Octopus (Singapore) and those of us with longer memories also remember the schemes such as Moneo and Mondex that appeared and then disappeared in the late 1990s,” said Anna Livermore, marketing communications director of MEI. “The difference this time around is
that there appears to be a compelling consumer proposition, transaction speed, as well as an increasing enthusiasm for new technology particularly among the younger demographic. For instance, everyone today carries a mobile phone.” A recent initiative is a mobile phone
from Samsung using the Orange network to enable Barclaycard payment as a kind of contactless credit card on a mobile phone. “But therein lies the challenge,” Anna
continued. “This is restricted to one phone, one operator, one payment scheme. There are many options appearing, including Google Wallet, and the challenge for operators and payment system providers is do you chase them all or wait a while until the landscape settles down? My thought is that we can afford to do the latter.” Whilst the stats show the rate of
contactless transactions are doubling year on year, even this rate of growth will mean that in 2020 with one billion transactions it will still represent less than 10 per cent of total transactions. And the continual growth in the number of coins in circulation also suggests the technologies will co-exist for the foreseeable future. “As a payment system provider we think the answer is to offer the consumer choice, after all we are an industry based on convenience. “Where next? Well operators need to
keep close to the developments and we can help. MEI is at the forefront of these new developments with over 120,000 cashless readers installed in vending machines globally. “But you have to remember that there will
always be people who want to or can only pay with cash,” Anna concluded. From coin changers and bill validators
to cashless payment systems and Vending Management Software - MEI offers the complete payment solution to vending operators. In the last two years the company has added a number of products to its vending portfolio including the new generation coin manager CashFlow 8000 that builds on the success of the CF7000 coin manager, which has become the vending standard with over 1,000,000 units working worldwide. Another addition to its vending portfolio is the CashFlow Vending Audit Module
www.auto-vending.co.uk January 2012 27
(VAM), which brings all the benefits of simple audit collection to existing machines and coin mechanisms. The company has also extended its cashless solutions with CashFlow MEI- pay, a MIFARE-based cashless range that includes not only traditional cashless solutions, but also a coin manager with integrated cashless reader to maximise the opportunities and flexibility of vending operations.
The right change Thomas Automatics has over 40 years of experience in building solid, reliable change machines making it the UK’s number one supplier with over 30,000 machines installed and used daily. These British built change machines, distributed in more than 80 countries worldwide, are the number one choice for vending support. When positioned close to coin operated vending equipment, experience has shown they significantly help to increase revenue by providing a 24 hour change service. The Thomas 1006 is a wall-mounted note
to coin changer that provides an affordable, reliable solution where coin change to a single denomination of coins or tokens is required. The 1006 is front opening with LCD user display. Audit data is easily available via a user display or can be printed via an optional plug-in thermal printer. Thomas also exclusively supplies the
CTcoin range of banknote and coin counters throughout the UK. These proven models include the ‘Dolphin’ range of robust and user-friendly high speed note counters and the ‘Pelican’ table-top coin sorters. All Dolphin models have chain notes,
half note and double note detection and a keyboard with LCD display along with automatic and manual start function. The new Pelican+ models incorporate higher speed, lower noise level and even more options whilst still maintaining the highest counting accuracy and rejection of foreign coins, counterfeit coins, tokens and other unwanted coins.
Changing payment systems in the field Crane Payment Solutions has developed a unique coin gauging system for its currenza c2
coin changer. This system
represents an automatic mechanism that analyses new coins in rapid time. The result is reference data which will be added to the changer’s ‘data blocks’. The new ‘data blocks’, such as the new 5p and 10p coins, are then programmed into the new currenza c2
in production.
The currenza c2
from Crane Payment Solutions The company has made it easier for
operators to update their coin changers in the field with the HENRI service tool. This is an on-site tool with full graphic display, SIM card and USB connection for download from the computer. New coin information data can be
downloaded from the Crane Payment Solutions website onto the SIM card or SIM cards can be ordered with the desired coin information directly from Crane. With this information on the HENRI
SIM card the programmer can be simply plugged into field units to update with the latest coin data block. The HENRI can also be used to make configuration changes and even firmware updates.
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