LG CLOi Servebot lends a helping hand(shelf) to servers at a busy Korean Restaurant. Arirang K saw firsthand how effective CLOi Servebots could be to help optimize their business in more ways than one.
Features:
The 3D camera and LiDAR sensors guarantees optimal space recognition and eliminate the need to install separate ceiling markers. This allows the CLOi Servebot to move freely and precisely even in spaces with high ceilings, limited spaces, or complex paths.
The CLOi Servebot navigates safely with a 3D camera sensor that detects low-height obstacles and a close-range ToF sensor to avoid sudden obstructions or small obstacles.
The CLOi Servebot is able to serve multiple tables at once. It automatically detects the presence of food, and departs to the next table after a table is served.
The interesting conflict between the New York Times and an article they did on employees paying for lobbyists to keep their wages low. A variation on wages and employees.
In today’s fast and furious culture next, you have the NRA issue an instant rebuttal of the article (within 12 hours).
Media outlets certainly prefer to sensationalize in their pursuit of eyeballs. Forbes and Wall Street Journal demonstrated that with slash articles on self-checkouts in supermarkets. The writers only use what serves their purpose as a rule. Our first thought was it sure wouldn’t surprise us.
We have followed the minimum wage arguments for over 10 years and no doubt the NRA always sided with Mcdonald’s and the CKE Puzders of the world. They have historically warned of the catastrophic effects of raising wages but seem to have a problem using Costco as an example of higher wages crippling a business. Fairly low margins in Costco we think…
You have McDonald’s these days advocating for higher wages.
McDonald’s is among fast-food franchises to raise wages in a tight labor market and plans to reach an average of $15 an hour by 2024 at all company-owned restaurants. Competition for workers is intense and food franchises like McDonald’s and Chipotle are competing with retailers like Amazon, Walmart and Target, McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski noted in a recent CNBC Evolve interview. Labor experts say McDonald’s move will pressure the 95% of its restaurants not owned by the company, and at least some McDonald’s franchise owners say it is time to raise wages and think long-term. CNBC
And then on the otherside you had all the speculation that kiosks were going to eliminate employees. Nope. That never came to happen either. KIosks and order terminals and channels have redistributed employees and increased utilization and effectivity but that translated into better-served customers who come back and buy more. Meanwhile we are getting close to robotic dishwashers. In our opinion a good job for a robot.
We’re a little surprised the NRA wasn’t more detailed in its rebuttal and doesn’t provide any of that data to us that the NY Times writers supposedly ignored. Lots of the expected adjectives.
Not often you get to see a very profitable industry association sparring with a NY-based media outlet.
Pass the popcorn?
In Brief Summary
NY Times
Employees must pay ServSafe $15 for online health safety training
This morning, the New York Times published a story (How Restaurant Workers Help Pay for Lobbying to Keep Their Wages Low) that misrepresents our work in support of the industry through largely inaccurate and distorted information.
The article paints an unfair picture of this Association’s great work on behalf of restaurants and the workforce across America and minimizes the critical role ServSafe programs play in protecting the public from foodborne diseases. Unfortunately, the reporters for this story were not interested in using the extensive data and facts we provided. Despite answering dozens of questions and providing multiple fact checks, they chose not to include our data as it didn’t fit the negative angle they had in mind for this article. Instead, they pushed a sensationalized narrative that falsely attacked the very mission of our association—to serve this whole industry.
While we are disappointed they chose to pursue such a biased story against the restaurant industry, we know, and our members know, where our intentions and actions are rooted. The reporters describe the cost of our ServSafe food safety courses as an “annoying entrance fee to the food-service business.” The restaurant industry understands that safe-food-handling education is critical to protect customers, operators and their teams.
For more than 100 years, our members have counted on the National Restaurant Association to advocate on their behalf through education, in courts and on the Hill. We champion the industry’s success, supporting operators and the millions of employees that work in restaurants. We are proud of the priority the industry places on community, opportunity and food safety training to keep guests, workers, and the community safe. We remain committed to our mission, to serve our industry and support its success.
WASHINGTON — For many cooks, waiters and bartenders, it is an annoying entrance fee to the food-service business: Before starting a new job, they pay around $15 to a company called ServSafe for an online class in food safety.
That course is basic, with lessons like “bathe daily” and “strawberries aren’t supposed to be white and fuzzy, that’s mold.” In four of the largest states, this kind of training is required by law, and it is taken by workers nationwide.
But in taking the class, the workers — largely unbeknown to them — are also helping to fund a nationwide lobbying campaign to keep their own wages from increasing.
The company they are paying, ServSafe, doubles as a fundraising arm of the National Restaurant Association — the largest lobbying group for the food-service industry, claiming to represent more than 500,000 restaurant businesses. The association has spent decades fighting increases to the minimum wage at the federal and state levels, as well as the subminimum wage paid to tipped workers like waiters.
The federal minimum wage has risen just once since 1996, to $7.25 from $5.15, while the minimum hourly wage for tipped workers has been $2.13 since 1991. Minimums are higher in many states, but still below what labor groups consider a living wage.
For years, the restaurant association and its affiliates have used ServSafe to create an arrangement with few parallels in Washington, where labor unwittingly helps to pay for management’s lobbying. First, in 2007, the restaurant owners took control of a training business. Then they helped lobby states to mandate the kind of training they already provided — producing a flood of paying customers.
More than 3.6 million workers have taken this training, providing about $25 million in revenue to the restaurant industry’s lobbying arm since 2010. That was more than the National Restaurant Association spent on lobbying in the same period, according to filings with the Internal Revenue Service.
That $25 million represented about 2% of the National Restaurant Association’s total revenues over that same period, but more than half of the amount its members paid in dues. Most industry groups are much more reliant on big-dollar donors or membership support to meet their expenses. Most of the association’s revenues come from trade shows and other classes.
Tax-law experts say this arrangement, which has helped fuel a resurgence in the political influence of restaurants, appears to be legal.
But activists for raising minimum wages — and even some restaurant owners — say the arrangement is hidden from the workers it relies on.
“I’m sitting up here working hard, paying this money so that I can work this job, so I can provide for my family,” said Mysheka Ronquillo, 40, a line cook who works at a Carl’s Jr. hamburger restaurant and at a private school cafeteria in Westchester, California. “And I’m giving y’all money so y’all can go against me?”
Ronquillo is also a labor organizer in California. She said that she had taken the class every three years, as required, and that she never knew ServSafe funded the other side of that fight.
As workers have become more aware of how their payments to ServSafe are used, something of a backlash is developing. Looking ahead to coming battles over minimum wages in as many as nine states run by Democrats, including New York, Saru Jayaraman of the labor-advocacy group One Fair Wage said she was encouraging workers to avoid ServSafe.
“We’ll be telling them to use any possible alternatives,” Jayaraman said.
The kind of class that these workers pay for, called “food handler” training, is offered by ServSafe or its affiliates in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. But online databases maintained by the National Restaurant Association show the vast majority of its classes are taken in four large states where food-handler classes are mandatory for most workers: Texas, California, Illinois and Florida.
Other companies also offer this training. But restaurant industry veterans say that ServSafe is the dominant force in the market — to the point that some restaurant owners said they did not realize there were alternatives.
“ServSafe is very much the Kleenex” of the industry — a brand that defines the business, said Nick Eastwood, who runs a competitor called Always Food Safe. “We believe they’ve got at least 70%-plus of the market. Maybe higher.”
The president of the National Restaurant Association, Michelle Korsmo, declined to be interviewed. In a written statement, she said the group had sought to protect both public health and the financial health of the industry.
“The association’s advocacy work keeps restaurants open; it keeps workers employed, it finds pathways for worker opportunity, and it keeps our communities healthy,” Korsmo wrote. Her group declined to say how much of the training market it captures.
As money flowed in from the National Restaurant Association’s training programs, its overall spending on politics and lobbying more than doubled from 2007 to 2021, tax filings show. The national association donated to Democrats, Republicans and conservative-leaning think tanks, and sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to state restaurant associations to beef up their lobbying.
During the Clinton and Obama administrations, the association was a major force in limiting employer-provided health care benefits. And though pressure from liberal groups has grown and workers’ wages have fallen for decades when adjusted for inflation, the group helped assemble enough bipartisan opposition to scuttle a bill in 2021 to raise the federal minimum wage for all workers to $15 per hour over five years.
The association had also won a series of battles over state-level wage minimums, though its fortunes reversed last year. Both the District of Columbia and Michigan moved to eliminate the “tip credit” system — where restaurants are allowed to pay waiters a salary below the minimum wage, on the expectation that tips from customers will make up the rest. That was the first time any state had eliminated the tip-credit system in more than 10 years.
Legally, the National Restaurant Association and its state-level affiliates are a species of nonprofit called a “business league,” with more freedom to lobby than a traditional charity.
Since the 1960s, their lobbying has focused heavily on the minimum wage — arguing that labor-intensive operations like restaurants, which employ more workers at or near the minimum wage than any other industry, could be put out of business by any significant increase in employee costs.
Fifteen years ago, they had just lost a battle in that fight.
Over the association’s objections, Congress had raised the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour. Former board members said they were searching for a new source of revenue — without asking members to pay more in dues.
“That’s when the decision was contemplated, of buying the ServSafe program,” said Burton “Skip” Sack, a former chair of the association’s board. “Because it was profitable.”
At the time, the ServSafe program was run by a charity affiliated with the restaurant association. The association bought the operation, transforming it into an indirect fundraising vehicle.
After that, state restaurant associations in California, Texas and Illinois lobbied for changes in state law.
Previously, those states had required food-safety training for restaurant managers, which typically was paid for by restaurants themselves. After the association’s takeover of ServSafe, lobbying records show, the state affiliates pushed for a broader and less-common type of mandate, covering all food “handlers” like cooks, waiters, bartenders and those who bus tables.
The three state legislatures agreed, in lopsided votes.
In written statements, the state restaurant associations said they were not trying to raise money. Instead, they said they worked with other groups seeking to reduce food-borne disease.
“This law was happening with or without our participation in the process,” said the president of the California Restaurant Association, Jot Condie. California legislative records show his association was the sponsor of the bill that imposed the mandate.
ServSafe soon had waves of new customers, which in turn generated more money for the association and its lobbying efforts. Today, Florida, California, Texas, Illinois and Utah all imposed similar requirements. John Bluemke, a senior vice president for sales at ServSafe from 2002 to 2010, said there was little need to pursue mandates in smaller states: “Once you did the big states, who cares about Nebraska?”
“If you’ve got a million people going through that thing, do the math,” Bluemke said. The National Restaurant Association does not release figures about the cost of offering food-handler classes, but Bluemke said that — because they are generally offered online — the costs are low and the profits high.
“We always said the first course costs you a million dollars,” Bluemke said, for making the video. “And the rest are free.”
When managers take mandatory training, restaurant veterans say, the employer usually pays. But state websites say that restaurant employees should expect to pay for these classes themselves, and restaurant workers interviewed by The New York Times said that was their experience.
The restaurant association notes that some employers have covered the costs of getting certified and that employees are given lower rates in certain circumstances. So not all 3.6 million workers paid $15 each.
“The NRA is different from most traditional trade associations in our business model,” Dawn Sweeney, the National Restaurant Association’s CEO at the time, wrote to members in 2014 — reminding them of what a good deal they had.
Business leagues, which are tax-exempt, are generally allowed to run a for-profit business, as long as it advances the common interest of their broader trade. The National Restaurant Association contends that its business cleanly fits this standard.
“The rules the IRS has passed are not always clear as to what is and is not allowed,” said Anna Massoglia, an investigations manager at OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan group that tracks the flow of money in politics. “This makes it easier for groups to exploit that lack of clarity. I’m not familiar with another group that has done it to this scale.”
The IRS declined to comment, citing taxpayer-privacy rules.
For restaurant workers, there is little clue that money paid to ServSafe supports lobbying — much less lobbying that tries to keep workers’ pay low. The only hint is a line on ServSafe’s website, saying it “reinvests proceeds from programs back into the industry.”
Even some members of the restaurant association — the beneficiaries of this arrangement — said they did not know how it worked.
Johnny Martinez, a Georgia restaurateur, said he supports a $15 minimum wage and pays at least that much in a state where it is still $7.25 per hour. And he describes his association membership as “the price of entry” for navigating the industry, “even though I disagree with them on a lot of things.”
But he expressed frustration upon discovering the connections between ServSafe and lobbying efforts, saying “it feels very wrong” to him.
“This is a certification that’s also wrapped up inside of a lobbyist,” Martinez said. “It is weird that the tests that they require the workers to pay for are being run by the same company that’s fighting to make sure those people don’t make more money.”
Complete Samsung Clover ase study on the positive impact that customer ordering kiosks provide to a relatively small retail shop. Video https://youtu.be/UotHJR3DcKs
The Pyramid Passport and Flex countertop will be shown in 1602. Both units include assistive technology and one will be running JAWS by Vispero (in McDonalds configuration)
Public access stations & apps can be securely locked down to prevent unauthorized access , and provide remote monitoring tools. KioWare Android does just that. KioWare also includes specific Samsung support for Samsung tablets. https://youtu.be/Ln_Zuv_wIvc
You can see Olea kiosk in the Storm Interface booth nearby the KMA booth at 1602. Stop by and we will walk you over. For more information on Olea Kiosks you can email [email protected]
There are all the sessions, vendor parties, store visits, shows and all kinds of things to do in New York as part of the NRF Show when we all gather in NY again. Having now attended the Big Show for over 30 years, here are my thoughts on the best outside events to network and have fun. Come early, enjoy the networking in a less hectic manner and enjoy the event. Look forward to seeing you at the show or these events. These are ordered by the day.
There are many events that recognize retailers, this one allows retailers to celebrate the retail vendor community. This gala style event does just that and is a great way to catch up with friends you have not seen for a while and celebrate together.
A unique event of business content and networking, all for a greater cause, to help orphans and vulnerable children. Retailers attend free and generate enough sponsorships to provide clean water for 300 people just by being there. 100% of the vendor sponsor proceeds go to help orphans and vulnerable children. This “Tech and Tears” event brings the industry together and has helped over 265,000 children in over 27 countries.
For retailers only, this exclusive event in the internationally acclaimed restaurant will include a power panel of retail executives including Kroger VP of Transformation, Wes Rhodes.
The Retail Insiders Party is retail’s class reunion! It may be difficult to locate friends at the show itself, but it’s easy to find them here! This cocktail event brings together senior technology and transformation. Simply wonderful get together, always a blast.
This is the hottest new party of the show this year. Having been honored as a RETHINK Top Influencer in the past, I am really looking forward to celebrating together as RETHINK Retail announces the next wave of influencers at this great event.
Come enjoy your retail colleagues as they jam at this amazing event. Amazing talent and you will come away saying that maybe some of these people should quit their day jobs. An absolute blast and great way to end a long day of networking.
So, there you have it…there are a lot of great vendor parties as well, but after 30 years of shows, these are my 6 favorite events to come together to celebrate, help kids in need, or just have fun around NRF.
Usually, shows are measured in business impact and specifically leads. Our booth at 1606 was at the entrance of the lower level which is the best position on the lower level. There are multiple ROI equations depending on the company and the person. Our point of view is geared towards a kiosk manufacturer or component provider. As far as leads go:
If we normally received 200 leads in 2020, then in 2022 we received 25
Booth visitors are made up of A) those who seek you out, B) those who stumble onto you interested and C) those who stumble onto you just going through motions.
Our leads were A and B class
Retail customer interest likely represented 10,000 store locations. That’s good.
Attendee traffic for the entire show was rumored to be a seventh of usual traffic (40,000 is total from 2020)
The optimistic operative phrase for NRF 2022 is the quintessential “It only takes one
McDonald’s Dallas — “That is one big kiosk (and it comes with people inside too!)
Hard to miss the flaring Newsweek 12/22/2022 article — this is one heck of a kiosk, or should we say RMU (robotic merchandising unit). Essentially a public facing ghost kitchen of sorts.
no human contact to order and pick up your favorite meal
customers use automated screens to order fast food and collect it via a machine
McDonald’s explained in a statement that the restaurant includes new features including the “Order Ahead lane,” where customers can receive their order on a conveyor belt.
“The technology in this restaurant not only allows us to serve our customers in new, innovative ways, it gives our restaurant team the ability to concentrate more on order speed and accuracy, which makes the experience more enjoyable for everyone,” explains Keith Vanecek, the franchisee operating the test restaurant. “I am immensely proud to have this new restaurant concept serving our customers in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.”
Not sure how they do this — The Order Ahead Lane also has the added feature of letting crew members know when your car is getting close to the location so they can time your order to your arrival. Operating like a deep-fried ballet, this feature aims to make sure your burger and fries (or whatever else you’re getting) will be freshest by the time you arrive.
This all came out Dec 2, and really McDonalds referred to it in 2020.
There’s never been a McDonald’s restaurant quite like this before.
Here’s what you need to know about a new McDonald’s test restaurant located just outside Fort Worth, Texas (and why we’re so excited about it):
1. There’s a brand new way to pick up your order: The Order Ahead Lane. The Order Ahead Lane is a separate Drive Thru lane where customers receive their orders via a food and beverage conveyor. This is a great option for customers who want to place their order ahead of arrival through the McDonald’s app, skip the traditional Drive Thru line and receive their food quickly and conveniently.
[insert picture or GIF of OAL]
“At McDonald’s, we’ve been setting the standard for Drive Thrus for more than 45 years,” explains Max Carmona, Senior Director, Global Design & Restaurant Development, McDonald’s. “As our customers’ needs continue to change, we are committed to finding new ways to serve them faster and easier than ever before.”
2. It’s designed for customers on the move. When you step inside the test restaurant concept, you’ll notice it’s considerably smaller than a traditional McDonald’s restaurant in the U.S. Why? The features – inside and outside – are geared toward customers who are planning to dine at home or on the go. Inside the restaurant, there’s a delivery pick-up room for couriers to retrieve orders quickly and conveniently. There are also kiosks, where customers can place their orders to go, and a pick-up shelf for orders. Outside the restaurant, there are several parking spaces dedicated to curbside order pick-up, as well as designated parking spaces for delivery drivers.
3. Our technology makes for a better crew and customer experience. The Order Ahead Lane uses technology that allows the restaurant team to begin preparing customers’ orders when they’re near the restaurant. The enhanced technology at this location helps the hardworking restaurant team, too. The restaurant’s app updates, food and beverage conveyor, and new kitchen format all streamline operations – leading to a fast, seamless experience for both customers and crew. “The technology in this restaurant not only allows us to serve our customers in new, innovative ways, it gives our restaurant team the ability to concentrate more on order speed and accuracy, which makes the experience more enjoyable for everyone,” explains Keith Vanecek, the franchisee operating the test restaurant.
4. It’s “test and learn” – for now. This unique restaurant concept can only be found in one location outside Fort Worth, Texas. We’re excited to test new ideas and innovations that can potentially benefit restaurant teams and customers around the world.
5. Testing this new restaurant concept is part of McDonald’s “Accelerating the Arches” growth strategy – and we first shared our plans for this concept at our Investor Update in 2020. We’re always innovating to improve our customer experience, no matter how they want to order or receive their food. “I am immensely proud to have this new restaurant concept serving our customers in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex,” Keith Vanecek says.
We can’t wait for local customers to experience it.
We know touch – it’s our only business. In fact, we invented the touchscreen over 50 years ago and haven’t stopped since. Every 21 seconds, a new Elo Touchscreen is installed somewhere in the world. We obsess over details to exceed the highest quality standards.
Description:
Our product portfolio includes a broad selection of interactive touchscreen displays from 7-65 inches, all-in-one touchscreen computers, OEM touchscreens and touchscreen controllers and touchscreen monitors. You’ve used our product or been helped by an Elo touchscreen in gaming machines, interactive kiosks, hospitality systems, point-of-sale terminals, wayfinder displays, interactive retail displays and transportation applications just to name a few! For more information you can always email [email protected] — the email contact for Elo is [email protected]
Mobile Computers – think employees in a drive-thru QSR like Chick-Fil-A taking order from customers
Touchscreen Monitors – all types and formats (5:4 or 16:9) of touchscreen monitors
POS Terminals – Point-of-Sale terminals for employees and for your customers
Touchscreen Computers – add a commercial-quality Android or Windows computer to your touchscreen
Accessories – stands for your kiosk computers and POS computers + EMV cradles, Cameras and more
EloView® – kiosk and station monitoring and reporting. Measure ROI and manage uptime availability
Spotlight Content
Elo Android Solutions — Everything you need to build and operate business solutions with Elo’s commercial-grade Android enterprise devices. Easy-to-use development kits, robust management tools, world-class life cycle management, and security. Deliver the convenience and familiarity of Android interfaces in a secure, business-friendly way.
Elo Healthcare Solutions — Elo’s software agnostic solutions make it easy to integrate your electronic health records platform such as Epic Systems and Cerner, to engage patients better and streamline care.
Elo Point of Sale solutions — Choosing a POS system impacts technology decisions throughout the store, making it critical to consider the broad use of technologies at every touchpoint. Elo delivers industry-leading POS touchscreen monitors, POS all-in-one touchscreen computers, and powerful mini PCs that combine style, performance, and flexibility.
Elo Digital Signage solutions — Our commercial-grade interactive digital signage displays are designed to captivate your audience acting as an interactive billboard.
From an interactive digital display to an interactive touchscreen kiosk, Elo interactive touchscreen solutions create high-impact experiences.
Elo Restaurant and QSR solutions — With a modular hardware platform, easily configure restaurant kiosks, digital menu boards, KDS stations, restaurant POS systems, tableside ordering and line busting. Creating a connected restaurant has never been easier.
Here is video of Taco Bell Cantina kiosk concept in NY
Editors Note: We’re very happy to welcome Elo and Kristin Roubie to the kiosk association as gold sponsors. We knew Elo as Elographics (back in 71), then Elo TouchSystems, and of late Elo. Looking thru the kiosk history log, we can locate entries going back to 1971, and today we see Elo everywhere.
In the self-service world, the employee is an absolute critical component for success. Equipping employees with reliable and training them to easy-to-use
In 2009, Chris Lane, VP of Operations of BASEC Management, a Wendy’s franchisee, and his wife, Emily, purchased several restaurants from her parents. As a five-year Chair of Wendy’s Technology Advisory Council (WTAC) and Secretary/Treasurer of Wendy’s Franchise Association (WFA) for three years, Mr. Lane has been determined to offer only the best Wendy’s experience to his customers and employees.
From the beginning, The Lanes established that their core goals were to continue the family’s legacy of serving the community and building generational opportunities. They knew that in order to be successful and expand to additional units, they had to provide outstanding food quality, exceptional customer service and facilitate streamlined operations among their teams. When he began the initial restaurant operations, Mr. Lane was pleased with Panasonic Connect’s rugged durability in its JS7500 POS workstations. While this hardware was a workhorse of its time, reporting was manual, and everything had to be put into a spreadsheet due to the embedded software architecture. Mr. Lane knew that a software upgrade was necessary in order to expand the business.
The Challenge
Wendy’s Franchisee Chris Lane was unable to attain sufficient data, manual reporting was necessary, and systems were not integrated with his original JS7500 POS workstations. He was looking for a next-gen software solution and needed a software-agnostic hardware platform that would last for years to come.
The Solution
Mr. Lane installed Panasonic Connect’s answer to a modern, conversational, touch-screen POS system, the JS950. It was easy to maintain and due to the open architecture, it gave him the opportunity to deploy his new POS Software to collect valuable data, while seamlessly integrating with any HRIS systems. He later upgraded to the JS960 and JS970 terminals in 2015, which provided even more flexibility, and durability. In addition, he has added four new Stingray4 JS980s to his newest location.
The Results
After upgrading his software and installing the JS950 workstations in 2009, there has been an overall 52% business growth. Since transitioning to JS960 and JS970 in 2015, they have grown their business by 27%.
In 2015, Mr. Lane upgraded most of his terminals to JS970s. These workstations have had a tremendous impact on his team, with almost no down time. In fact, he’s only had to repair or replace four terminals of the 28 purchased, averaging a 99% uptime. The touchscreens remain calibrated, which helps his team fulfill food orders, quickly and easily, and they also feature a powerful Intel processor. The rugged structure ensures reliable, non-stop operations. In addition, the four JS980s that he purchased for his newest restaurant allow even more component flexibility.
“Smart office“ sounds like the future: hip technology companies and expensive new buildings. In fact, the first steps on the road to a smart office are easier than they seem. A good starting point is a modern access control system. It ensures security and, in combination with smartphone-based ID solutions, more productivity in everyday work. We reveal which aspects companies need to consider to make an implementation a success.
A good starting point to a smart office is a modern access control system.
Access Control Systems
ID cards and key fobs based on RFID have proven their worth in connection with access control. However, new solutions now also incorporate so-called mobile credentials. Digital smartphone credentials have clear advantages. For companies, they are easy to manage. For employees, they provide greater convenience by allowing the company cell phone to be used as a universal identification medium: electric vehicle charging, time recording, access to meeting rooms, logging on to the computer with single sign-on, secure printing, paying in the canteen — it all works completely seamlessly. Finally, employees save time that they can invest in value-adding activities. Simple access is provided by an app that implements the appropriate authorizations on the smartphone. This allows iOS and Android devices to communicate directly with RFID readers. Here are some tips to make a modern access control system a success.
Tip No. 1: Go for a holistic consulting approach
To ensure that the solution meets the expectations of users and operators, careful planning is the key. In the run-up to implementation, a whole series of questions must therefore be clarified, such as:
Should access control be introduced for a single building or for different properties and possibly even across national borders?
Are several technologies and credentials already in use?
Which applications are to be covered?
Comprehensive pre-sales consulting, therefore, includes an inventory and requirements analysis (including documentation of results), a feasibility study, proof-of-concept, and a project and rollout plan.
In the implementation phase, hardware and software integration, application development, configuration and all customizations as well as testing and verification of protocols should be covered by the solution provider.
Tip No. 2: Invest in future security
Requirements and IT infrastructures change over time — and so does the overall system. Technical support must therefore not end with the initial integration. Only with a flexible system that provides for optimizations, adaptations and upgrades are companies also on the safe side in the future. As a solution provider, we at ELATEC, therefore, provide our customers with the DevPack software development kit. The versatile DevPack contains a range of tools that make it possible to easily adapt the products delivered in the standard configuration to specific requirements — even via remote access.
Tip No. 3: Look for flexibility
For companies with several office buildings, the introduction of a uniform access solution for all properties is worthwhile. After all, central remote maintenance of digital badges significantly reduces administrative effort. However, implementation can be a challenge, especially for companies with international operations. Often, different technologies are even in use from country to country. The solution: multi-frequency readers from ELATEC. The devices are compatible with up to 60 transponder technologies and certified for sale in up to 110 countries worldwide. The devices use RFID for authentication and access as well as NFC (Near Field Communication) or BLE (Bluetooth® Low Energy) technologies to integrate mobile devices into access control systems.
Tip No. 4: Make the system secure
Access control systems are designed to protect people and assets, so they must be secured against tampering. On the one hand, the physical security of the reader must be considered. On the other hand, the reader must support the credentials and encryption algorithms appropriate for the application’s security level. For effective and holistic security, not only the reader but the entire system must be included in the security concepts.
After a consistent implementation of the tips, all doors are open for a successful digital access control solution.
Sean Houchinis the product manager for ELATEC Inc in Palm City, Florida and is part of the global ELATEC GmbH product management team. He has more than 20 years of experience in product development, management and applications engineering. Sean is an expert in RFID technology, optoelectronic and fiber optic video, audio, and data transmission equipment for military and commercial applications and is a veteran of the United States Navy.
The IAAPA show is coming up in a few weeks. If you want to see the latest in Indoor and Outdoor kiosks Jared Epstein will be there along with several of our kiosks in our partner booths. We’re showing ticket and wristband printing as well as food ordering. Jared will also have images of some not yet released projects and new Kiosk models coming early 2023 aimed squarely at this market.
Geneva – Connect&GO (#2036)
Centaman (#4640)
Austin FS – PDC/Identicard (Brady Corp) (#4052)
Austin DT – Viva Ticket (#4800)
Milan Landscape (older) – OCCC Lobby near escalator down to show
For more information or to arrange a meeting email [email protected]
Ticket Kiosk ROI
Installing ticketing kiosks on off-site locations can increase revenue by offering more distribution locations for customers to visit. This also contributes to lower infrastructure costs by making these transactions automated. In addition, ticketing kiosks allow owners to easily and effectively communicate with their customer base through well-constructed applications. These provide the ability to update content on special promotions, up-sell items and introduce new product or service offerings. Having the ability to communicate with customers increases revenue and the amount of sale per transaction.
