Selecta Smarter Vending

Instant, Uninterrupted Visibility

Machine health and inventory can be monitored remotely, with remote maintenance able to reduce technician visits by 30%. Visibility into inventory ensures that the right products are always available for sale in the right locations. Selecta Joy Ambassadors no longer need to visit machines to check inventory, but rather only when they need restocking, saving hundreds of millions of kilometers driven each year.

Optimize Operations

Aeris IoT Accelerator empowers enterprises with simple, centralized connectivity management of their IoT fleets. The platform also scales cost-effectively and seamlessly, able to accommodate a limitless number of machines.

Be Market Ready

Driven by scale, cellular easily connects large numbers of machines that transmit small amounts of data, making it ideal for Massive IoT deployments, like connected vending machines. Cellular is also the easiest way to gain the flexibility of being able to deploy devices anywhere, from remote regions to deep within buildings, and have them connect instantly.

Challenge

Selecta wanted a better way to manage product inventory, the restocking process and maintenance for their coffee and vending machines. Deployment and usage costs a client only the square meter of floor space needed to accommodate the machines. Selecta maintains the unit and ensures it is always stocked with a wide variety of snacks, meals and beverages.

To maximize earning potential, vending machines must meet three, critical criteria at all times: be operational and ready to vend, able to accept any payment form and be fully stocked. A down machine, including inability to accept payment, or lack of a desired item directly results in lost sales.

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Solutions

Selecta selected Swisscom for the provisioning of global cellular IoT connectivity enabling quick and easy deployment of connected units in any building lobby or public space. Swisscom is leveraging Aeris IoT Accelerator to provide Selecta with the ability to manage the connectivity for their large and growing fleet of connected vending machines in a highly scalable and cost-efficient manner.

IoT Accelerator Subscription Lifecycle Management allows Selecta to manage all cellular subscriptions used to connect their vending machines from provisioning to end of life. IoT Accelerator Business Insights and IoT Accelerator Trigger Management allows Selecta to keep control over data consumption and costs as well as to detect technical faults in real time. Furthermore, IoT Accelerator allows connectivity management in a decentralized manner through the local companies of the Selecta group in each country.

Results

With Swisscom and IoT Accelerator, Selecta can effectively monitor and manage its fleet of connected vending machines anywhere in the world. They are able to accept payment cards as well as gather critical data on machine functionality and supply levels.

With their connected machines, Selecta can determine when a unit may be in need of maintenance or repair in addition to monitoring inventory supply levels. This ensures that machines are always online, operating, well stocked and ready to make money.

“With Swisscom providing global cellular IoT connectivity powered by Aeris IoT Accelerator connectivity management, Selecta can digitally transform operations and expand their global footprint. Their smart vending machines are really making an impact in the refreshment-as-a-service sector and it is exciting to be Selecta’s service provider.”

– Jürg Zehnder, Principal Consultant IoT, Swisscom IoT

Business Outcome

Selecta’s fleet of connected machines has allowed the company to achieve great benefits for the business. The company is known for being faster, more sustainable and efficient. By monitoring supply levels in real-time, Selecta gains a huge advantage. It knows exactly what machines in a given region need to be restocked and with what products. Before having this visibility, Selecta Joy Ambassadors traveled a planned route, visiting and checking on every machine along the way, whether they needed restocking or not. Also, the company often had to maintain a supply closet at the client’s site in order to maintain inventory.

Connected units enable Selecta Joy Ambassadors to only have to visit the machines requiring maintenance and restocking. It also allows them to know what products are most popular, and/or in need of replacing, so that they may bring the proper items and amount with them. This eliminates the necessity to maintain onsite supply closets – all of which improves client satisfaction.

Visibility has allowed Selecta Joy Ambassadors to shorten their routes by half in Switzerland alone, saving time, money and impact on the environment.

Machine health is also easy to monitor. Selecta can tend to maintenance needs before the client is aware there is an issue. Employees are often able to fix machines remotely, resulting in a 30% reduction of technician visits. Selecta can even advise clients on how to fix a machine themselves, speeding time to resolution and maintaining happy clients. Remote monitoring also allows for reactions to changes in the market, adjusting inventory by increasing the amount of high-selling items and limiting the amount of the low-selling products, based on the client preferences.

“The best thing about telemetry is that it allows us to remotely monitor the inventory of each machine at any time. In this way, we have immediate insight into what machines need to be replenished and what products need to be pre-kitted. This enables us to plan our routes dynamically and to deliver our products from the distribution center to the vending machine as efficiently as possible, thus further improving the service we provide to our clients.”

– Frank Keller, Managing Director, Selecta Switzerland

About Selecta

Founded in Switzerland in 1957, Selecta Group is a Food Tech company with a leading route-based, self-service distribution network in Europe, offering innovative convenience food services and world-class quality coffee brands in the workplace and public spaces.

Every day, Selecta serves premium coffee and beverages, snacks and fresh meals to more than 10 million people in 16 countries across Europe through vending services and solutions to companies in all business segments.

Selecta’s clients include corporate facilities, schools, hospitals, gas stations, retail locations and municipalities who want to provide popular and healthy snack and beverage options to millions of clients and consumers in a sustainable manner each day.

Aeris is a Trusted Business Partner

Aeris, the IoT SaaS company, is a trusted partner for enterprises striving to unlock the full potential of their IoT programs by bringing together industry expertise, a focus on value maximization and secure, intelligence-based capabilities.

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