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The price of self-service, part 1: lowering the cost of kiosk hardware and components

Hardware and components have to be tested for compatibility and reliability. Most hardware companies will give a prospective customer a free 30-day evaluation of their components.

November 11, 2016 by Ben Wheeler — President, KioskGUY.COM

The price of self-service all depends on what you're trying to achieve. Just like anything else we purchase, getting a kiosk project off the ground can be as cheap as buying LCD displays from Costco all the way up to "the sky is the limit."

Let's talk about how much things should cost, rather than what people can convince you to pay. Over the next few weeks, I am going to explore the legitimate cost of doing business in the kiosk world by talking specifically about hardware, enclosures and software.

Test bench: a working solution in a lab

Since you are sincerely trying to be successful with your kiosk project, you need to invest in hardware components you can test for compatibility and reliability. In other words, you need a fully functioning hardware array sitting in a lab working with the software actually doing the transaction you are trying to provide to the end user.

Hardware: keep the costs down

I understand not everyone can hand over several thousand dollars for some very expensive components to try out. Obviously, to be successful in testing the components, you'll need to have your software ducks in a row when the evaluation units arrive at your doorstep so that you can quickly write the hooks into your software that will then allow you to test the actual components to complete the actual transaction.

The secret to keeping costs down is that if you have a business plan in place and you're from a known company, or at least from a company with a website and a DNB rating, most hardware companies will give you a free 30-day evaluation of their components to test in your project.

Pick a hardware partner 

A second way to lower costs and get some level of expert advice of what credible quality components they have is picking a partner. Every kiosk company that has built kiosks, or taken the larger step to actually build reference products or standard enclosures, had to build their metal around something. Hopefully, they have already taken the more important step of getting it to work against a software suite that actually uses all the components and has the API/SDK hooks written so that they are aware of the usability of the components in the machine ensuring they actually work.

A good partner can suggest components they have used in the past successfully and how to get them. There are so many enclosure manufacturers to choose from. The real trick is to tap into the good ones who can bring their experience to the table. 

Be a shopper and check references

Finally, do your due diligence on a component supplier. It shouldn't be any different than shopping for any other product. Google, Google, Google and then ask for a customer list and references.

Most people want your business enough to provide you with contacts who will tell you if they have at least an ongoing working relationship with a supplier. Once you have figured out there is a Magtek card reader on every Redbox unit, all you have to do is see there are more than 65,000 Redbox units out in the world today running with this product.

Bottom-line: do your homework

Make educated choices by checking deployments and references. Align yourself with companies and people who have been there and done that. Most of all, ask for evaluation units and be ready to test or write your software to hook into the components. Realize that everything comes down to having your software able to communicate with the hardware that you define.

About Ben Wheeler

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Ben Wheeler, known as The KioskGuy, is a long time kiosk industry executive who assists companies with kiosk solutions.

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