May 10, 2006

Interview with KIOSK Pete Snyder

Pete Snyder is now nine months into his mission to make KIOSK the leading kiosk manufacturer overseas. Part of that mission is to help his company prosper in the Middle East, where he envisions a near-term "kiosk explosion.". Here are his answers to questions on the coming kiosk explosion there.

Sourcel

Wednesday, May 10, 2006
By Rick Redding

Some Optimism from the Middle East

Pete Snyder is Creating a Market Where Few Firms are Willing to Tread

Pete Snyder is now nine months into his mission to make KIOSK the leading kiosk manufacturer overseas. Part of that mission is to help his company prosper in the Middle East, where he envisions a near-term "kiosk explosion.". Here are his answers to questions on the coming kiosk explosion there.

KioskCom: The Middle East is not the first place that comes to mind when thinking of “hot” kiosk markets. What is it about the market that makes it worth pursuing for KIOSK?

Pete Snyder: I have been told that doing business in the Arab market is 80 percent knowing you, 15 percent quality and 5 percent price. This may or may not be true, but I’ve been spending a lot of time in the Middle East these days and that axiom seems to run along those lines but maybe not in those proportions.

What makes it worth all the effort are the Arab partners I have in the region. I have three, maybe four partners who are drop dead serious about the kiosk market. They’re aggressively going after the business. They're not only selling kiosks, but installing and providing on-site servicing for them as well. In the Middle East we are in the beginning stages of the kiosk explosion.

Basic understanding of kiosks, kiosk issues, and kiosk uses are at the earlier stages in many countries. That's not necessarily true in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar where there are quite a few kiosks installed and more coming. In many ways, the Arab Market is much like the US market in that they hate waiting lines and are beginning to use kiosks as a means to address that issue.

The Arab Market has always been one to embrace kiosk technology and has always been eager to learn and apply the latest approaches being used world wide. I am constantly being asked by my Middle Eastern friends about solutions being used around the world and how they can be adapted to the GCC. In that sense, almost any kiosk-based solution being used in the world today has applicability to the GCC markets as long as the solution provider recognizes and is sensitive to, the cultural differences between applications developed for Western society and the Middle East.

There still are obstacles to overcome. I see three major areas where progress is needed in the Middle Eastern Kiosk market: First, there is a lack of kiosk production capability and related experience in that area. This means that kiosks must be shipped into the region.

Second, there are relatively few companies experienced in kiosk sales, kiosk installation, post installation maintenance and remote monitoring. My three or four partners may be among the best at this.

Third, there are virtually no software companies developing kiosk software in the region and relatively few that can localize software developed by European/US companies that may have application in the GCC. Every one of these shortfalls is the result of the GCC being new to the kiosk marketplace. There is certainly a wealth of technical expertise in the region that can address most of these issues quite well. As more experience is gained in the use of kiosks and more companies embrace the sale of kiosk solutions, these shortfalls will begin to disappear.

KC: What applications are getting the most attention there?

PS: So what applications are the most popular around the world today and which are applicable to the Middle East? Digital Photography, Music and mobile phone downloads, Entertainment games, Government solutions, Financial Services (bill payment kiosks) and Retail (line-busting).

Digital Photography units are the self service, immediate photo processing kiosks that have proven to be so popular worldwide. They provide the highest quality pictures within eight seconds. Definitely immediate gratification! The Music download kiosks coupled with mobile content downloads (ring tones, games, wallpapers, screen savers, etc.) have a significant potential, especially among those who want these products immediately and have them their way. Entertainment game kiosks are focused on the youth and are both highly used and profitable. This, however, is one area where one must be very aware of cultural and religious prohibitions. These type kiosks, however, allow users to play all sorts of games against the computer or others on adjacent kiosks.

Government kiosks continue to be required for such things as payment of fines and taxes and ID card issuance or renewal. Retail kiosks can run the gamut from providing product information for products not in the store, on-line ordering of products or food, pay-for-use internet, transportation venue ticketing (e.g., airports) and line-busting. Line-busting kiosks are particularly popular. An example of line-busting is the one in coffee shops where a person walks into the store, inserts his credit card into the card reader on the kiosk. The kiosk says: “Welcome to our store. Last time you bought a Latte and Cream donut. Do you want the same today?” If you click on yes, you’ve just bypassed the ordering line and you are immediately in the waiting line for your coffee and donut. The same is true if you customize your order at the kiosk.

Lastly, financial kiosks are becoming more popular, especially bill payment solutions. We find that mobile phone stores want to use these type kiosks for customers to do their mobile top-up payments and to download ring tones, wallpapers, games, etc. This enables the one or two clerks in the store to do what is more profitable: sign up new customers!

KC: How is doing business in the market different from other places – what special obstacles must be overcome?

PS: More than any other business venue, to be successful one needs qualified Arab partners. I’m lucky to have three: APTEC of Dubai, Selftech of Dubai and KTS of Kuwait. All three are dedicating time and money to the pursuit of an enlightened kiosk marketing and support strategy. (For more information on partners in Middle East visit kiskiosk.co.uk.

Another different aspect on doing business here is that one needs to spend time and resources in working with, training and listening to partners and customers. Lastly, to be successful, you need to be aware of the cultural differences and prohibitions regarding kiosks. The best way to get this information is being able to ask candid and probing questions of the culture with your partners. It also takes a bit of study into the culture and religion of the area since ISLAM pervades so much of life and business here. I taken some time to do this and the answers I have found are both fascinating and very informative on the culture. I’ve made some very good friends here.

KC: What companies or types of companies are servicing the market presently, and how are they doing?

PS: The Arab Market appears to be having more concerns these days about kiosk quality. I’ve been told that in past years they’ve tried using the some of the very low cost kiosk suppliers (from China, Korea, Taiwan) and have found frequency of repair and the lack of customer support from those suppliers to be a real problem. I’ve have seen for myself that some of those supplier’s products have not been that well-designed in the first place and appear to experience higher failure rates. There are an abnormally large number of kiosks with black screens in the malls and shopping centers over here.

From everything I’ve heard from customers and contacts in the region, I get the impression these low cost kiosk suppliers appear to be less interested in customer support to fix problems when they occur but more often ask “when are you buying a replacement”? It may well be their approach to business in general that is impacting this train of thought.

Personally, I think that the Chinese (Mainland and Taiwan) and the Koreans kiosk manufacturers have some more to learn about Western and Middle Eastern concerns about poor customer support. The Japanese, however, truly get it as their customer support is among the best anywhere. As a result of the foregoing I see more and more Middle Eastern kiosk project managers turning to more experienced kiosk suppliers with years of experience and a solid financial structure; companies who will be around for years to come and supporting the products they sell into the region.

In some of the countries, we see IBM and NCR and their kiosk products are quality. They tend, however, to focus their efforts in environments that already have their legacy or point of sale systems. We do not see them venturing into areas where neither of those situations exist.

KC: Do the Arab people embrace technology, and do they see the benefits of kiosks. Are there cultural obstacles to working in the market?

PS: The Arab Market has always been one to embrace kiosk technology and has always been eager to learn and apply the latest approaches being used world wide. I am constantly being asked by my Middle Eastern friends about solutions being used around the world and how they can be adapted to the GCC. In that sense, almost any kiosk-based solution being used in the world today has applicability to the GCC markets as long as the solution provider recognizes and is sensitive to, the cultural differences between applications developed for Western society and the Middle East.

KC: Have you found any special barriers in working with government entities there, given the instability in the region?

PS: I have not worked directly with the government entities over here but I have worked with intermediaries in the Arab community who are working with the governments. Governments around the world are the same: lots of boiler plate in their RFPs, red tape in closing a deal and extreme caution.

KC: Do you envision some major rollouts of kiosks in the next year in the Middle East? If so, in what industries?

PS: No, not in the sense of the USA or Europe. Kiosk rollouts here are not that large and I think it will be a couple more years before the region is ready to really adopt kiosks with all their potential in the various vertical markets and application areas. Until then, we will have projects in the 1 to 100 range. And I’m OK with that because it gives me a chance to show a kiosk product that is extremely well designed and reliable. It gives me a chance to show that my products can gain a foothold and in the process train some very good partners in better ways to market and support products that we sell through them.

Posted by keefner at May 10, 2006 07:24 AM