in this space and we facilitate that · whether it's through board or committee service, membership luncheons like the one we held on May 5 or the Buyer's Summit we co-sponsored at KioskCom, or through virtual opportunities like LinkedIn. We will help you meet other members to get business done.
SSKA co-sponsored the Self Service Excellence Awards with KioskCom where we inducted three more members into the SSKA Hall of Fame:
Gregg Kaplan, president & chief operating officer, Coinstar (former CEO of Redbox)
Rick Malone, founder and president of KIOSK Information Systems
Bradley Walker, founder and CEO, Nanonation
On May 7, I moderated a panel called "What Self-Service Technology Do Customers Really Want?" with panelists Jared Miller of Continental Airlines and Janet Sherlock of AMR Research. I presented some of the findings from our recent survey of over 1,000 consumers.
Read also: KIOSKCOM: Survey data revealed to show attendees
We're beginning a series of free webinars, so mark your calendar for our first webinar we are planning for June 16 called "Survivor's Guide to Deploying Kiosks," led by Janet Webster, president of Creative Solutions Consulting (formerly with US Postal Service) and featuring an all-deployer panel:
Sarah Canepa Bang, CEO, Financial Service Centers Cooperative
Greg Clore, vice president, information technology, Dave & Buster's
Faith MacPherson, director, HR transactional services, Avery Dennison
So as you can see, we're not sticking our heads in the sand, waiting for the economy to turn around. There are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the opportunities in this great industry and Association of ours.
Read also: KIOSKCOM: SSKA advisory board holds elections, annual meeting
Tuesday, 25 November 2008
You may have read what Universal Studios decided to do on its summer vacation: take on redbox, the successful DVD rental kiosk operator. On a late August day, reps from Universal decided to show up on redbox's doorstep and demand that company execs sign an agreement — that was a lose/lose situation for redbox — by the next day.
Why exactly Universal decided to confront redbox in this way is not clear, but what is clear is redbox would no longer be competitive with Blockbuster and other video rental outlets on renting Universal's videos if it has to wait 45 days after the release date to rent those not-so-new releases to the public.
Did Blockbuster complain to Universal? That was my first reaction, but I guess that wouldn't make sense if Blockbuster is also getting into kiosks.
I'm sure Universal's distributors — VPD and Ingram — were not too thrilled with Universal's actions since redbox is a big customer, but what can they do? Universal is certainly the Goliath in this drama.
But redbox has put a rock in its sling and aimed it right back at Universal by filing a lawsuit claiming infringements on redbox's rights to DVDs it's purchased, violating antitrust laws and interfering with its relationship with its suppliers.
Did Universal want a bigger cut of the profits? According to the lawsuit, Universal wants 40 percent of redbox's rental revenues on Universal's videos.
The lawsuit also reveals some interesting statistics:
redbox had 125 kiosks in 2004, had nearly 6500 by the end of 2007 and expects to exceed 12,000 kiosks by the end of 2008.
To date, consumers have rented more than 200 million DVDs from redbox.
Consumers average approximately 50 DVD rentals per day per kiosk.
Consumer demand has supported redbox' s expansion such that redbox has installed a new kiosk, on average, every 90 minutes somewhere in the United States this year to date. As part of this expansion, redbox has hired over 600 new employees this year.
While Universal is the first studio to try this tactic, I'm sure the other studios are watching with interest. Should Universal win, they'll probably follow suit and that could seriously undermine redbox, DVDPlay and other DVD kiosk operators' ability to compete with the likes of Blockbuster, Netflix and Apple iTunes.
Personally, I'm a big fan of DVD rental kiosks. Ever since I rented my first videos from redbox in November 2006, I've been a loyal customer. The price/value relationship is too good to beat; I'm also a fan of self-service kiosks in general and I'm still mad about those late fees video stores charged me over the years. (Full disclosure: redbox chief executive Gregg Kaplan joined the Association's Advisory Board in April 2007.)
DVDPlay says that Universal asked them to sign a similar agreement and they've refused, so a least there's some solidarity among some of the DVD kiosk players, though Polar Frog Digital's chief executive Todd Rosenbaum takes a different point of view, which I don't really buy. He complains that redbox doesn't pay licensing fees and then admits his firm (which makes DVD burn-on-demand kiosks) doesn't either. He also claims redbox buys "closeouts of products," which may be true for some of their DVDs, but the majority of their products seem to be new releases.
Let's hope David (redbox) prevails against this Goliath (Universal) for the sake of our industry and for the sake of the consumer.
Read also: Redbox says it won't bow to Universal.
Read also: Bullish on DVD rental kiosks.
Wednesday, 28 May 2008
I recently returned from Essen, Germany for the co-located shows Kiosk Europe Expo and Digital Signage Expo (the latter not to be confused with the show of the same name that took place in Las Vegas earlier this year). You can view images taken from the show.
After walking the show floor, I was left with two main impressions: (1) Apple's iPhone and Microsoft's Surface have got people thinking about multi-touch, and (2) Europe continues to produce unique kiosk designs.
First, I'll talk about multi-touch offerings seen at the show:
Franhofer Institute, a research and development firm, had a multi-touch table application in the Self-Service Futures Parlour. Like MS Surface, several people can interact with the table at the same time, "grabbing" photos and increasing or decreasing its size with two fingers. The interesting application here was the use of architectural designs. Once you selected a place on one of the floor plans, another window displayed a 3-D rendering from which you could pan and zoom.
Hamburg University participated in the Self-Service Futures Parlour as well and students demonstrated a multi-touch screen they developed based on infrared frames, which can be mounted onto a standard LCD or plasma screen. They also developed an interesting gesture: using three figures in a vertical or horizontal motion to give you the ability to flip a picture over.
Nexio, based in Korea, develops infrared touch technology and showed a multi-point touch screen using infrared. The demonstration was using Google Earth and by using two fingers over the navigation control, you could change the view from "top down" to the "horizon" view and of course zoom in and out as well as rotate the Earth on its axis.
NextWindow, an SSKA member based in New Zealand, incorporated its digital whiteboard feature along with photos that you can move and resize using multi-touch. An online demonstration is available.
Now to some of the interesting kiosk designs at the show:
DigiQuipment had two interesting kiosk designs that are being used side by side in a bank location. First was an orange pod-shaped kiosk that hangs from the ceiling. The enclosure design provides privacy for the financial transaction. Next to the pod kiosk was a matching orange leather ottoman with a kiosk mounted to it, which is intended to entertain children while the adult conducts business with the pod kiosk.
Friendlyway, a German kiosk company celebrating its 10th year in the business, has developed a mobile kiosk with a locking brake similar to those on airport luggage carts. The idea here is that the customer can roll the kiosk around with them as he or she strolls through an automobile dealership or museum. Compared with a handheld device, it is unlikely the customer would be taking this device home with them.
Innova, from Istanbul, Turkey, has a kiosk made from polyester that only weighs 23 Kg (about 51 lbs.). Its sleek, curvy design comes in an array of colors.
Changing the world, one kiosk at a time
Sometimes kiosks are developed simply to make the world a better place.
DigiQuipment, the Dutch company mentioned above, also makes a kiosk to go into a classroom as a "stand in" for a child with a long-term illness. The kiosk, mounted with a camera on top, allows the student to see what's going on in the classroom and for the teacher and classmates to interact with the child.
No one has a more daunting challenge of closing the digital divide than those trying to reach rural Africa. Enter Grant Cambridge, an engineering technologist with Meraka Institute of South Africa. Cambridge and his organization have developed a program called Digital Doorway, which endeavors to place a computer kiosk in remote South African villages. In many cases, this is the first time people in these villages have seen or used a computer.
The kiosks must be made to withstand the rigors of its environment, namely dust and vandalism. The students teach themselves how to use the computer and soon are able to learn about the rest of the world beyond their village. In a presentation on the project, Cambridge shared several stories of how the kiosk impacted people's lives, both young and old, for the better.
By mid June, Digital Doorway plans to have 300 kiosks in the field.
|
|
 |
Blog: David Drain, DSA Executive Director |
 |
|
Testimonials
|
|
|
"I'm very happy to be a part of the Self-Service & Kiosk Association. As a kiosk deployer, we enjoy working together with other deployer members to share experiences and establish industry standards."
Gregg Kaplan
President & COO
Coinstar, Inc.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
