Update of kiosk history file for the years 2010 and 2009 by Craig Keefner.
Craig Keefner homepage: Kiosk History 2010 and 2009
2010
2009
Craig Keefner homepage: Kiosk History 2010 and 2009
Self-Service World does article on Rick Malone induction to the Kiosk Hall of Fame. |
KIOSK founder and CEO inducted into Hall of Fame
by Cary G. Stemle * • 02 Sep 2009
When Rick Malone founded KIOSK Information Systems in 1993, it may have made sense to locate it in Los Angeles, where he’d grown up, attended college and spent the early stages of his professional life.
But he opted for another “L.A.” — Louisville Area, as in Louisville, Colo. — and that choice says a great deal about his values. Malone believes quality of life is a huge factor in attracting and retaining the sort of talent he values.
“Our culture is very family-oriented, and Colorado is a great place to live and raise a family,” Malone said. “We take our business very seriously. We work hard and don’t waste time.” But his employees, from management to hourly workers, are encouraged to put family first, he said. “We are very tolerant to that, and it’s helped create longevity with our employees.”
Malone, 52 and president and cheif executive of the privately held company, is one of three 2009 inductees into the Self-Service & Kiosk Association Hall of Fame.
A self-described “serial entrepreneur,” he didn’t set out to run a kiosk company. After earning an engineering degree from Loyola Marymount University, he worked for small PC companies with growth potential, then moved into software and hardware for point-of-sale systems. He eventually joined a start-up company that manufactured POS systems and sold out to investors three years in. He started KIOSK Information Systems in October of 1993.
“I’d done point-of-sale kiosks off and on, and I saw the potential,” he said.
Today, the company has about 80 employees and, with an estimated 100,000 units in the field, is the largest kiosk producer in North America. It provides custom and standard OEM systems to a world-class list of clients — names like Wal-Mart, Fujitsu, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and AT&T, as well as governmental agencies such as the U.S. Postal Service and the U.S. Transportation Security Administration.
Malone notes that the kiosk industry took longer to reach critical mass than analysts projected in the early 1990s, perhaps because “the complexity of executing kiosk projects has been grossly underestimated."
“When I began the business, it took a long time to explain to people," he said. "Now they know. Today, self-service technology is obviously an integral part of our society.”
Many of the companies that have competed with KIOSK have done self-service as a side business, Malone said.
“We were formed to be a kiosk company and only that,” he said. “We have focused on that from then until now. Consequently, our expertise is hard to keep up with.”
Malone says KIOSK Information Systems remains heavily focused on product development with an emphasis on understanding the possible pitfalls of any particular deployment.
“We tell our customers there’s nothing hard about it — except the thousands of details,” he said.
Each KIOSK client has a dedicated project manager, and Malone encourages those managers to be candid.
“We have checklists of what can go wrong,” he said. “But beyond that, each project has idiosyncrasies. We have to be able to anticipate issues and adjust on the fly. We take a very consultative role with our customers, and sometimes we have to reel them in and say no.”
One secret to Malone’s success, said Doug Peter, president of St. Clair Interactive Communications Inc., is his ability to focus on problem-solving. Peter has known Malone for about a dozen years, after a mutual contact brought them together for a project. They hit it off, Peter said, and their companies have collaborated on more than 30 projects since.
Peter laughed when recalling a project for Wal-Mart, which wanted a kiosk that resembled its children’s playhouses.
“I was looking for a creative solution,” he said. “I was focused on the colors and the roofline and so on. Rick, being an engineer, wanted to make sure the framework was solid and the ergonomics were right. We must’ve gone around and around on 15 designs, and the end result was wonderful. It was an interesting contrast of styles.”
Playfully noting — as Malone predicted — that he made it into the Hall of Fame first (in 2006), Peter laughed again and said: “We’ve been known to yell at each other and also to have a beer together. I value his partnership.”
Malone and his wife, Rita, have two sons in college. He enjoys all varieties of fishing and is a good golfer. (Asked about his handicap, he said, “It depends on whether we’re betting,” before giving up the number — 8.)
He is excited about the industry’s move toward specialization. “I used to tell people it’s really a product-development industry, and when it gets good, it becomes its own business. For example, look at redbox and DVDs — it emerged from the kiosk industry and now it’s its own field. It became a large segment of the industry. I think we’ll see more of that.”
Malone is grateful for the Hall-of-Fame honor and said he’s proud to be associated with such a group of innovators. And he’s proud to run a company that is recognized both for its expertise and its culture. KIOSK has been on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing companies and Deloitte & Touche’s Technology Fast 500.
“We are a very free-spirited company,” he said. “One of the good things about having your own business is you get to hire people who are like you. That’s a control point you don’t have in larger companies, or where you don’t call the shots.”
2009
Rick Malone - KIOSK (originally KIS)
2008
Janet Webster - USPS
Cort Johnson - IBM
2007
Greg Swistak - Factura
2006
Doug Peter - St. Clair Interactive
2005
Alex Richardson - Netkey
2004
Lawrence Dvorchik - KioskCom
Lief Larson - KIOSK Magazine
Francie Mendelsohn - Summit Research
2003
Sylvia Berens Apunix
Peter Berens Apunix
Craig Keefner kiosks.org
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) unveils a prototype of its proposed information kiosks at a Waldorf, MD, shopping mall. The kiosk is the first of 24 to be set up by the VA nationwide to provide veterans with a direct link to the VA's benefit programs. Blast from the past.
Government Computer News July 19 1993 v12 n15 p93(1)
VA opens its 1st information kiosk at Md. shopping mall; veterans can learn about services and benefits at 24 machines to be installed nationwide. (Department of Veterans Affairs)
Author
Smith, James M.
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The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) unveils a prototype of its proposed information kiosks at a Waldorf, MD, shopping mall. The kiosk is the first of 24 to be set up by the VA nationwide to provide veterans with a direct link to the VA's benefit programs. Eventually, the microcomputers in the information kiosks will offer interactive functions and could well be the beginning of a multiagency kiosk program. The VA expects to set up the 24 systems by the fall of 1993. The prototype standalone kiosk currently offer 200 different screens that provide general information on VA benefits and veteran services organizations. The system runs on an Apple Macintosh Quadra 700 microcomputer with 20Mbytes of RAM and 200Mbytes of hard-disk capability.
Full Text
Veterans can learn about services and benefits at 24 machines to be installed nationwide
Although the first 24 kiosks the Veterans Affairs Department is rolling out nationwide cannot provide veterans with account information, VA officials say the microcomputers one day will support interactive functions.
VA officials unveiled the first prototype kiosk June 30 at a shopping mall in Waldorf, Md.
Initially, the VA wants to see how users respond to the standalone systems. But eventually the agency expects the kiosks to provide a direct link between VA benefits programs and the veterans they serve.
What's more, VA officials say their kiosk effort could be a springboard to a multi-agency kiosk program.
Touch screens
"This is part of what we in government hope is a trend of delivering better services," said Robert J. Woods, deputy assistant secretary of the VA for IRM, at the kiosk opening at the St. Charles Town Center. "We hope these kiosks are not just for VA benefits, but will eventually include Social Security benefits and county benefits."
The agency will test the first 24 systems during the next year before deciding whether to field additional kiosks and how to upgrade the kiosks' capabilities, Woods said. He acknowledged that funding would affect future development and deployment plans.
Now, the standalone kiosks support 200 different screens and provide general information on VA benefits programs and veterans services organizations. Using the touch screen, a user selects a topic from a main menu then follows the prompts for further details.
The VA kiosk at the Waldorf mall is built on an Apple Computer Inc. Macintosh Quadra 700 microcomputer, with 20M of RAM and 200M of hard-disk capacity.
High Techsplanations Inc. of Rockville, Md., built this first kiosk system for the VA. Ten companies are donating hardware, software, services and maintenance for the kiosk program.
Gregory L. Merril, High Techsplanations president, said the software for the Waldorf kiosk was written using the Lingo programming language developed by Macromedia Inc. of San Francisco.
Merril said his company plans to port the software over to C, which would speed response time.
VA is not the first federal agency to try out kiosks. The Postal Service last year contracted with Postal Buddy Corp. of San Diego to install automated postal service machines throughout the nation. The Agriculture Department is developing kiosks to support its farm programs, and the Social Security Administration also has finished work on a prototype kiosk.
VA plans to have all 24 test kiosks installed by the fall.
The planned sites include West Dale Mall in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; the Naval Training Center in Great Lakes, Ill.; the Pines Shopping Center in Pine Bluff, Ark.; and the Norfolk, Va., Naval Base.
Product
Apple Macintosh Quadra 700
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*VA opens its 1st information kiosk at Md. shopping mall; veterans can learn about services and benefits at 24 machines to be installed nationwide.
Government Computer News: July 19 1993
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