Why the Time Is Right For BeanCounter

January 15, 2015

Most companies in the vending industry still work the old fashioned way. They record their service visits on paper, returning them (if they don’t get lost or damaged) at the end of the day to head office, where they’re manually collated. Scheduling is done by phone, fax, or, if a company is particularly advanced, email.

BeanCounter changes all of that, using web and mobile technology to take the hassle out of servicing vending machines. It helps managers schedule service visits, it lets staff see where they need to go each day, and it lets them easily record their visits on site and in real time. It all works effortlessly on computers, tablets, and portable devices.

Other industries have been highly computerized for years. Why not the vending industry? Why is BeanCounter practically the only system out there in its category?

It’s all about timing and technology.

History is full of examples of companies and inventions that were simply before their time. The iPhone wasn’t the first smartphone. The ancient Greeks invented steam power thousands of years before the first train was built. The surrounding technological and social environment has to be ready for the idea to take root and flower.

The idea of “Software as a Service” (SAAS) is as old as time-sharing mainframes computers back in the 1960s, but it really took off in the late 1990s and early 2000s as the web became popular. Companies like Salesforce, FreshBooks, and Adobe have made it a common way to buy and use software. But SAAS hasn’t worked for the vending industry until recently. Here are some reasons why:

Industry Fit: Vending management is a specific kind of industry with specific requirements. It can’t easily adapt software written for other industries and processes. Bookkeeping software might be useful in the head office, but it doesn’t help out in the field. The unique requirements of vending management require specialized software, but software is often difficult and expensive to build, and this leads to…

Scale and Price: Many vending management companies are small or even single-person operations. Often their margins are thin, and any extra money often goes into buying more machines or hiring more staff. They generally can’t afford the high costs of old-style “Enterprise Software” – and they certainly can’t afford the extremely high costs of having custom software written to fit their needs.

BeanCounter uses state-of-the-art rapid development technologies, allowing it to be built and upgraded quickly and at comparatively lower cost than many “enterprise” systems. This lets us offer it at a price that can fit companies with smaller margins.

Mobile Devices: The biggest thing that has made BeanCounter possible is the rise of mobile technology, and especially large smartphones and cellular-connected tablets with full-featured modern browsers. These let service staff enter the service information while they’re at the machines. Typing into a device means consistent data entry – and no deciphering of poor handwriting either! The entire record-keeping system fits into a pocket, instead of requiring a binder or folder of loose papers and pens.

Mobile Internet: Cellular data is now widespread enough that almost any location that could have a machine also has internet access. This means that service staff enter the usage information and take service notes in real time and have it stored instantly and permanently on the remote server. No papers to lose in transit or to mis-file at head office. This also means that the head office can know exactly when a machine has been serviced, how the servicing went, and whether the service staff are now ahead or behind schedule.

Before modern smartphones, entering and transmitting all this information would have been cumbersome and awkward. Before widespread high-speed wireless internet access, most vending machine locations would have been “off the grid” and the record-keeping would have had to be done afterwards in a location with a connection. Before modern flexible web frameworks, this kind of software would have been expensive and cumbersome. But in 2015, BeanCounter can provide a powerful, flexible, and convenient service that makes everything in the vending world easier.