CANTALOUPE SYSTEMS WINS PRESTIGIOUS TECHNOLOGY AUTOMATION AWARD FOR ITS INTELLIGENT VENDING SOLUTION

October 8th, 2007 - Cantaloupe Systems, a leading provider of Machine Monitoring and Management Services to the Vending Industry, won top honors at the 2007 M2M (machine to machine management) United Conference held in Chicago in late June. M2M Magazine presented Cantaloupe Systems with the Gold Value Chain Award for its innovative adaptation of M2M technology in the Retail/Hospitality category. This is the second time in the past three years that Cantaloupe Systems received this prestigious award.

The Value Chain Awards recognize the most successful adopters of M2M technology and their enablers, those solution providers who made their success possible. Cantaloupe Systems received this award in the Retail/Hospitality category for the successful deployment of the "Seed" Wireless Vending Solution re-branded and deployed by Numerex under the VendView name.

Two years ago, a regional bottler was experiencing sluggish sales and a profit squeeze due to a number of factors including; plant closings, layoffs and increased competition in the area. To offset the decline in revenue, the bottler raised prices on its products but realized that a price increase alone would not solve its problems. It would need a way to reduce costs and increase sales if it was going to succeed over the long term. The bottler began looking for solutions.

During this same time period, Numerex was partnering with Cantaloupe to serve as Cantaloupe's distributor and provider of carrier services. Under the arrangement, Numerex re-branded the highly successful Cantaloupe Seed Wireless Vending Solution under the name VendView. Numerex would manage the sales, installation and local support and provide wireless carrier services. Cantaloupe would provide the machine resident hardware, host-based functions and Web based user interface. Key features of the combined offering included:

• Real-Time alerts for machine health and welfare
• Dynamic scheduling
• Just-in-time machine inventory restocking through product pre-kitting
• Real-time cash accountability
• A Spanish language web interface
• Local carrier services
• Local sales and support
• The customer had heard about the success that Numerex was having with VendView “Powered by Cantaloupe Systems” and saw great potential in the technology for its own vending network.

In early 2006, the customer tested VendView by installing the system on one entire route. The test period was the months of March, April and May of 2006 and the data was compared with the same period in 2005. The results were impressive. Changing from static (weekly, biweekly, etc) scheduling to dynamic (need based) scheduling insured that machines were not under or over serviced. Dynamic scheduling not only reduced costs by optimizing driver resources, it increased revenue by insuring that empty or unplugged machines were serviced promptly. The customer also benefited from VendView's real-time machine heath alerts which notified management of column jams, bill/coin jams and power outages so it could take timely action to avoid potential lost sales and customer dissatisfaction.

Cash accountability was also important. "Shrinkage" effectively reduced revenues and was difficult to control. VendView provided the management team with accurate totals of cash collected by each driver, enabling them to reconcile daily receipts.

Pre-picking also achieved significant efficiencies. Drivers knew exactly what to take to each destination, reducing servicing time and increasing the number of machines a driver could visit each day. In addition, pre-picking created product accountability, greatly reducing inventory shrinkage.

The bottom line: In comparing the test route's 2005 performance with the same period performance for 2006 using VendView, the results showed that the customer increased volume of products sold by 7% and increased revenue by 7% as well. The test route driver was able to service 20 machines per day versus 14 the previous year and, along with the advantages of pre-picking, they realized a 23% reduction in overall machine servicing costs.

The customer was extremely pleased with the test results and is now in the process of expanding VendView to its entire vending operation. They anticipate an additional $4.3 million in revenue will be generated, along with realizing $1.8 million in route savings once fully deployed.

To read more about the M2M Award, please visit http://www.specialtypub.com/article.asp?article_id=5848

About Cantaloupe Systems

Cantaloupe Systems Corporation, headquartered in Berkeley, California, is the leader in developing complete wireless M2M applications for vertical markets. Its unique system of remote monitoring for vending machines, known as Seed®, has been successfully used by vending manufacturers and operators nationwide. Cantaloupe Systems believes that real-time wireless information is the key to solving a myriad of industry problems and a cornerstone for maximizing profitable growth.