Vendscreen Inc., inventor of the Vendscreen™ smart device for new and existing vending machines, announces the acquisition and intellectual property of CTO Services, LLC and its principal Glenn Butler, who joins Vendscreen, Inc. as co-founder and chief technology officer.
Butler was co-founder of Streamware Corp. and served as president of Cantaloupe Systems. He most recently served as vice president and chief technology officer of Crane Merchandising Systems.
Paresh Patel, Ph.D., founder and CEO of Vendscreen, Inc., combined forces with Butler in order to further develop this game changing and profit enhancing solution for the vending industry. “VendScreen is committed to building an all-star team and we are happy to have Glenn Butler as our newest member. He brings extensive industry experience and invaluable contacts from the industry,” said Patel in a prepared statement.
The VendScreen™ device uses an Android operating system, which can be easily retrofitted into the cutout slot of any vending machine. For the first time in vending, advertising and promotions can be directed at the user of the machine, while the machine itself is kept in compliance with nutritional information disclosure.
“I have been working on the digital signage and promotions aspect of vending for most of the last year,” said Butler. “I think it makes perfect sense for Paresh and I to team up and bring this to the industry as quickly as possible in one integrated platform.”
Jim Brinton, former chairman of the National Automatic Merchandising Association (NAMA), current chairman of Unified Strategies Group (USG), president of Evergreen Vending in Seattle, Wash. and CEO of Avanti Markets, joins VendScreen as an investor and member of the board of advisors. Brinton has extensive industry experience from the operator side and is committed to advancing the industry. “Paresh and I have been colleagues for many years,” Brinton said. “When he showed me the VendScreen™ device, I immediately recognized this is exactly what the industry needs, and I want to help him bring the device to market. Paresh is solving real problems for the operators.”
VendScreen™ combines a 4.3-inch touchscreen, credit swipe card, NFC (supporting Google Wallet and other initiatives) and simple connections to DEX and MDB supported by all recent vending machines. VendScreen™’s patent pending solution integrates with back-end systems like MEI and Streamware, ensuring the product and nutritional information displayed matches the contents of the machine. Unlike other solutions, this device is self-contained and installs on the front of the vending machines, requiring no Velcro or complicated in-machine box solutions. VendSecreen™ also has an OEM’s version using a larger format screen, which would replace the keypad in existing machines.
Patel and Butler are member of the NAMA VDI task force, and the VendScreen™ device will support VDI 1.0 DEX transfer and other standards as soon as they are released.
VendScreen will debut at the NAMA OneShow on April 25, 2012 in Las Vegas.
For information, go to www.vendscreen.com.
