On-Demand Software Pilot with Neo Kiosks

The first Digital Lifeware on-demand software system in a retail partner store is now live at BIG W’s store in the Sydney suburb of Winston Hills, with customers able to browse, click and burn a wide range of PC and Mac software via Fujifilm touchscreen kiosks, which are manufactured by NeoProducts.



The system creates a fully licensed disk and prints a super high quality cover and manual on the spot in minutes. These are put into a DVD case and the customer walks away with an original quality product. The catalogue has around 1,000 titles now, is always in stock and the system is very environmentally friendly. It significantly reduces the need for transportation, storage, real estate and wastage. Digital Lifeware is working with all its partners to further develop the system to include new publishers, ranges and formats, including platform games and movies.

The catalogue currently encompasses language, fun learning, games, multi-media, office software and tools. It has the widest range of language and educational games with over 100 languages available to learn. Customers select the titles they want on the touch screen kiosk; pay for them at the counter, and the Tribeka SoftWide on-demand platform produces the product boxed in a DVD case in minutes. The product is the same as the publisher’s original, and is fully licensed and warranted by the publisher. Customers can feel safe in the knowledge that they have a legitimate product that is theirs for life and can be re-loaded in the event of any computer problems or whenever they replace their computer.

Digital Lifeware developed the retail and customer systems and integrated them with SoftWide. Fujifilm Australia developed the kiosk technology with Neo and integrated it with the Digital Lifeware systems. Tribeka developed the SoftWide platform. Other global users of the SoftWide platform include Carrefour, the second largest retailer in the world, and Microsoft.

Managing Director, Digital Lifeware, Rhett Sampson said: "We are very pleased to be working with BIG W and Fujifilm Australia to provide the best possible retail content shopping experience for their customers. They join some of the biggest and most innovative retailers and software publishers in the world in using our on demand systems to revolutionise the retail content shopping experience."

General Manager (Hardgoods) at BIG W, Charles Davey, said: "The Digital Lifeware on demand system from Fujifilm allows us to carry a wider range of software than ever before. We don’t have to manage inventory and we are always in stock. Customers can come to BIG W confident that they can find the widest range, always in stock, every day."

General Manager, Imaging Networks, at Fujifilm, Paul Rogers, said: "The Digital Lifeware on demand system combines the expertise and experience of Fujifilm Australia and Digital Lifeware in bringing innovative, quality solutions to retail."

This is another example of Neo designing and manufacturing a kiosk to meet a particular need and helping our customers achieve advances through innovation.

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NeoProducts is an international leader in the design, manufacture and implementation of touch screen kiosks and interactive kiosk software. Since 1987, Neo has delivered over 40,000 kiosks worldwide and has particular expertise in digital photo kiosks; digital music kiosks; job search kiosks, and in the design of self-service kiosk user interfaces. Neo can supply complete kiosk solutions - including hardware, software, project management and support.

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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.

Why Kiosk Design Should be Left to the Experts

I love the technology behind Intel’s latest foray into retail self-service. Their grocery checkout terminal concept allows shoppers to send grocery lists to their mobile phone and retrieve and scan electronic coupons. The touchscreen interface also provides customers with useful information, like a recipe look-ups. The kiosk provides effective cross-selling opportunities for the grocer and reduces transaction time by giving the consumer the choice of self-checkout.

So far so good. But the kiosk they have designed is far from ideal in my opinion. It breaks lots of rules of ergonomics and would be very difficult for some customers to use - particularly those in wheelchairs.

As a company specialising in self-service systems, NeoProducts has years of experience designing easy to use and very accessible kiosks. Its Affinity model set a new standard for this back in 2001. Its side-mounted screen, with plenty of leg-room underneath, is perfectly pitched for both standing and seated users, and can be reached comfortably without stretching. Thousands of these kiosks have been in heavy daily use since then without any usability issues emerging.

But the lessons of this seem not to have been learned by newcomers to the world of kiosks. Intel!...we should talk.