Coges and Vendon join BDV association in Germany
14 Mar
2024

Coges, a leader in the design and manufacturing of payment systems for vending machines, and Vendon, telemetry and payment solution provider for coffee and vending business, are pleased to officially announce their membership in the German Vending Association (BDV).

Coges’s and Vendon’s entry into the BDV underscores our ongoing commitment to excellence and innovation in the vending industry in Germany. The association provides a unique forum for vending industry companies to collaborate, share knowledge, and address common challenges, thereby promoting sustainable growth and increased industry awareness.

“Our membership in the German Vending Association emphasizes our dedication to contributing to the progress of the industry in Germany,” said Günter Maas, Country Manager for Coges and Vendon in Germany “We will actively collaborate with other member companies to foster innovation, quality, and sustainability in the vending sector. We are currently present on the German market through two official resellers, but we are proud to be able to make our contribution to the BDV also directly with our companies.”

The German Vending Association is recognized for its leadership in promoting best practices, training, and development in the German vending industry. “Coges and Vendon’s simultaneous entry into the association is aimed at further deepening the coordination between these two companies of the Azkoyen Group in Germany.” noted Raivis Vaitekūns, Global Partnership Manager of Vendon, “ We want to provide the entire industry with the most innovative payment systems and connectivity solutions integrated into a complete package. Moreover, the Azkoyen Group is currently the only one to have three companies present in the EVA committee for the new EVA standard and this offers us opportunities that we will be happy to share with the BDV network.”

“Through our participation,” added Lorenzo Giuliani, Sales Manager for Coges, “We aim to contribute to the association’s progress thanks to our experience in both cash and cashless payment systems and connectivity. Our coin and banknote validators can rely on a large database of currencies to help vending operators improve their business opportunities on numerous markets. As regards payment systems, we are also active in managing issues relating to the new fiscalization rules that are appearing in various European countries. We are confident that these peculiarities of our companies will benefit the entire association.”

For more information about the German Vending Association (BDV), please visit the official website: https://www.bdv-vending.de/.

For further details on Coges’s and Vendon’s membership and future outlook, please contact Günter Maas at guntermaas@coges.eu, Lorenzo Giuliani at lorenzo.giuliani@coges.eu or Raivis Vaitekūns at raivis.vaitekuns@vendon.net.

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The Azkoyen Group acquires Vendon, a specialist in the IoT solutions
07 Dec
2022

The Azkoyen Group, a multinational Spanish company which supplies products and automated services, has recently completed the acquisition of  100% of the Latvian Vendon company, part of the Draugiem group, leader in the connectivity and IoT solutions for digital payments and telemetry in central Europe.

The company, founded in 2011 and with its headquarters in Riga, has among its most important markets France, Germany, Benelux and United Kingdom and can boast more than 45.000 vending machines connected. During these 11 years, the company has passed from an operator role at European level, to a qualified global actor with machines connected in more than 82 countries. Vendon’s potential lies in its high level of competence and research and development, this is the reason why the management and the employees of the company are now part of Azkoyen Group.

The acquisition of Vendon permits to reinforce the Payment Technologies division of the Azkoyen Group and in particular Coges and Cashlogy brands, thanks to the development of new payment systems integrated with hardware and intelligence solutions on the Cloud.

Juan José Suárez, President of the Azkoyen Group, commented the acquisition and declared: “We are very glad of the Vendon acquisition, not only because it’s a great company with and extraordinary  competence, talent and a wide experience in research and development, but also because many synergies generated will have an important impact on our growth plans and our revenues in the payment, connectivity and  IoT segments, so important for our development. The innovations and solutions that Vendon brings to the Group will become an advantage for our Customers a well, improving their profitability in a short, average and long term”.

Daniele Ioriatti, Coges Sales Manager, added: “In the last years Coges strategy has been decisively oriented to the development of payment solutions integrated with the Cloud, without ignoring the traditional cashless  and cash systems. The integration with Vendon in the Azkoyen Group will contribute to reinforce our growth in this direction and we will be proud to cooperate to this decisive synergy.”

The new services will help also Coges Customers to optimize their business in vending, reducing the maintenance visits with the help of online intervention and improving the performances of the vending machines thanks to the analysis of the sales in real time, to the check of the stock to the use of innovative contactless and mobile payment systems and the improvement of the customer experience.

Following many strategic meetings occurred in these last months both in Italy, in Spain in Latvia, this week a commercial and marketing team of Vendon will visit Coges to become familiar with the payment system of the company near Vicenza.  The mutual knowledge between the companies will strengthen with a successive visit of Coges commercial team and Customer service by the headquarters of Vendon at Riga, which will be held within the half of December.

This acquisition is a further step in the growth strategy of Azkoyen Group, which already showed a strong commitment to develop and expand its segments of payment systems, connectivity and  IoT, that is the segments with higher growth and potential for the Group.

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PMTsolutions and Broderick Group, together with Coges for the next generation of vending machines in the UK
21 Mar
2022

Coges and PMTsolutions are proud to partner with the Broderick Group: the UK’s leading vending and refreshments specialist. The Broderick Group have been leading the way in cashless payment with Pay4Vend in the UK and quickly recognised this truely innovative application has the potential to engage its customers in the workplace and on the go making purchasing vending products one of personal choice.

Originally, the project was devised to provide users with a fast and smooth shopping experience. That required setting up the vending machines with new cashless payment systems that would be able to overcome the limitations of traditional technologies.

“The Broderick Group are changing the purchasing habits of consumers by providing them with the same experience and choices that they have in a retail store. Our customers choose to use our vending machines to select a range of refreshments because it gives them what they want, when they want it,’’ commented John Broderick, owner of the Broderick Group based in Manchester and operating throughout the country.

He continued: “As a business we have always been at the forefront of developing innovative technologies that make the purchasing experience easier for consumers and believe that by investing in these new innovations we will increase the engagement of users of vending machines by making it a more of a personal choice.’’

“Cash payments have more and more limitations. Beside high costs of storage and transport, we are facing further pain-points due to pandemic health restrictions: users are uncomfortable handling money. Many cashless technologies provide just partial solutions for vending applications,” said Manfred Sokat, CEO of PMTsolutions.

“Prepaid cashless solutions are effective in closed-loop environments, online cashless solutions are more efficient and convenient for public locations, but they are not all the same. Sometimes the user is required to enter a security PIN, which is very frustrating for them. In unattended locations the purchasing experience has to be fast and user-friendly. Moreover, some credit card readers embed their own connectivity module. That makes the hardware expensive and technically complicated. Our solution provides convenient card payment services for the customer in front of the vending machine and a secure payment platform with multiple services for the operator.”

The seamless integration of the PMTsolutions services into the Nebular platform was a key step to fully meet the Broderick Group’s needs. Nebular is a hardware and software connectivity infrastructure designed to enable cashless payments and to connect vending machines to a cloud server. Nebular opens a bidirectional communication channel between the vending machine and the vending operator. It is a powerful tool to export real-time transactions, to monitor the stock, to update prices/firmware/programming parameters remotely. Nebular, however, offers much more than just a telemetry service, it enables the vending operator to export consumption statistics to learn the user purchasing habits and to proactively launch loyalty programs.

“The partnership between Coges and Broderick Group has been thriving for some time now,” commented Lorenzo Giuliani, Sales Area Manager of Coges. “The first Coges product promoted by Broderick Group in the UK was Pay4Vend, an app for paying at the vending machine via smartphone. Coges had already launched the solution in Italy and in other countries in 2015, but we missed a reliable partner to make this application popular in the UK. John instantly understood the potential of Pay4Vend and took its development very seriously. Thanks to his persistent focus on building customer loyalty and his strategic talent, he spread it all over the country. The next step was to invest in a more powerful tool to run a deeper business analysis (ed. Nebular service), to scale up the marketing strategy. Finally, John asked for our support to extend the credit card options (ed. Pay4Vend & PMT Nebular Pay) during the Pandemic Era to make a dramatic migration to cashless. The partnership with PMTsolutions gave us the opportunity to close the loop successfully.”

The synergy between the three companies made an innovative solution possible: the PMT Nebular Pay card reader connects to the Nebular server through the Coges Engine system. In this way, both the hardware devices share the same connectivity module. A well-established system of tokenization, encryption, and intelligent architecture (Microsoft Azure servers) combined with a global Acquirer service (Worldline) provide secure payments and trusted transactions.

In this way, Broderick Group users can take advantage of an efficient, fast, and secure service. Cashless purchasing at the vending machine is no longer a hassle. It is a smooth experience, with no worries, exactly the same as in the retail store. At the same time the vending operator will exploit all the benefits of the Internet of Things.

“Broderick Group’s foremost concern is the customer and investing in innovation that improves the experience of our customers.” John Broderick concludes: “We know that switching to fully cashless vending machines is aimed at engaging our customers now and in the future. It is our aim to make vending purchase the norm by engaging our customers on a personal level through technology.”

PMTsolutions

PMTsolutions is a leading solution provider of cashless payment services. The entire processing line of all services are in one hand. Just one partner for the whole cashless services chain. From card reader or MobileApp over backend services in data center with technical connections to various financial institutions like banks, VISA, MasterCard or American Express. More information on www.pmtsolutions.eu

Broderick Group

Broderick Group is the UK’s leading vending and refreshment specialist. Innovation-led, it has built a reputation for offering bespoke solutions that work hard for its customers, which range from airports to universities, and from office blocks to leisure centers. More information on www.brodericks.co.uk

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Coges was chosen by SERIM for the cashless vending in Milan!
02 Feb
2021

Coges is proud to announce that SERIM chose Coges as a supplier for some vending systems for the City of Milan. The installation foresees the activation of 400 Coges Engine cashless systems equipped with a 4G connection module and a PMT Nebular Pay Credit Card Reader to be completed within the first months of 2021. The systems will be installed inside some schools, offices and public buildings of the Lombard County Seat.

“This configuration represents a unique and revolutionary event for the Italian vending, because most part of the systems will be installed without any device for the cash validation and will work only with the MyKey key and physical or virtual credit cards” observes Mario Majo, Coges Commercial Director “It will be the greatest installation of pure cashless systems in Italy in a moment of institutional thrust as regards electronic payments.”

SERIM is a top 10 company in the Italian vending sector with about 50 Euro millions of yearly revenue and it is a key member of the Coven consortium. SERIM involved Coges in this project of high strategic and symbolic value at the end of a long negotiation. It involved many company’s positions: from the Sales Dept. to R&D one, with the help of the Customer Service; the aim was to answer to the needs of SERIM in an excellent way, considering the high-profile opportunity was given to Coges.

One of the most appreciated aspects by the consumers who purchase a product from a vending machine is its easy use and the PMT Nebular Pay Credit Card Reader will guarantee to the users an immediate experience: to make the payment it is enough to move the credit card or the smartphone near to the Reader.

The payment with virtual cards doesn’t require any app download. Nebular Pay is compatible with all the credit and debit credit card circuits (Visa, Mastercard, VPay, Maestro, American Express…) and the virtual electronic wallets (Google Pay, Apple Pay, etc.), which foresee a rapid cash transfer on the Customer’s bank account. In addition to the direct purchase of products from the vending machine, the Nebular Pay Reader will allow the end user to recharge the credit on his own MyKey key. Thanks to the Nebular connectivity service, the payment solution requested by SERIM will also permit to the Operator to benefit from an online technical portal with some functions: product stock management, remote firmware and database update of the payment systems, remote refund of the credit on key and much more.

“The elimination of cash will not be a problem for the end user” – adds Majo – “Italy is moving rapidly as regards cashless payment and this year there will be an additional acceleration of this trend thanks to the demand of more hygienic and sure payment methods, due to the Coronavirus. Surely this is a challenge for us and we are proud that SERIM made this choice; we believe that Milan is the ideal lab-territory for this innovation.”

With this solution Coges and SERIM intend to be pioneers in the development of digital applications for vending; a partnership based on a mutual trust which will be an important step for the evolution of our sector.

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Optimize the vending management by smart working
15 Oct
2020

While the COVID-19 pandemic keeps on arousing worries around the world, the Operator’s company of vending keep themselves busy to face the difficulty of the moment and find out new business solutions.  To work in a “smart” way means to exploit all the advantages offered by the new technologies to adapt to the rapid changes in progress, by reducing the costs and keeping firm the trust of the users: the connectivity is an investment which permits us to be near to the customer even where we can’t go in person in this moment.

Health reasons and economic opportunities suggest, for example, to reduce the frequency and the duration  of the visits to the point of sale of the fillers and the technicians.  To this need answers the integration of the payment systems and Coges Nebular platform, which brings online the technical portal by permitting to intervene by remote on the firmware update of the master system and the peripherals, on the change of prices and parameters and on the coin and bill database. By means of Nebular, available on the online portal or integrated in the main management software, it is furthermore possible to display in real time the sales and the recharges carried out on the cashless keys, by sending also credit refund by remote in case of missing sale without meeting the user physically. These functions, together with the notification of the alarms and the management of the product stock, permit to the Operators to save on the technical visits and to reduce substantially the time devoted to the visits for filling the vending machines connected.

How to increase, at the same time, the sales on the vending machine? It is necessary to grow the trust of the users and to offer them, together with a service and some quality products, some payment options which make them feel sure. We know that in all Europe the cashless is finding the interest of the consumers: the more intuitive cashless solution is always the MyKey, which in the new embodiment amazes the users with the brilliant colours and involves them with the exclusive customized web showcases with the Operator’s colours and logo. When the vending machines are connected to Nebular, furthermore, the users can display on the showcase their credit and other exclusive functions, while the Operator has some always updated data available on their consumptions and can send some offers and promotions to make them feel more cuddled.

If Coronavirus takes you away from your Customers of from your vending machines, the connectivity of the advanced payment systems permits you to keep them at hand. Contact the nearest Coges dealer to find out the best solution for your needs!

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The need for cashless in the European vending grows, Coges has the suitable solution for you
03 Aug
2020

The recent research carried out by EVA on the vending market informs us that, following the crisis caused by the COVID-19 epidemic, in all Europe is increased the interest in the cashless payment in a significant way:  41% of the Operators foresee a higher request of payment solutions without cash. The reasons are easy to be realized: the news on the media and the fears for the infection have driven the consumers of all the world to limit the use of cash, even at excessive extent – according to somebody – to the real risk. As a consequence the shops and the restaurants are now preferring the use of the POS and the credit cards, both in order to reduce the exposure of their employees and to reassure the customers. In Italy the amount of transactions of electronic commerce increased in April of 80%, according to McKinsey & Company, more than 40% of the business owners affirm that the customers increased the contactless payments.

In the vending market there are different technologies which can satisfy the request of a cashless payment method, which benefit of a higher or lower popularity also because of the consolidated habits in the different national markets. In Italy, both the Operators and the users of the automatic vending machines are widely used to the convenience of the rechargeable MyKey key, the mostly representative product of  Coges catalogue. All know this pocket-size electronic memory, that in its different variations is nowadays a fundamental companion of each coffee break! The operation is extremely simple: the user recharges his personal key by inserting some coins or bills in the suitable validators and uses it till the credit is finished. The MIFARE or LEGIC supports operate in the same way. These devices permit an interaction with the cash delimited in time and limited to the moment of recharge and are therefore enough sure for most of the vending locations.

In the last years the payment by means of applications for smartphone achieved resounding success, which permit to the Operator a higher interaction with the consumer and make available some efficient tools of analysis and a lot of data on the preferences and the consumptions of the users. This solution is another valid alternative to the cash in the phase of fight against the COVID-19. The Pay4Vend Coges app foresees for this reason the recharge both by cash and credit cards: as a consequence the user can limit or even completely avoid the use of the cash for the payment to the vending machine.

In Europe, finally, the use of the credit cards in the vending field was till now limited to the crowded public locations, even though some national markets represent some remarkable exceptions. The current contingency could represent a turning point even for this technology. The users are accustomed to the most frequent use of their credit cards, maybe in a virtualized way on the smartphone or even on the smartwatch. A credit card reader like Coges PMT Nebular Pay could be the ideal product to intercept the new needs also in terms of hygiene or safety: compatible with all the contactless cards, it avoids not only the use of the cash for the payment but also the contact or the insertion of the credit card in the reader, reducing the need for clean or sanitation  of the device. In addition to the purchase from the vending machine, the credit card reader can be used for the recharge of the MyKey keys or the MIFARE supports directly on the machine or by means of dedicated recharge stations.

Rechargeable supports, applications for smartphone, credit cards… Whatever is the future of the vending in Europe, all the forecasts tell us that the cashless will play a more and more important role in the payment solutions. Choose the technology which is most suitable for your locations and for the needs of your customers and contact the Coges dealer or the nearest reference sales person. Expert in cashless for thirty-five years, Coges will always be at your side to support and help you to develop with the most innovative solutions in the market.

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Remote controlling of the distribution of masks and PPE
23 Jun
2020

Cashless Coges Systems represent an opportunity for the Operator who desires to offer to the locations an essential service such as the distribution of masks and other types of PPE, permitting the free distribution only to whom are entitled and by keeping under control in real time the product stock to avoid any lack or  waste.

Discover our guide to solutions for dispensing masks and PPE with Coges payment systems.

While it seems that finally the health situation is coming back to normality, to speed up the passing of the crisis the public health authorities recommend the social distancing and where this is not possible , the adoption of Personal Prevention Equipment such as masks and gloves and the use of disinfectant gel. These necessary tools have become in short time integral part of our life even and moreover on the working place where every day we live in contact with colleagues, customers and suppliers. How to guarantee a precise safe and controlled distribution, of these devices to the employee? The channel of automatic distribution is surely one of the most suitable, as it avoids the direct contact between the persons and it hugely limits the risks of contamination. Furthermore, the public or private employer should not use some internal resources to these activities by subtracting them to much productive tasks.

Coges answer to this need with Coges Engine Plus and Unica System, which permit the vending operators  to give a rapid answer to the Customers’ needs, by exploiting the vending machines already installed. On these payment systems it is possible to get some free sales by means of the MyKey or MIFARE supports  on specific price lines, which could be devoted to the masks or to other EEP for the employees. Thanks to the controlled sales, furthermore, it is possible to limit the withdrawal of a defined number of PPE by day or by week, avoiding thus any waste. The same limit can be differentiated per key category /MIFARE, granting a higher number of PPE to some particular categories of employees who don’t have particular needs: for example maximum 3 masks per day could be distributed to the workers of the plant  and 2 masks per day to the employees in the office, also exploiting the same vending machine. If the employer desires that the free distribution of masks occurs only during the working time, it is enough to set on the payment system  some time schedules with differentiated prices as well (gratis/ on payment). Furthermore the Operator can add to his offer some high margin products such as the disinfectant gel, preventing the users from going to the pharmacy and buy them.

All the data concerning the distribution can be recorded by means of pendrive, but the activation of Coges Nebular connectivity service adds, in the case of the PPE as well, all the advantages of the remote management: first of all the possibility of monitoring the product stock in real time. In this way a constant level of supply can be guaranteed, also setting some alarms which warn when the reserve on a specific price nears to the minimum. Nebular, registers in real time all the sales, free sales included.  The service permits to display on which vending machine the sale was carried out, and permits moreover to display on which vending machine the sale was carried out, the exact date and time  of the withdrawal and even the serial code of the key or the MIFARE support which made the purchase. This precision contributes to avoid the abuses and to guarantee all the devices they are entitled. Nebular also helps to reduce the frequency and the length of the visit to the vending machines on the Operator’s side with time schedules, they can be updated directly by the office, Coges and Nebular time schedules can be remote updated directly by the office. Coges and Nebular payment systems permit the setting of the a different VAT among the different price lines, offering the possibility to sell food products not in the same vending machine (in this case it can be necessary the change of description on the site of the Income Revenue Authority).

Thanks to Coges and Nebular systems the Operator could supply a new service to his customers by using the vending machine already used, guaranteeing a monitor of the reserve of the distribution even with report which ca be exported.  At the same time the employers and the employee could go on to operate with the maximum safety, with respect of the law and healthy needs.

 

 

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The advantages of data audit in the Vending market
03 Jul
2019

The Vending market is increasingly interested in the audit of vending machine accounting data. The modern legislative requirements in terms of accounting are combined with the interest in knowing the amount collected and the cash movements entering and leaving the vending machine. One of the aspect that most increase vending machine’s commercial capacities is in fact a deep knowledge of their current performance because it’s from here that all the margin for improvement can be identified and exploited and, in this way, it’s also possible to approach the most consolidated experience in the retail sector.

Starting from this topic, Coges has developed payment systems able to store all the accounting data. If the payment system is set as master in the vending machine configuration, it will also be able to store the data of all the connected payment peripherals such as banknotes readers, coins recognition devices and change-giver coin mechanism connected in MDB. All of these payment systems are completed with a wide range of accessories aimed at detecting and analyzing their data. Download the accounting data and integrate them in your ERP is easier and more efficient thanks to tools such as USB pendrive, BT Data-Key and the Nebular remote connectivity solution, which is able to increase the technological level of your location and to fully satisfy all your vending needs.

The collected data not only meets your accounting needs, but they provides important information on the most sold products, on the economic performance of various vending machine, on the best sales time and on many other details that will allow you to act exactly where you feel more appropriate to improve your sales opportunities and customer service: for example by reinforcing sales at times in which there’s more request or by changing shipper’s routine to always ensure a full stock in the most popular locations.

The management of your location will also be supported by a control able to detect any malfunctions. This will guarantee an effective and rapid intervention in case of need contribuiting, at the same time, to the reduction of lost sales. The costant check of your vending machines can translate itself into a potential increase of sales and allows you to have an accurate account of your stock products.

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