Spotlight Interview with KIOSK

Tom Weaver, VP of Sales and Marketing for KIOSK, talks about the company and business in general.

ON THE FLY

KIOSK Information Systems has innovation on call

KIOSK Information Systems in Louisville, Colo., a leader in the design and manufacture of self-service kiosks, charts its course by tailoring innovation to customers’ needs.

The 14-year-old company is also, by the way, “kicking butt, growing at 30 percent to 40 percent over last year,” said Tom Weaver, KIOSK’s vice president of sales and marketing. Part of the reason, he said, is the company’s singular niche. “I don’t think anybody does exactly what we do. The way we manufacture and design product is unique. There are very large companies that sell kiosks, but their philosophy is more along the lines of, ‘Here’s what we build, we hope you like it and that it works for you.’ Our philosophy is more along the lines of, ‘Tell us what you want and we’ll build it for you.’”

While there are “some smaller versions of us out there for sure, as far as people who have the reference base and the history, I think we are unique,” Weaver continued.

Privately held KIOSK’s single-minded focus has proven another plus, Weaver said. “This is all we do. We don’t claim to be a jack-of-all-trades-and-master-ofnone. We’re hardware guys, and we’ve never strayed from that.”

Major clients include TIO Networks, the first network of financial services locations built specifically to serve the growing cash-preferred consumer base, HP photo stations and the U.S. Army Recreation Program, for which the company builds e-mail and gaming stations.

“We build Internet stations that double as gaming stations so a soldier in his barracks can send e-mail or video e-mail to mom and dad and log on to play the hottest Xbox and PlayStation games online. We’ve done over 400 units to date,” Weaver said. Another client is Vanguard, which owns both Alamo and National car rental agencies.

“We are not and never will be software developers, but we try to combine a total solution for our customers by working with our software partners,” Weaver said. KIOSK takes a very consultative approach to kiosk design. Weaver said most products start with a prototype, proceed to the pilot stage and then — if successful — to deployment. “If we can’t get them past the pilot stage, we never get to deployment.”

As a result, Weaver explained, “We kiss a lot of toads. We’re chasing down a lot of deals that may only turn out to be one-, 10- or 50-unit deals with the hopes that they will be successful. But you can’t just throw it against the wall and see if it sticks; you have to be engaged. You have to take a consultant’s role in the process, make sure they know what they are evaluating, what their success criteria are and how they are tracking that.”

From a manufacturing standpoint, he said, KIOSK has to be able to ship on the fly. “We have to be able to build 10 of something and shut that line down, then build 100 of something and shut that line down, then build 1,000 of the next thing. It’s different than building an ATM, where you’re producing 100,000 of the exact same product all year.”

“On the fly” appears to be a good place to be.

From SelfServiceWorld magazine