Article

Maintenance Advice: Use a Prevent Defense

Kiosk maintenance has its lighter moments -- but the fun stops when the subject turns to cost. It can be expensive if a kiosk deployer does not handle maintenance in a timely manner, using trained service personnel for things other than routine tasks.

January 28, 2003

Walt Reilly recalls with a smile the time he dispatched a kiosk service technician to a customer location. It seems that every morning the kiosk appeared on the boot screen -- and no one could figure out why.

"Our tech was dispatched after hours to run voltage checks to see what was causing the re-boot," said Reilly, president of The Kiosk Service Company. "What he found was that the cleaning people were unplugging the kiosk and using the outlet to plug in their vacuum cleaner!"

Kiosk maintenance has its lighter moments -- but the fun stops when the subject turns to cost.

It can be expensive if a kiosk deployer does not handle maintenance in a timely manner, using trained service personnel for things other than routine tasks. Costs center not only on the services of a technician, but also lost revenue for the deployer during downtime.

Pick the right components at the outset

Pete Snyder, vice president of marketing for Kiosk Information Systems Inc. (KIS), said the first decision on preventive maintenance comes when selecting components for the kiosk.

"Our advice is to use the very best possible components," Snyder said. "It's a case of `pay me now or pay me later.' "

He recalls one client who opted, against KIS' advice, to purchase a standard printer for their kiosks. The client saved money on the front end, but paid handsomely for maintenance on the back end.

"They ended up replacing all of their printers twice within three years."

When kiosks are down for printer failure or any other reason, the result is hurtful to the bottom line. "The longer a kiosk is down, the more lost sales and unsatisfied customers you will have," Snyder said. "In addition, the cost of a one-year on-site maintenance plan can be offset by the additional revenue provided by reducing kiosk downtime."

NCR's EasyPoint 45 kiosk features easy access to internal components and remote monitoring options.

Mike Zweber, kiosk marketing manager for NCR Corp., said kiosk deployers should avoid jerrybuilt units -- those consisting of components from various sources. That practice likely will end up costing big time in the maintenance department, Zweber said.

"Look for a vendor who provides more of an integrated solution for your needs," he said.

Anita Robinson, NCR's Retail Customer Services Marketing spokesperson, added that do-it-yourselfers "try to save money integrating and installing their (own) kiosks. If the integration and installation is not done properly, customers experience more downtime and service incidents. This can be corrected through single-source management."

What is `preventive maintenance'?

What goes into a preventive maintenance contract varies a great deal. But Craig Wolters, president of Kiosks @ wdc, Inc., an East Coast kiosk service and repair company, offers these guidelines:

"If a kiosk has a built-in printer, I would say the maintenance visit should be once a week to check its condition and to check the toner and paper supply. The other things which should be considered are the physical condition of the machine -- cleanliness and structural integrity -- and the condition of the hard drive (although that can be done remotely). If the unit has a credit card scanner, it should be checked to make sure it was not vandalized, to clean it, and make sure it reads credit cards properly."

Wolters said a deployer's personnel could handle simple cleaning tasks for the kiosk without involving service technicians. "They should be looking to see if kids have put their hands all over the monitor or whether something has been spilled on the keyboard. Kiosks can become very unattractive so that people don't want to use them."

However, Snyder said preventive maintenance contracts assure that trained technicians will look well beyond appearance to keep a kiosk running smoothly. "They look for such things as connectivity, whether there are any brittle wires, and for a build-up of paper debris," he said.

Snyder said it's also a good practice to have spare-parts kits for a kiosk warehoused by a service supplier. In that way, parts may be shipped quickly and installed without ordering delays because the parts are not in stock.

Preventive maintenance costs

Depending upon the kiosk configuration and use, costs can range from as little as $25 a month to as much as $100 a month, said NCR's Robinson. But she said upkeep varies widely depending upon whether the kiosk must be replenished with cash regularly and whether remote management is employed.

Wolters of Kiosks @ wdc said annual maintenance costs might amount to as much as 25 percent of the kiosk's original cost.

KIS' Snyder said his company's one-year on-site maintenance plan is $550 per kiosk plus the cost of parts. In addition, preventive maintenance and custodial service runs $200 per kiosk per year.

Remote management has arrived -- is it for you?

Remote monitoring and management systems were developed to keep tabs on kiosks, without having to physically check on the machines every day.

"Remote management is a critical issue for all self-service devices," said Doug Peter, president ofSt. Clair Interactive Communications Inc."People have to `think like a kiosk.' Picture yourself all alone in a wasteland with no one to talk to -- and yet you need to be 100 percent functional all the time. Built-in recovery routines, remote alerts/alarms and specific identification of behaviorÂ…are vital to robust performance."

Peter's company charges $18,000 for its remote management software suite licenses regardless of the number of kiosks in a customer's network. There are additional costs to customize reports, and to serve as system administrator (sometimes the client will fulfill that role).

Remote management systems allow a system administrator to monitor a network of kiosks from a remote location and to resolve system issues as they pop up -- without having to go on-site. For instance, these systems will install a new driver for the printer and reboot the kiosk's operating system.

Wolters said seemingly there's no end to what a remote management system can do. "It will keep track of paper and toner supply, restore a lost Internet connection, and handle problems with the hard drive," he said.

However, these systems are not perfect. "They won't tell you whether the kiosk is dripping over with spilled ice cream," he said.

When purchasing and installing a kiosk, a deployer must face the facts: They do break down. Reilly, of The Kiosk Service Company, said kiosks are far from maintenance-free.

"A kiosk basically is a PC and a printer," he said. "But when you put a shell around it, it becomes complicated. My advice is to keep them clean on the inside and outside, and to practice preventive maintenance."