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Overcoming the challenges of kiosk deployments: Part 1

November 1, 2011 by Natsumi Nakamura — Marketing, PFU Systems

More and more organizations are counting on self-service solutions to achieve their business goals. While successfully implemented kiosks give tremendous benefits to the organization - generate revenue, reduce costs and provide convenience to customers - it is no easy task to get there. Organizations deploying kiosks usually face a series of issues and challenges including the following:

• A kiosk project has many stakeholders.
• There are a number of technical components involved in kiosk deployment.
• Even after a successful deployment, technical and operational issues often arise

Part 1 of this blog will delve into how to deal with stakeholders.

A kiosk project involves many stakeholders, including customers, multiple divisions in the organization, employees at the kiosk site and vendors. It's the job of a project manager to figure out what each party needs from the project.

The most important stakeholders in a kiosk project would be the customers/users of the kiosk. Defining the right target users and understanding and addressing their needs will be one of the keys to the success of the project.

Getting organizational buy-in is also critical in order to receive necessary support to carry out the kiosk project. Examples of stakeholders within an organization and discussion agenda are:

• Executives, who are responsible for kiosk strategy and budget approval.
• Sales/Customer Support department, which will cultivate the customer relationship
• Marketing department, which will create buzz for the kiosk program
• IT department, which will ensure  IT compliance, integration with the existing system and kiosk system management
• Office/Store/Utility management, which is responsible for safety compliance, electricity an Internet connections at the installation sites
•  Training department, which will provide employee education

Kiosk project managers also need to select and work with kiosk product and service suppliers including:

• Kiosk manufacturers
• I/O suppliers
• Software developers
• Support / implementation service providers

(Selecting a turn-key kiosk provider will probably reduce the number of parties you have to deal with.)

Once you understand the stakeholders and their needs, start communicating with them early on in the project. Engaging key stakeholders will help you set the right goals, specify the scope and create an achievable schedule.

If the majority of the stakeholders – particularly the customers and the key stakeholders in the organization – are happy with the implemented kiosk, the project will most likely be called a success. Set the right expectations and manage those expectations throughout the project and you will see the benefits of having a well-planned kiosk implementation process.

Check back in a couple weeks for parts two and three of this blog, which will explain how to best deal with the technical components of a kiosk project.

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