“Give Your Machines a Voice™”- That’s exactly what MEI intends to do this year with its latest telemeter, the EASITRAX® Advance™ 5000. How can operators do this? The roadmap has two distinct paths, offline and online.
Offline machine: The ROI to take every machine online is often not fully justified. The Advance 5000, modular in design, not only allows operators to choose the machines they want to bring online but it uniquely gives the offline machine a bigger voice with the industry’s only Offline Data Recorder (ODR). The ODR, inside the base telemeter, intelligently queries an offline machine between operator visits and records the machine’s daily granular sales and alarm data. This more granular set of data enhances the predictive modeling output generated from the MEI EASITRAX software solution. Operators will benefit from improved operational efficiencies and increased cash flow from subsequent inventory reductions, improved customer satisfaction and higher sales volumes. The device is highly configurable so operators may choose the time intervals they wish to record. This collected data is then transferrable via a convenient USB port or handheld from the machine to the back office.
Online machine: Online, the Advance 5000 delivers both the highly anticipated telemetry for full-line capability from MEI and a flexible cashless solution. Real-time machine data, talks to the back office as it happens. Once communicated to the back office, full-line operators can look to leverage the next release in the EASITRAX vending management software suite, EASITRAX Advance ™, to interpret their Advance 5000 online and offline ODR data. Due out in late 2012, EASITRAX Advance, coupled with the base reporting module, Easitrax Core, gives operators the necessary tools to make even more intelligent decisions about their machines. Field trials are already under way for this powerful duo of software and hardware with results due out mid-year.
Once a machine is selected to go online for telemetry, cashless or for both, Advance 5000 machines can be easily networked in a LAN or WAN configuration to ensure communication coverage in even poor cellular coverage locations. Dual IP capabilities allow both cashless and telemetry communications to be directed independently, providing more choice when it comes to data security and communication costs. Its flexibility is also reflected in its ability to talk over a 2G, 3G or CDMA network. The Advance 5000 is conveniently agnostic to card processors through MEI’s gateway partner, Apriva, and will have the option to enable 2-tier pricing at the machine, providing operators an additional cashless revenue source.
For more information visit www.meigroup.com or call 800-345-8215.