Technology

ASA Vending is the only vending company in NYC that is automated with a state-of-the-art industry specific computer system. Our network provides complete cash accountability, inventory control, item-level Merchandising, vended snack tracking and forecasting, taxes, commissions and financial analysis.

Our fully-integrated vending software solution combines the power of Windows-based software with the precision of a state-of-the-art handheld. (See graphic) It is powered by Microsoft's SQL Server 2000 for multi site warehouse operations. Our system can handle unlimited advanced scheduling, and unlimited Bar-Codes per product, with unprecedented precision and accountability - a first in the industry!

ASA uses visual Plan-O-Grams with drag & drop product replacements. We are the first and only vending organization to have Templates available to enable management of machines by location, versus having to micro-manage each machine.

To provide the best possible service, we track the Time/Date of incoming service calls and resolution. We track Problem Descriptions and Technician assigned. We quickly sort open/closed calls and by account or technician. Reports / Data Views are available to quickly recognize problem accounts / machines that need replacing.

Equipment

ASA Vending only installs brand new DEX compatible digital beverage, snack, coffee and ice cream vending machines. DEX is short for "digital exchange", meaning data can be downloaded with special equipment. DEX specifies a data format to enable all different types of machines and machine models to communicate electronically in a similar manner.

The present Vending Industry Data Transfer Standard, based on the DEX/UCS protocol, was developed to permit the portable computers carried by vending route distribution personnel to exchange information on the quantities and types of products delivered with the computers in the stores they served. The task of developing a standard way to do this was undertaken by the Uniform Code Council (Columbus, OH). The result was Direct Exchange Uniform Communications System, or DEX/UCS.

Major soft drink bottlers using this system for their retail accounts wanted a way to receive the same information from their vending machines. Initially, DEX capability was approximated in packaged cold drink vending machines by adding data storage and retrieval capabilities to the vending machine coin changer.

As the potential benefits became more apparent, the NAMA (National Automatic Merchandising Association) Technical Standards Committee empanelled a subcommittee to define a "vending industry data transfer standard" based on DEX. This has undergone successive refinement over the past decade and, today, virtually all vending machines from major manufacturers are compliant. VIDTS allows retrieval of the information from the vending machine with a standard handheld computer (running any of several operating systems) plugged into the vending machine. The standard allows for a variety of measures, including cumulative cash in, cash out, tube cash, box cash, bills to stacker and vend count. And this information is available immediately. The fully-implemented standard also permits capture of sales data, including "line-item" detail. Thus, information about all money put into the vending machine and all merchandise dispensed from it can be collected automatically, or even transmitted to a central computer. This permits immediate cash-to-inventory reconciliation, and allows management to respond swiftly to any discrepancies that appear in the reports.

Beyond its use in settlement, line-item sales information is valuable both in analyzing vending machine sales with a view to optimizing the menu and in establishing a sales history to permit accurate forecasting. The ability to predict what a vending machine will need without requiring the driver to walk past it saves time on the route.

The vending machine can also transmit its sales record to a computer aboard the route truck over a short-range wireless connection ("curbside polling"); or the sales information can be sent to the operator's main computer over a wide-area network. A vending machine compliant with "DEX" is the precondition for all of these capabilities.

When the driver's day comes to an end, the data crunching begins. Each night, the route drivers synchronize their collected DEX data from their handhelds and download to the server. The Server parses the DEX data and analyzes what has sold out of each column of every machine by the time the remote reading was taken. An additional forecasting algorithm is applied to predict sales for the next possible day each machine could be serviced. This data will be used for replenishment and dynamic scheduling.

In the morning, the driver returns to the warehouse with the requirements for each machine already loaded into the handheld. He or she goes out on the route, making only one trip to each machine. When the driver returns to the warehouse, the handheld uploads its data to the system and the process begins again.

These and other vending machine innovations are making vending machines more intelligent and high-tech. These innovations can make business run smoother for vending machine business operators