Touch screen kiosks have been used widely by public sector organisations to give information to the public. They typically provide a wide range of functions and services to meet the needs of the local community. They often focus simply on access to the organisation’s website. In the best examples, a special touch screen interface version of the website is developed. In the worst examples, the website is presented without any adaptation to the needs of the general public - thus completely missing the benefits offered by a touch screen. But many public sector organisations are now taking fuller advantage of what kiosks have to offer. And some are even stretching those capabilities into new areas. Here are some examples.
Health Service
Many GP surgeries now greet patients with a kiosk in the reception area. A simple touch screen allows a patient with a pre-booked appointment to announce their arrival. This reassures the patient that their place in the queue is secure and saves the time of the receptionist. Some hospitals have also followed this route: King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
Police
Several police forces in the UK have trialled information points in police stations and even in shopping malls. Avon and Somerset Police were early adopters of kiosk technology - using kiosks from NeoProducts. But they and other constabularies are now looking at allowing the public to report minor crimes on kiosks. This, of course, saves police time, but it might also appeal to citizens who prefer not to go into a police station and who do not have access the internet at home.
Public Sector Housing
The Choice-Based Letting (CBL) approach has fundamentally improved the service offered to those seeking public sector housing. The HomeFinder service in Coventry is a good example of this. The Whitefriars Housing Association in Coventry has used kiosks from Neo to make CBL available to the public in their local offices. This takes the process of searching for a suitable property away from a housing advisor - allowing the prospective tenant to browse the database him or herself on the kiosk.
Social Benefits
The local authority offices that handle claims for social benefits tend to be extremely busy. They already use ticket-based queueing systems to marshal claimants who arrive sometimes with and sometimes without an appointment. One leading council is working with Neo on a more sophisticated version of this. Claimants will be directed towards a kiosk to announce their arrival. If they have an appointment, they will be directed to the correct location within the office. If they do not have an appointment, they will be issued with a ticket and directed the correct queue. This is again intended to save staff time but also to demonstrate to claimants that they are being dealt with quickly and fairly.
Public Employment Services
Still one of the best examples of the use of kiosks in the public sector is for job-finding. Most public employment services in the developed world now offer job search on kiosks. Neo supplied kiosks to one of the first systems in Australia. We also supplied kiosks to one of the biggest systems for Jobcentre Plus in the UK.
The public sector is now going beyond using kiosks simply to give information. In some cases it is leading the way for the private sector. The need for massive savings in public expenditure in the wake of the global recession will surely encourage more public bodies to use touch screen kiosks in exciting new ways.
Thursday, 29 October 2009
Tuesday, 27 October 2009
Kiosks are the Future
So thinks HLN's Money Expert Clark Howard. He says: "The best service in the world is yourself" and goes on in his blog to cite the rapid growth of petrol pump and check-in self-service kiosks as a model for the future.
"If you go into a fast food restaurant, which I'm very familiar with, I'm always annoyed if I can’t make my own soft drink. I want to be able to do my own perfect mix. And when they make it behind the counter, it’s not going to be the way I want it. Now, Coca Cola is testing a new kiosk that is essentially a touch-screen computer that allows you to make your own custom beverage."
"In the next few years, even at mid-priced restaurants, you will most likely place your order and pay for your meal at a kiosk. At mid-prices and below, it’s hard to track and retain servers because there’s just not enough tip income. Or you have a server who has to cover too many tables. And it will be so much easier to have a kiosk where people can place and pay for their orders, and the server just brings you your food and beverage."
He concludes by saying that kiosks will not undermine good service: "isn’t it a service if someone puts in a machine that allows you to do something better and more quickly?". I agree with him, it surely is. NeoProducts has piloted food-ordering kiosks with MacDonald's in Australia.
"If you go into a fast food restaurant, which I'm very familiar with, I'm always annoyed if I can’t make my own soft drink. I want to be able to do my own perfect mix. And when they make it behind the counter, it’s not going to be the way I want it. Now, Coca Cola is testing a new kiosk that is essentially a touch-screen computer that allows you to make your own custom beverage."
"In the next few years, even at mid-priced restaurants, you will most likely place your order and pay for your meal at a kiosk. At mid-prices and below, it’s hard to track and retain servers because there’s just not enough tip income. Or you have a server who has to cover too many tables. And it will be so much easier to have a kiosk where people can place and pay for their orders, and the server just brings you your food and beverage."
He concludes by saying that kiosks will not undermine good service: "isn’t it a service if someone puts in a machine that allows you to do something better and more quickly?". I agree with him, it surely is. NeoProducts has piloted food-ordering kiosks with MacDonald's in Australia.
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
17 Million Brits Have Never Been Online!
We in the IT industry sometimes act as if everyone uses the web as much as we do. But the truth is that 17 million Britons have never been online. That is the challenge facing Martha Lane-Fox, co-founder of Lastminute.com and freshly appointed by the UK government as their Digital Champion.
Have those 17 million people chosen not to go on-line? Do they see it as irrelevant to their lives, too expensive or simply too daunting? I suspect that the last two of these are nearer the mark. In fact I think many of them feel left out and at a disadvantage because they do not use the web.
Ms Lane-Fox has hosted the first meeting of a task force to target the six million poorest Britons. There is a close correlation between social and digital exclusion. The poorest sectors of society make up a large part of the 17 million.
She has a tough job. Professor Bill Dutton of the Oxford Internet Institute thinks she is trying to convert those who have no desire to be converted: "The big question is how do you get people to experience a technology that they are predisposed not to be interested in,". I disagree. Who would not want access to cheaper car or household insurance? Who would not like to be able to find a job using the power of on-line searching technology? Who would not like to be able to correspond by emails with distant friends and relatives?
The UK government definitely wants to do far more business on-line. Currently 80% of its transactions are done with the bottom 25% of society, and moving these services on-line offers great cost savings. The Department for Work and Pensions (Jobcentre Plus) jobs website already has a pretty impressive one million searches per day.
And local government is following this lead. For example, Coventry City Council has put applications and bidding for social housing exclusively on-line. The scheme has driven more people to the Foleshill UK Online centre, one of 6,000 centres around the UK designed to get more people computer literate and using the web. "It is an internet-based service and unless you are computer literate it is not easy. It is a way of us helping people to help themselves," said Chrissie Morris, an advice officer at the centre.
By the way, both Jobcentre Plus and Coventry City Council use kiosks from NeoProducts to extend the reach of their on-line services. They recognise that one cannot migrate services to the web without catering for those without access. And the most cost-effective way of doing that is with kiosks. With a simplified touchscreen user interface; context-sensitive help, and good design, they make using the web easy.
One way to include those 17 million people in the digital revolution is to make the most popular and useful on-line services available on lots of conveniently-placed public access kiosks.
Have those 17 million people chosen not to go on-line? Do they see it as irrelevant to their lives, too expensive or simply too daunting? I suspect that the last two of these are nearer the mark. In fact I think many of them feel left out and at a disadvantage because they do not use the web.
Ms Lane-Fox has hosted the first meeting of a task force to target the six million poorest Britons. There is a close correlation between social and digital exclusion. The poorest sectors of society make up a large part of the 17 million.
She has a tough job. Professor Bill Dutton of the Oxford Internet Institute thinks she is trying to convert those who have no desire to be converted: "The big question is how do you get people to experience a technology that they are predisposed not to be interested in,". I disagree. Who would not want access to cheaper car or household insurance? Who would not like to be able to find a job using the power of on-line searching technology? Who would not like to be able to correspond by emails with distant friends and relatives?
The UK government definitely wants to do far more business on-line. Currently 80% of its transactions are done with the bottom 25% of society, and moving these services on-line offers great cost savings. The Department for Work and Pensions (Jobcentre Plus) jobs website already has a pretty impressive one million searches per day.
And local government is following this lead. For example, Coventry City Council has put applications and bidding for social housing exclusively on-line. The scheme has driven more people to the Foleshill UK Online centre, one of 6,000 centres around the UK designed to get more people computer literate and using the web. "It is an internet-based service and unless you are computer literate it is not easy. It is a way of us helping people to help themselves," said Chrissie Morris, an advice officer at the centre.
By the way, both Jobcentre Plus and Coventry City Council use kiosks from NeoProducts to extend the reach of their on-line services. They recognise that one cannot migrate services to the web without catering for those without access. And the most cost-effective way of doing that is with kiosks. With a simplified touchscreen user interface; context-sensitive help, and good design, they make using the web easy.
One way to include those 17 million people in the digital revolution is to make the most popular and useful on-line services available on lots of conveniently-placed public access kiosks.
Thursday, 8 October 2009
e-Choupal Shows the Way
e-Choupal has been created by ITC Limited to enable rural farmers in India to buy and sell agricultural produce like soya beans, wheat, and coffee. It does this by allowing them directly to negotiate the sale of their produce via a network of PCs and kiosks in 6,500 centres spread across 100 districts in 10 states. Previously, the farmers had to go through numerous and sometime corrupt intermediaries.
What a great idea and what a fantastic use of kiosks! Allowing shared public access to interactive technology is what kiosks are all about. And this is only the beginning.
Several rural job portals have recently been launched in India. They are expected to grow rapidly and play a vital role in the Indian government’s vision for inclusive growth in India. e-Choupal has already been identified as a platform to deliver these portals to rural populations. That make’s perfect sense. The infrastructure is there and the system has gained public acceptance.
Of course, NeoProducts can rightly claim to be the world-leader in developing kiosks for job broking. We have delivered national systems on a big scale (in the UK and Australia) and on a small scale in countries as diverse as Ireland, Malta and the Czech Republic. We hope soon to be working with partners in the developing world on systems like e-Choupal.
We will be explaining the benefits of using custom-designed touchscreen kiosks with very rugged components and casings - machines that will continue to deliver reliable service whatever conditions they are placed in and however much use (and misuse) they get.
What a great idea and what a fantastic use of kiosks! Allowing shared public access to interactive technology is what kiosks are all about. And this is only the beginning.
Several rural job portals have recently been launched in India. They are expected to grow rapidly and play a vital role in the Indian government’s vision for inclusive growth in India. e-Choupal has already been identified as a platform to deliver these portals to rural populations. That make’s perfect sense. The infrastructure is there and the system has gained public acceptance.
Of course, NeoProducts can rightly claim to be the world-leader in developing kiosks for job broking. We have delivered national systems on a big scale (in the UK and Australia) and on a small scale in countries as diverse as Ireland, Malta and the Czech Republic. We hope soon to be working with partners in the developing world on systems like e-Choupal.
We will be explaining the benefits of using custom-designed touchscreen kiosks with very rugged components and casings - machines that will continue to deliver reliable service whatever conditions they are placed in and however much use (and misuse) they get.
Tuesday, 6 October 2009
Border Control Kiosks Meet Traveller Demand
The fourth annual SITA Air Transport World Passenger Self-Service Survey has found a 20% growth in adoption of self-service check-in options over the last year. It also concludes that passengers are demanding improvements in security procedures and airport dwell times as they check-in less baggage.
In partnership with Sagem, NeoProducts is responding to this demand by applying leading edge technology to improve Australian Border Security: SmartGates. As well as improving security, this system reduces the pressure on immigration staff and makes life easier for the weary traveller.
The SITA survey found that passengers are ready to give confidential data in order to get through the airport faster. There is 57.8% positive attitude towards registering with automated border control and security programmes compared to 48.7% in 2007. 62% of passengers would like to see shorter queues and security screening was the most chosen option when asked which step of the journey passengers would most like to change.
The expansion in the number of international travellers, coupled with the need for ever more sophisticated screening processes has meant that border security must innovate to manage higher throughput in a challenging environment.
The Australian Customs Service has embraced this challenge and is now a world leader in automating border security.
Australian Smart Passport holders can now self check through customs and immigration by scanning their passport and interactively answer entry questions at one of the 80 Smartgate kiosks. The traveller then proceeds to one of the automated gates where a biometric recognition system verifies their status and allows them entry.
The Smartgate kiosks were designed by Neo for Sagem, who deliver the complete system. So now one of the first things that a traveller entering Australia sees is a kiosk from NeoProducts.
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