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Altron Bytes Managed Solutions debuts kiosk and digital signage management solution

September 5, 2019

Altron Bytes Managed Solutions has debuted a kiosk management and digital signage solution that allows retailers, financial institutions and other clients to develop, maintain and manage in-house kiosk applications and digital signage offerings.

"To write an application for a kiosk is simple enough, especially if it's meant for download on a single machine. The moment you start scaling that up, however, and you have 1,300 devices around the country, the download of content and applications becomes more complex," Anand Pillay, Altron BMS retail presales consultant, said in a press release. 

The Kite solution can deploy a number of interactive applications that offer complementary products and services to customers in various sectors. One such example is the "build an order" application, suited to the retail market.

"Should a customer want to order from the deli counter at their local supermarket with the 'build an order' application, they swipe their loyalty card at the kiosk or key in their mobile number and place their order," said Pillay. "The kiosk prints out a slip and the customer continues shopping. Once the order is ready, the customer receives a notification on their phone, presents the slip at the deli counter and collects their order."

Another application suited to retail is the management of customer loyalty programs — from customer enrollment through to the issuing of vouchers and rewards. 

Using Kite, retailers with a national footprint can offer location-specific specials and in-store campaigns with content running at selected stores only.

"You could play a totally different application in KZN to what's being shown in Gauteng or the Western Cape, for instance," said Pillay, "as Kite would centrally control the distribution of regional content, including attract loops and application pages across the allotted number of devices, while tracking and measuring use and effectiveness, including the generation of reports."

On the topic of attract loops — the intro videos or screen shots on kiosks that essentially show customers what's on offer — these loops can be used as effective revenue generators, with retailers sharing product advertising for reimbursement by suppliers. 

Another Kite benefit is that a kiosk could be made to switch applications depending on the time of day, alternating from a customer-facing to an HC function, for example.

"Assuming that a store trades from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, during that time you'd want your loyalty programs and other store offers to run," Pillay said. "Then, after closing, the kiosk automatically switches over to an HC application so employees can print time sheets and finalize other store admin, complete with customizable user access." 

From a security perspective Kite allows the client to easily distribute content and run multiple user-friendly applications, and also allows them to securely lock down the environment with secure browser interfaces, URL restrictions and surf control to prevent unauthorized access to the kiosk operating system or the network.

"Furthermore, while many of the current kiosks out there require the IT department to manage everything, our system is fully user driven by user ID and password; you access a Web portal and sign in," Pillay said. "So, if you're in marketing, for instance, you can set up all the media content while IT does the monitoring. This way, the responsibilities are split and now lie where they should. Workflow is made simpler and more effective."

Photo courtesy of Altron Bytes Managed Solutions.