KIOSK Information Systems, in the midst of its best-ever sales season, is getting into a new, riskier sales game targeting the expanding gaming market.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
By Rick Redding
New Business is a Game for KIOSK
Popularity of Online Gaming Leads to Creation of ZAZOOX Game Cafe
KIOSK Information Systems, in the midst of its best-ever sales season, is getting into a new, riskier sales game targeting the expanding gaming market.
Specifically, KIOSK is betting that the online gaming community will flock to machines that allow them to play the latest games against others folks – online, in real time – at a variety of public locations.
KIOSK formed a wholly owned subsidiary, ZOOX Stations, Inc., to launch the new initiative. It is calling the new product the ZAZOOX Game Cafe.
Tom Weaver, KIOSK’s sales and marketing vice president, said the company is going into uncharted waters with its new gaming kiosk. While KIOSK is taking a gamble on the initiative, the online player gaming market seems to be one that could pay off.
“We’re not changing our business model. Our OEM business is going very well. We’re not software guys. We are going down a different avenue," he said. "It's really our first push on a turnkey solution."
And Weaver says the new product is having a coming-out party at the Amusement and Music Operators Association Expo Sept. 27 in Las Vegas. It marks KIOSK's first appearance at the show, and Weaver said he hopes to meet potential distributors for the gaming machines, as well as representatives of retail chains with the ability to buy the machines in bulk.
"It's our first real product we've built a go-to-market strategy around," he said.
Thus far, KIOSK has been testing the game stations in about 100 Army barracks and a handful of public establishments, including truck stops, nightclubs, malls and college campuses. He said the mechanics of the operation, including maintenance, Internet connections and payment acceptance, have been fully tested.
The business case is compelling, Weaver said, with a measurable ROI predicted for six to 12 months.
KIOSK’s gamble is that people will go to public places to play online games against others, whether their opponent is sitting in the next game chair or on the other side of the world. The market has typically served individuals in their homes.
“Multi player online gaming is a hot new market,” Weaver said, citing statistics that indicate the market will reach $2 billion in the next year. KIOSK estimates the online gaming market at $500 million.“The secret sauce in the deal is the way content is provided to end user.”
Content is provided by game producers who traditionally sell their software in retail, often for around $50 per game, to be played on PlayStation and XBox systems. When a consumer buys a game, he typically plays it on a home system. But the beauty of KIOSK's system is that it makes popular games available for play for quarters per minute.
KIOSK Information Systems (KIOSK), a leading provider of self-service kiosk solutions, announced its compliance with the European directive 2002/95/EC on the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) and also its new status as a certified "Green Partner" for Sony Corporation.
Fulfillment of the RoHS directive and compliance with WEEE (Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment) are part of KIOSK's overall strategic initiative to support ongoing global environmental programs.
"As a world supplier of innovative solutions, KIOSK is committed to the goal of producing products in accordance with legislative standards established to protect human health, and that are in line with global environmental obligations," said Dan Houck, COO of KIOSK. "We're pleased to comply with RoHS directives, having invested heavily for the past few years in our business and manufacturing infrastructure and in helping our customers and suppliers develop attainable transition programs. As a result, we are proud to validate compliancy with KIOSK Declarations of Product Compliance, third party test reports, and Certificates of Conformance for components and materials. In a continuing initiative, KIOSK is actively pursuing processes and methodologies to address the WEEE Directive for the treatment, recovery and recycling of electric and electronic equipment."
Sony has established its own global standards for management of chemical substances, titled "Management Regulations for the Environment-Related Substances to be Controlled which are included in Parts and Materials" (SS-00259) and is implementing control of certain specified chemicals in parts and materials. Sony has established the "Green Partner Environmental Quality Approval Program" in 2002, which outlines Sony's Green Partner Standards, the standards for chemical substance management, and audits suppliers based on these standards. In fiscal 2005, approximately 3,500 supplier and 200 OEM suppliers were certified as Green Partners. See http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/procurementinfo/green.html
Under the above mentioned chemical substances management system, Sony has prohibited the use of six chemical substances in parts and materials specified in the RoHS Directive. By the end of fiscal 2005, Sony has completed elimination of those specified chemicals from all Sony products, not only for the European market, but also for the worldwide market.
About KIOSK Information Systems (KIOSK):
KIOSK Information Systems is the world leader in design, manufacturing, service and support of indoor and outdoor kiosks, public Internet stations and other electronic self-service informational terminals. KIOSK is the OEM manufacturer of self-service terminals for Dell, Hewlett Packard, Sony Photo, US Transportation Security Administration and many others. KIOSK corporate clients include McDonalds, Ticketmaster, FedEx, Safeway, Citibank, Disney, Exxon Mobil, US Postal Service and Wal-Mart, as well as numerous government agencies and universities. KIOSK has facilities in Louisville, CO and Falkirk, Scotland, UK. Major vertical product markets include Retail, HR, Government, Photo and Digital Media, Voting, and OEM kiosk services. http://www.kiosk.com
KIOSK Meets European RoHS Compliance Directive: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance
How Swift Transportation is using HR kiosk terminals to help the company serve its mobile workforce.
Wednesday, December 7, 2005
By Rick Redding
Making Swift Work
Drivers Are Happy with new Digital Dashboards
When Swift Transportation drivers arrive at a terminal, the first thing many do is check their digital dashboard at the company�s Informer kiosks, where information on paychecks, benefits, log violations and company-provided e-mail is at their fingertips.
�Independence is import for our employees,� said Lindsey Lundeen, employee communications coordinator at Swift. �When you�re a mobile employee, you want to have a consistent, accurate resource no matter where you are. For us, it�s a simple way to keep in touch with a mobile workforce.�
Swift�s Informer kiosks were installed in August at 38 company-operated terminals and a dozen other locations in 28 states. The 150 kiosks are available to Swift�s 23,000 drivers, plus 2,000 non-driver employees, and their popularity is spreading like wildfire within the company.
Lundeen said that in November, there were 98,000 user sign-ons, and that the length of user sessions has increased from 1.2 minutes in the first month of use to 2.14 minutes this month. The kiosks provide information on payroll, benefits, permits, training and safety information, truck repair manuals and parts availability, as well as e-mail, company news, weather, and driving directions.
She said the kiosks solve a number of issues for Swift, not the least of which is retaining a traditionally transient workforce.
�If we increase driver retention by one percent, it would pay for itself,� she said. �At first, some drivers were hesitant to use it, because they thought there was a fee to use it. Now they�re excited to have access to their account information, and they can keep in touch with their family by e-mail.�
Kiosk Information Systems of Louisville, Colo. provided hardware and ongoing service, and Netkey of Branford, Conn. supplied the software. Those two companies have a history of success in Human Resources applications, according to KIS territory manager Bob Harlow. Among their joint HR clients are the U.S. Postal Service and the Walt Disney Co.
Article on self-service kiosk awards at KioskCom 2005 where the Burn-A-Song kiosk designed/entered by Kiosk Information Systems and TouchNSurf took first place.
Excerpt:
Music to go
The Burn A Song kiosk, designed by Colorado-based Kiosk Information Systems and Los Angeles-based Touch N Surf, resembles a high-tech jukebox on the surface: Users browse music by genre, touch album covers to view offerings by artist, and finally select the songs they want. But while a jukebox simply plays the selected songs, Burn A Song does just what it�s name implies and spits out a custom-burned CD filled with the purchased tunes.
It�s an impressive application, even more so given the licensing requirements for the content being dispensed.
"This is a budding market, and the barriers to entry are high," said company president Shervin Rashti. "It is very difficult to acquire content licensing from the major labels."
According to Rashti, Burn A Song has established a relationship with Billboard, allowing the machine to offer preselected playlists based on those charts.
"This helps us speed the song selection process, and get the user what they need quickly and hassle-free," Rashti said.
The CD that emerges from the kiosk is custom-printed with a color label. While they�re waiting, customers can send video e-mail to a friend. The machine can also be extended with couponing, cross-promotions, and the sale of other digital products like games and ring tones.
"The growth potential for this market is enormous, and will include its own verticals that will revamp the way people get their media," Rashti said. "Very exciting!"
http://www.burnasong.com
http://www.kis-kiosk.com/vending/burnasong.html
Original Story Link
Kiosk company expecting employment, sales growth
EXCLUSIVE REPORTS
From the March 5, 2004 print edition
Kiosk company expecting employment, sales growth
Tom Locke
Denver Business Journal
After a couple of tough years in 2001 and 2002, kiosk maker Kiosk Information Systems Inc. is back on the fast-growth track, almost tripling its year-over-year production of kiosks to nearly 8,000 in 2003.
This year it expects to double that number to 16,000 units and increase employment to about 100 by the end of 2004, up from an average of about 70 now and 45 a year ago, said President Rick Malone, 46, who founded the business in 1993.
The new employees will be added at the company's 65,000-square-foot headquarters building in Louisville, where it assembles kiosk parts it outsources from various parts of the country and the world.
"They're one of the leaders, if not the leader, in the business. They're doing great," said Francie Mendelsohn, president of Rockville, Md.-based kiosk consulting and research firm Summit Research Associates.
Mendelsohn said the firm produces high-quality kiosks, is cost-effective and can deliver quickly. And though competitor IBM Corp. has picked up some of the big digital photograph kiosk orders in 2003 from Fuji and Kodak, the little company in Louisville can definitely compete with IBM, she said.
"Not only are they good guys, they have a very impressive work ethic," Mendelsohn said. "They just don't ship subpar products."
Amy Garland, marketing manager for Portland, Ore.-based health and lifestyle information company Healthnotes Inc., said her company picked Kiosk because of its "expertise in developing kiosks for the retail environment." It has provided an "excellent amount of service" to Healthnotes, she added.
Even the battle against terrorism comes within the Kiosk domain. Kiosks from the company are being tested at the Miami and Baltimore airports to check foreign visitors entering and leaving the United States by taking their pictures, scanning the bar codes on their passports and recording their thumbprints.
The demand for such kiosks by the Department of Homeland Security for airports, seaports and other departure/entry points might be about 10,000 units, Malone said, but even that "could be scratching the surface." He foresees the potential for using such security kiosks for checks at ordinary office buildings, for instance.
"It sounds a little James Bond, but how far are you going to go with your security?" he asks.
Of the company's 2003 revenue, about half came from kiosks designed for human resources uses, 30 percent from public Internet systems and the other 20 percent from miscellaneous uses.
In the HR arena, Kiosk's customers include the U.S. Postal Service, Pepsi and other big names. It supplied 2,700 units to Wal-Mart last year for job-application kiosks and nearly 400 kiosks to the Walt Disney Co., which enable cast members at theme parks to schedule vacation time and check out their health insurance plans.
The HR kiosks have a payoff period of as little as three months and are attracting considerable interest because of their accuracy, elimination of waiting lines and cost savings on labor.
Kiosk also produced 3,000 public-Internet kiosks last year. Examples can be seen at Denver International Airport, where the kiosks provide Internet-access uses such as checking e-mail or stock quotes for 25 cents a minute. The airport has eight "Shibby" kiosk locations, with four units each, on its three concourses.
Within 90 days, the public Internet units made by Kiosk will have the capability of downloading music to either a memory device, such as an MP-3 player, or a CD provided by the kiosk.
Mobile phone company Cricket Communications Inc. uses kiosks to enable users to "recharge" their phones with incremental minutes by putting cash in a machine at the kiosk. And Kiosk has a QuickPix product that lets users manipulate digital photographs -- and even insert balloons with smart-alecky captions -- and then print them immediately.
Kiosk has grown fast for most of its life. Yearly revenue rose from $60,000 in its first full year in 1994 to $1.2 million the next year, and then to $1.8 million, $4 million, $5 million, $7.5 million and $13 million by 2000.
Kiosk was projecting revenue of $20 million for 2001, but then the Internet bubble burst and the company posted lower revenue in 2001 than 2000, the first year-to-year decline in its history.
That was partly because retailers hurt by the economic slowdown cut kiosk marketing experiments, and partly because dot-com companies using Internet-related kiosks closed down. Plus, travel dove after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and that hurt the use of travel-related kiosks.
Some kiosk uses just haven't worked, Malone said. For instance, kiosks are too expensive for advertisement or marketing purposes, he said, and single-purpose kiosks devoted to sales of products such as flowers or car insurance also have been unsuccessful.
The hybrid public Internet kiosk is exciting because of its potential multiple purposes, including everything from Web access to music CD creation, photo prints and money orders, Malone said.
The company's revenue rose in 2002, but still not to the $13 million level of 2000. It posted minimal losses in 2001 and 2002 but made it back to profitability in 2003, when revenue took off again, reaching two-and-a-half times the level of 2002.
Malone declined to provide an exact revenue figure for 2003, but said it was "well into the mid-20s" in millions of dollars.
Kiosk prices can vary widely, from as little as $1,200 to as much as $20,000. That's why the number of produced units could increase 100 percent this year while producing a rise in revenue of only 50 percent.
"We would be slightly ahead of the industry, if we grew as expected," Malone said. "The pipeline is very full and it looks very promising."
One element helping the company land business is its ISO 9001 certification, he said. That designation is designed to assure buyers of a high-quality production process.
Summit Research projects North America's installed base of kiosks will grow from 201,000 in 2003 to about 325,000 by 2007, while the number of kiosks in Europe will grow from 159,000 to 290,000. That translates to 255,000 units added in four years.
One reason for the sales growth at Kiosk in particular is the use of outside sales offices now established in San Diego, Minnesota, New York and Texas. Also, the inside sales force has grown.
But the company's not just about growth and the quality of its products. Malone, who has been married for 17 years and has two children, said the company culture includes a balancing of career and quality of life.
He thinks he's managed that, despite the company's rapid growth since its humble beginnings. Kiosk started out with less than $100,000 in funding from two investors and an SBA-guaranteed loan for $70,000 through First National Bank of Fort Collins.
It has grown without infusions of outside equity capital, and Malone sees no financial requirement to go public. At some point, Kiosk might consider an acquisition offer, he said, but he thinks there's plenty of opportunity to increase the value of the company before that happens.
"The management team is committed to grow this to its highest valuation," Malone said.
Kiosk company expecting employment, sales growth - 2004-03-08 - The Denver Business Journal
December 23 - newsletter posted to newsgroup
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