Article

Kiosk software takes center stage

Executives from three leading kiosk software companies discussed the state of the industry as KioskCom Europe kicked off in London.

February 25, 2002

LONDON - It was not exactly a Wild West shootout, but there was a sense of anticipation as more than 60 attendees crowded into a conference room at the Wembley Conference Center for the first day of the KioskCom Europetrade show on Nov. 6.

On the stage were executives from three leading kiosk software deployment companies - Kudos Development Group Ltd., Netkey Inc., and NetShift Software Ltd. The topic was a panel discussion entitled "All You Want and Need to Know About Kiosk Software."

But no one brought six-shooters to the so-called showdown. Kudos' Thor Ibsen, Netkey's Alex Richardson, and NetShift's John Purcell cordially discussed the state of kiosk software development while explaining each company's philosophy.

The panel discussion was one of four seminars on the first day of the conference. The seminar and exhibit hall portion of the program concludes on Nov. 7.

The Kiosk Philosophies

Former Elo TouchSystems Inc. European marketing manager Stephan Herron acted as moderator and allowed each of the three panelists an opening comment.

Speaking first, Kudos president and chief executive officer Ibsen said his company, which transferred its base of operations from Iceland to London this year, is focused on developing rich, interactive client applications with remote management capabilities.

"The kiosk industry is the start of a much larger opportunity," Ibsen said. "Our view is the current marketplace is an outstanding melting pot for our plan, which is to get in any device control or managed interface."

Richardson, Netkey's president and chief executive officer, discussed his company's self-service software platform and vertical market application suite, which he said could reduce deployment time by 90 percent. He also envisions the day when the kiosk industry is a bird of a different feather.

"I think we'll get beyond calling them kiosks," Richardson said. "Within the next year, I think we'll be referring to them more as web-service stations."

Purcell, NetShift's vice president of marketing, discussed his company's focus on public access technology solutions and its core competency of providing business benefits using self-service kiosks. The core-competency business is crucial to NetShift's relationships with clients.

"I hang my hat on core competency," said Purcell, whose firm is located in Berkshire, England. "There's not a company in the world that has the core competency to take a project from start to finish."

Following the presentations, the trio fielded questions from retailers and kiosk manufacturers. Questions ranged from reliability issues, working with new operating systems, and scaling systems up.

But the one question that brought the most diverse answers concerned demand for kiosks. Ibsen and Purcell offered slightly different views of the European market.

"In Europe we're seeing little government activity and retail has calmed down a bit," Purcell said. "What's always bubbling away is telecommunications, the pay-for-viewing business."

Added Ibsen: "Retail continues to be an important segment, but we've seen careful calculations in assessments by managers in the sector."

Richardson, whose company is based in Branford, Conn., offered a broader-based answer.

"The growth is going to come where there's return on investment," he said. "Where there's no ROI is going to be where you see a lot of the failures."

Richardson said he views point-of-sale and cashless bank branch applications as potential killer applications of the future.

The panel was also asked about the impact of hand-held devices, such as Palm Pilots, on the kiosk market. Purcell said his company was aware of technological developments, such as the Bluetooth wireless standard, but has not had much call for it. Richardson agreed, saying he believed hand-helds are a couple years away from prominence.

Planes, kiosks, and ATMs

Apart from the software panel discussion, perhaps the liveliest question-and-answer session took place immediately after lunch.

British Airways senior manager of journey systems Peter Stanton spoke on his company's efforts to establish a usage standard for airline self-service kiosks. But the question-and-answer session that followed focused on the effect of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on self-service kiosk use.

Stanton said he's confident that airlines will not be forced to abandon self-service kiosks, which allow airline passengers to check in and choose seat assignments. Stanton said security measures at the back end, especially those out of sight of passengers arriving at airports, ensured the kiosks did not compromise security.

"The point where you move from landside to airside is where you start making your checks and doing security," Stanton said, referring to the security checks that are made immediately before passengers go to their departure gates. "At the moment, we don't anticipate any issues with self-service kiosks."

Stanton - whose airline has about 200 self-service kiosks - also addressed the concept of biometrics, the body identity technologies that are being considered by airlines to augment current security measures. He said biometrics could be blended seamlessly into kiosk programs, but warned that the concept must be applied at airports and by airlines on a consistent basis.

"If there are going to be biometrics, it should be the same for the United States, Canada, Europe, or elsewhere," he said, "or else it is going to be incredibly complex, especially for customers."

Kiosk consultant Francie Mendelsohn and Allied Irish Bank ATM Business Manager Stephen McCarthy also spoke during the conference's first day.

Mendelsohn, the president of Summit Research Associates Inc., led one of two workshops at KioskCom Europe's pre-conference event on Nov. 5 at Wembley. She opened the conference on Nov. 6 with a look at market trends for interactive, self-service terminals in Europe.

While she discussed a number of kiosk applications that have struggled or failed, including multiple Internet kiosks in shopping malls, Mendelsohn expressed optimism in the kiosk industry's progress. She said web payphones are beginning to build momentum, estimating that there will be about 240,000 web payphones deployed internationally by 2005, up from just 35,000 this year.

"This has been slow to come out of the chute because some of the early units didn't work really well and because they were very expensive," Mendelsohn said. "It was very costly to swap out a traditional phone for one of these. The costs have come down and you're not experiencing a significant drop in quality."

McCarthy, the day's final speaker, is developing plans to add more features to his bank's ATMs. Additional banking services are being considered, along with ticketing services and advertising. He said converting ATMs to web-enabled machines is also part of the plan, but his bank is treading carefully in that area.

"It's important to bear in mind the number of ATM users compared with the number of Internet users," McCarthy said. "We need to keep our existing ATM customers comfortable or else transactions will slow down and we'll lose revenue. The key is simplicity. Any new service should have the same speed and ease of use as the current system."