Last year, Crane Merchandising Systems’ Streamware brand announced the pilot release of a Micro Market API (Application Programming Interface) that would integrate its VendMAX VMS with micro market technology. After an extensive field test with micro market provider Company Kitchen, Crane is now announcing the commercial launch of this micro market management tool in VendMAX. Addressing a significant pain point for operators who have deployed both micro markets and vending, this new VendMAX API consolidates data from supporting micro market providers into VendMAX for a consolidated view of sales, integrated warehouse inventory management and the elimination of duplicate data entry.
With VendMAX, the movement of inventory to and from the micro market is now automatically accounted for and updated in the VMS, eliminating the need for manual inventory adjustments. Inventory is updated in near-real time based on driver activity, rather than periodically when the manual adjustments occur, providing a more reliable real-time warehouse inventory.
An added benefit is the enhanced efficiency from working in one system. Now operators don’t have to enter products, barcodes and prices into two separate systems. VendMAX, rather, stores all of this data, and automatically sends it to the micro market kiosks while receiving sales and driver activity from the micro markets. From within VendMAX, the management of an operator’s micro markets will be similar to the management of their vending machines, and they will be able to manage planograms and access revenue and performance data all in one place. Also, VendMAX reports now contain vending, delivery and micro market sales, enabling a complete and simplified view of revenue and gross margins when customers have both vending equipment and micro markets.
“VendMAX’s micro-market integration API provides us incredible value,” said Don Diffendal, vice president, Laurel Food Systems, in a prepared statement. “Prior to implementing it, we used to spend about 4 hours a week manually managing inventories across the 29 markets we have. Now, that time requirement has been completely eliminated and we can spend it elsewhere. Also, if there is a conversion from vending to a micro market, with this API I can now compare same account sales and evaluate my overall business performance year over year with the consolidated revenue reporting feature.”
The API developed by Streamware with input from multiple customers and micro market providers is versatile, and can integrate with any standard or custom micro market software, thereby improving inventory, consolidating revenue and streamlining operating processes.
“We are very excited to offer this API to the industry. With the influx in micro market installations, it really does offer operators the best of both worlds in terms of operation management,” said Silpa Pande, Streamware product manager for Crane Merchandising Systems. “During our field trial, our customers saw tremendous improvements in efficiency, inventory management, and time-savings as a direct result of this integration. In light of the changing needs of our customers, we are glad we can provide something that will make their lives easier and deliver value to their business.”
Operators interested in learning more about VendMAX’s new micro market API are invited to participate in the VendMAX micro market integration Webinar on Wednesday, March 12 at 2:00 p.m. EST (Click Here to Register).
