Vendekin Technologies is reshaping the unattended retail industry with its smart vending machine software. Taking its contribution one step ahead is its new Machine Delivery department. This In Conversation series explores this new wing of Vendekin with Habib Rajbar, Head of Machine Delivery.
Previously heading the R&D Electronic department at Vendekin, Habib and his team of 6 were responsible for designing, developing and testing smart vending machine management and softwares to suit the best needs of businesses and vending machine operators. With the same motivation, Habib now takes over as the head of the newest branch at Vendekin, the Machine Delivery department, as shared in excerpts from our conversation below.
What exactly is Machine Delivery in smart vending technology?
As the name goes, the Machine Delivery department ensures that the smart vending machines are 'delivered' to the customer as per their requirements, customisations and in the perfect condition. And to execute this to perfection, we identify the various requirements, abilities, capacities and limits of different types of vending machines, and help the customers in strategising more specific, more efficient, and more holistic smart touchless vending solutions for their products.
Our goal is that of transforming the Indian vending landscape by converting traditional vending machines into smart and automated vending machines alongside providing smart vending machine management software like vNetra and solutions like the Retrobox. This will enable existing and upcoming businesses to look at Vendekin as their one stop destination to identify and acquire unmanned vending machines customised as per their product requirements, and powered by Vendekin's smart, touchless and cashless vending solutions.
What gave rise to the creation of this department?
Heading the Research and Development wing at Vendekin for around 6 years made it clear how many of our clients had some very specific requirements to vend their products and even faced minor hiccups in their everyday operations because of some or the other technical difficulties with the machine they acquired directly from other manufacturers.
Though Vendekin’s vending machine management software ran efficiently, improper machines can sometimes cause unwanted hiccups. On several occasions the team has to brainstorm effective solutions even with limited information about the vending machines brought in by the client.
With all this in mind, we felt a need to widen the understanding of smart and touchless vending machines.
Which departments does Machine Delivery work with at Vendekin?
Currently Machine Delivery collaborates with the Research and Development department, the Operations team and the Consumer Success wing at Vendekin. From researching to sourcing the machine and from defining its requirements to testing, every task is carried out by Machine Delivery to help these departments.
Since the Machine Delivery department is fairly new it does not directly interact or deal with clients yet. All the client-communication is currently taken care of by the Consumer Success at Vendekin.
What are some of the major challenges your team faces and the solutions to them?
The biggest challenge faced by the Machine Delivery team is when the vending machine manufacturers refrain from providing all the technical information about the vending machines sourced. This makes it difficult to understand the technical details and intricate functioning of the machine and to customise it as per the client’s needs.
The Machine Delivery’s trained team examines the machine bit by bit and identifies the patterns, elements and techniques used to develop a 360-degree understanding of the vending machine. With this, the team can customise the machine better with smart vending solutions.
What is the role of Machine Delivery in Vendekin's push for instant commerce in India?
Since each business has different needs, it has become vital to understand ways to provide vending solutions beyond smart vending machine software. The central focus of Machine Delivery is to innovate digital vending machines by researching, analysing, implementing and pro-digital solutions.
Doing so will help Vendekin develop smarter touchless vending solutions and further customise the machine to suit the needs of individual clients. Additionally, the cost of manufacturing and operational cost of a traditional vending machine is higher, making it an expensive investment.
Hence, in the long run, Vendekin will be able to support businesses and entrepreneurs to enter and push the instant vending market by providing them with cost-effective smart machines having the desired features and even providing backend support.
Vendekin has provided customised vending machines powered with its smart vending solutions to Nestle, Godrej, Vend, Natural Ice Creams, Sheetal Foods, Urban Platter, Cocotang, Zamga and HUL (Hindustan Unilever Limited), to name a few. Apart from this, Vendekin holds expertise in providing digital, cashless and touchless for seafood, paan, ice cream and even t-shirt vending. Shaukeen Paan, Gadre Marine and Universal Classic T-Shirts Company are a few projects to name.
You can find the rest of Vendekin’s In Conversation blogs here. If you are a brand or an entrepreneur keen on exploring the possibility of smart vending machines, please contact us at marketing@vendekin.com.
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