Vending machine manufacturers have to consider many factors when designing and building modern day equipment. It's not just about how well the machine does its job, how reliable it is or how good it looks, but equally as important how easy is it to install, move around, service, and monitor. For many years now system integrators and installers have been somewhat limited when it comes to product placement, mobility, access and cost effectiveness.

Because modern day vending equipment relies heavily on its ability to be monitored and have vending/service data accessed for a number of different reasons, one of the key limiters is data cabling. Data cabling is expensive to buy and install and can be a real hindrance to ideal product placement because it won't allow your equipment to be easily moved to other areas of a building or premises that may generate higher revenues. When this ceases to become a problem you can afford to move equipment around a building to find the best revenue generating pitch.

From a service point of view being able to download and read or print off stored vending machine data is important so you know exactly what's going on internally at any given moment. Has a fault occurred or is your machine low on chocolate? Either way this is important to know when it happens because it will make a difference to your revenues by being able to act quickly and fix or fill your machine incurring less downtime. This will mean a great deal to your customers because they won't be inconvenienced by a vending machine that is empty or out of order because you know what's happening before they do.

The future...

Bluetooth has been around for a while now as a cable replacement solution in the consumer marketplace but it's only in the last few years that industry has cottoned on to the benefits of integrating Bluetooth technology into all types of equipment. Bluetooth is now the fastest growing cable replacement technology globally. It's growing quicker than Wi-Fi and fast overtaking physical data cabling as the preferred data collection and remote control solution for many vending machine manufacturers.

Current advances in Bluetooth technology have made it much easier to integrate into vending machinery. Transmit distances are increasing (up to a kilometre with an external antenna) along with data rates (up to 3Mbps currently). You can also link many Bluetooth devices in one area to a remote station via a Bluetooth router. For example you could link up 30 or 40 vending machines at an airport via Bluetooth, to a Bluetooth router and then onto a laptop or Blackberry/PDA, or from the router directly via Ethernet to an office many miles away or even the other side of the world. Equally a single machine can be wirelessly linked to a hand-held device and stored or real-time data can be downloaded or printed. Bluetooth will very soon be on a par with Wi-Fi data rates using a technology called UWB (Ultra Wideband). Watch this space!

Bluetooth technology is a fraction of the cost of Wi-Fi and hard cabling and allows your business and vending equipment to be as flexible as the technology. It will save you time and money through less equipment downtime because you're able to respond immediately when alerted that your equipment needs attention. Your customers will be less inconvenienced as a result and ultimately could mean the different between contracts being renewed or gifted to the competition just because they were forward thinking and shrewd enough to use Bluetooth technology.

You don't have to patrol machines regularly just to keep an eye on them because Bluetooth is already doing that for you. A single individual could look after a large number of vending machines thereby cutting down on the numbers of employees required to service a site. You only need to be there when you need to be there.

What to do...

Bluetooth is here and it's easy to integrate and use. It's a flexible and highly scaleable technology that grows with your business. It's not only very cost effective but will save you money straight away. If you're not already thinking about Bluetooth as a wireless cable replacement solution you can be sure your competitors are, and those already using Bluetooth are way ahead of you winning and securing long term business based on having that Bluetooth edge.

Now that you‘ve found ‘The Missing Link' what are you waiting for? Go Bluetooth!

www.lm-technologies.com

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