August 1st, 2005 - Cantaloupe Systems Corporation announced that it has received M2M Magazine's Gold Value Chain Award for its innovative SEED M2M Wireless Platform of products for the retail vending industry. M2M, the leading publication covering machine-to-machine communications, celebrated the winners of the 2005 Value Chain Awards at the M2M United Conference held in Chicago on June 26th. From hundreds of nominees, a panel of highly respected industry analysts judged the entries and awarded Cantaloupe, along with its customers Frito-Lay and North County Vending, the Gold Award in the Retail category. The Value Chain Awards honor the most successful adapters of M2M technology and recognizes their enablers, the teams of solution providers, who helped make it possible.
The awards highlight the process of combining multiple technologies, such as device-connectivity hardware, radio modules, network services, and application software and infrastructure into an effective application.
Frito-Lay and Cantaloupe Systems met in March, 2003 to discuss and analyze the effectiveness of Frito-Lay's branded machine program. Cantaloupe provided Frito-Lay with its SEED platform which is a wireless service used to gather real-time data from vending machines on product availability, monies received, operational status of machines and other areas of concern for vending operators.
The SEED system is comprised of wireless devices placed in a series of vending machines. These devices collect data from the machines' serial ports and transmit the data wirelessly to a cellular hub using a Cantaloupe antenna. The information is then sent from the hub to Cantaloupe's Data Storage Center where it is encrypted and maintained for vendor access.
Frito-Lay's goal was to get complete reports about their machines. The kind of reports that they were not receiving from their operators. In addition to product data, e.g. amount sold/unsold, the company wanted data presented in a standardized format for ease of analysis. It also wanted real-time data for measuring market trends, effectiveness of promotion campaigns and success of new product lines.
Frito-Lay and Cantaloupe joined with North County Vending Inc., www.ncvending.com, Vista, Ca., a company with which both had existing relationships. North County wanted to implement pre-picking, a system by which products for delivery are pre-sorted to reflect each machine's restocking needs. Additionally, it wanted to increase machine uptime by finding a way to dynamically schedule deliveries based on need rather than on a fixed timetable. SEED was also able to help North County enforce cash accountability by recording money actually collected in each machine which then could be compared with what was being reported.
To test the effectiveness SEED, the companies chose to compare sales in January and February of 2003 with the same period in 2004 when SEED was installed. Using the same months eliminated seasonal effects. The study also included only machines that had not been moved or newly installed during the test months. Remote monitoring of the test machines showed startling results. On average, the machines had an increase of 32% in money collected, directly attributable to increased uptime, better service, and always having available the products most wanted by customers.
Mr. John Sowell, president of North County Vending, was quoted as saying, "We are proud of the role we played in the adoption of M2M technology into the Vending industry. This award to Cantaloupe Systems will help remind our industry to keep moving forward in the area of redefining how we schedule the servicing of our machines for cost effectiveness and increased customer satisfaction."
"We are honored and proud to have Cantaloupe Systems recognized by M2M Magazine," stated Anant Agrawal, Cantaloupe's president and founder. "The vending industry has been stagnant in terms of adopting new data technologies. It has been rewarding to see operators throughout the country use SEED to realize the power of dynamic data collection. This award is a testament to the strength of the SEED platform in providing positive value to the vending industry."