Remote Machine Monitoring Saves The Day For Susie’s Lemonade; What About Us?

Have you seen the commercial where Verizon Wireless (in partnership with USA Technologies) saves Susies vending machine from running out of lemonade?In the commercial, which has been running for weeks on nationwide TV networks, Verizon Wireless allows a vending machine to be filled before a boy on a bicycle can relay the service call to Susie.The commercial uses a very simple story to illustrate how a complex technology improves consumers lives.This commercial is another example of how technology providers are fine tuning their messages for future commerce.Back in April, I noted AT&T was running a TV commercial showing various applications of remote machine monitoring. I wondered why they were doing this since RMM (as its known in our trade) is a business-to-business service, not a business-to-consumer service. Susies lemonade commercial clarifies the issue.The characters affiliated with Susies lemonade are all young children, and the message is clear: todays technology provides the tools that tomorrows consumers will use for their daily tasks.Behind the scenes, technology providers have been developing ways to use whats called M2M (machine to machine) tools for many functions, including inventory management, security, fleet management, utility management, merchandising, customer communications, and more.Vending is just the tip of the M2M iceberg, but it offers a technology company one of the easiest M2M applications to demonstrate to a large audience.But I have to wonder: Is our industry going to be fully prepared to serve tomorrows generation of consumers?The Susies lemonade commercial has been airing in conjunction with the NAMA Gratitude Tour, which holds its last event in Madison, Wis. on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011. Exhibitors will find attendees better versed in remote machine monitoring, thanks to Susies lemonade.