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to dynamically schedule, prepack with a 99 percent accuracy and to know exactly how much money was in the vending machine when it was serviced. Then he was able to control inventory on his delivery vehicles and the SKUs in the warehouse. "To get the ROI, you don't have to use the product sales data," said Meskin. "But if you do use the data, you will get even more." One diffculty Meskin has found is in identifying and acting on data. "There is always data coming in. The challenge is not only noticing what has to be done, but also send- ing people out to make it happen," he said. In some VMSs, swapping one product for another across all locations, a global change, can be diffcult and time consuming. Vend- ing machines are often individual- ized allowing unique planograms, but this means going into each machine in the VMS to change the product. "That can be hundreds of machines," said Meskin. To make a global change, Meskin has the new product added to the pick line. It's prekitted and the driver is told what product the new one is replacing. The driver will place the new product behind any old product left in the spiral. For a few weeks, Meskin will have to call up sales of the new product under the old name until all the machines are changed out in the VMS. "It takes a while to do," he added. For micro markets the data comes with the systems. Meskin looks at micro market sales data mostly to identify potential marketing promo- tional opportunities for locations. For example, if 200 people buy a cup of coffee at a location, Meskin might try to identify an item he can bundle with the coffee to encourage incremental sales. "The same with sandwiches...I'll bundle a sandwich, chips and a soda to encourage the customer to make a bigger purchase," he said. Measure results and look for opportunities For Sandy Thornton, co-owner of VendEdge in Ringgold, GA, it was obvious from day one that the invest- ment in technology was paying off. "Our route cost decreased signif- cantly with the implementation of remote monitoring," she said. In the warehouse, a pick-to-light system increased the effciencies right away. "It is important to maintain or increase route collection averages, have a low out of stock ratio and keep an ear toward our employees to listen for issues that they encounter or sugges- tions that they make for improvement. These can then be verifed through data we have collected," explained Thornton. After the effciencies and collection averages, Thornton set about looking at analytics. The data allowed the company to rework pla- nograms and uncovered areas where it was necessary to change the tray confgurations in the snack machines as well as the spiral counts. Thornton looks at daily sales reports along with maintenance logs and the route compliance logs (which refects if the driver serviced every machine that was assigned for the day, what time it was done and how much the collections should be as well as the actual amount collected). She believes strongly that good data is paramount to getting the most out of analytics. "The info that comes into the system from drivers using their tablets is critical to maintain cor- rect inventories in the feld. If that process slips, the data is corrupted and becomes much less valuable. The same is true for purchases being entered into the system consistently and correctly," said Thornton. Another piece to maintaining good data is ensuring the Celluar/DSL connections. "The remote vending devices rely on a cellular connection to transmit the DEX info to the VMS. Without good cellular signals at each machine, we have installed Hi Gain antennas to overcome most of those issues. As for the DSL lines, those are our live connections to the markets." Data is a powerful tool. It gives an operator facts, not impressions, about what sells and when. It saves time, energy and money when used wisely with good, usable data, solid cellular/DSL connections and regu- lar review. 26 Automatic Merchandiser VendingMarketWatch.com March 2015 T E C H N O L O G Y 6 Ways Big Data Could Damage Your Business—and What to Do About It Nowhere is the infux in big data more apparent and useful than in marketing. Information about what is bought, when and by whom is invaluable to retail- ers whether they are divining trends or preparing bundling and promotional opportunities. Owen Shapiro, 30-year market- ing veteran sees big data as a tremendous opportunity to con- nect with customers in amazing new ways. However, there are dangers. While preparing to take maximum advantage of all the glorious opportunities big data offers, Shapiro warns of six ways big data could damage a business and how each can be avoided. 1. Secure Your Data 2. Try Not to Drown 3. Don't Get Outsmarted 4. Mind the Store 5. Listen to the Machine 6. Instant Dissatisfaction Read the full article online at vendingmarketwatch. com/12050127