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Kiosk market comes of age
From railway reservation systems to insurance
companies, from retail outlets to e-governance, kiosks are now accepted
as a medium of information and have caught the fancy of users. Chitra
Padmanabhan has more on this trend
In April 2002, Indian Railways was considering
different ways to celebrate 150 years of its existence. The idea
was to display its rich history in an innovative and interesting
way. After looking at a range of options from dramas to cultural
events, the search narrowed down to kiosks. This turned out to be
a brilliant strategy with crowds thronging ‘Info Fun’—the education-cum-entertainment
kiosk displayed at the National Rail Museum in New Delhi. People
were thrilled about using the machine, which enabled users to view
different sections, be it the entire history of the Railways or
a description of the working of the signals and communications processes
used by the railways, at the touch of the screen.
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| Banks are being looked at as
the key adopters of kiosks as kiosks can bring significant cost
savings for the bank, says J B Lalla |
Why are kiosks
gaining prominence?
From being used to deliver e-governance initiatives to building
brands, kiosks are increasingly gaining importance in the country.
And they are now being looked at as a possible solution to help
India bridge the Digital Divide. Take the ‘Gyandoot’ project, for
instance, which won the CSI-TCS National Award for ‘Best IT usage
of the year 2000.’ The project, carried out by the Madhya Pradesh
government, kicked off with the installation of a low-cost rural
intranet covering 20 village information kiosks in five blocks of
the district. Information vital to the farmer, like agricultural
produce rates, land records and grievance services have proved to
be the most popular features of the kiosks. The initiative has been
of great use, not only in doing away with red-tapism, but has also
generated employment for village youth who are being trained to
use such kiosks—appropriately called Suchanalayas. Another
successful example is the case of Warana village, where sugarcane
farmers go to village information kiosks to receive payment slips.
One clear reason for the success of rural
projects like Gyandoot is that the use of kiosk is totally independent
of a person’s knowledge of computers. Says Sonali Chowdhry, Netcomm
Labs’ chief executive, “Ease-of-use is seen as the sole reason for
the popularity of kiosks among the masses. The government sector
has seen optimum utilisation of kiosks since they can be easily
used by an average person.” Additionally, the plus point for kiosks
is the fact that they can be deployed in the language of the region
concerned. Looking at the potential for kiosks as an information
medium, the national IT Task Force has recommended the use of kiosks
in community centre projects for rural areas.
Though the National Rail Museum kiosk was
specifically built for public display as a feel-good factor, the
potential of the medium has interested a host of corporates. LIC,
for instance, uses kiosks to enable customers to check status of
premiums by keying in the policy number, while paint manufacturer
ICI India uses kiosks to enable customers to combine paint colours
at the touch of a finger.
Market size
Apart from government sectors, the maximum potential for the usage
of kiosks lie in sectors like banking. Says Amit Phatak, Frost &
Sullivan’s industry analyst for information technology, “The market
till now was biased towards kiosks purely used for information purposes
but now transactional kiosks are slowly catching up. The total Indian
market size for kiosks is estimated at $13-14 million (Rs 62-67
crore) in 2002.” According to Frost & Sullivan, the kiosk market
is currently growing at a rate of 18-20 percent, largely driven
by the banking and financial sector.
Kiosk as a CRM
tool
With cut-throat competition in the banking sector, banks are increasingly
turning to technology in order to sustain their existing customer
base. The biggest advantage for banks is the burgeoning network
of ATMs that has already popularised the concept of using such devices.
This has led to the ready acceptance of the kiosk as an ideal information
tool. Banks like HDFC bank have deployed self-service kiosks in
their premises to inform customers of their offerings. Though kiosks
cannot replace cash dispensers like ATMs, deploying a kiosk within
or in the vicinity of the branch can result in significant cost-savings
for the bank. “The cost of deploying a kiosk is almost one-fourth
the cost of an ATM,” says Venkat Subramanyam, chairman and managing
director of Sriven Technologies.
Kiosks for brand
promotion
Though kiosks in the financial sector are largely used to cater
to information pertaining to customers, players have also paid special
consideration to the design and multimedia tools deployed in the
kiosk. For instance, the Birla Global Finance kiosk (designed to
correspond with the corporate’s colours and logo) serves as a means
of brand communication. As kiosks can be customised, a corporate
can mould the kiosk in the shape of its brand. One more reason why
kiosks can be an effective marketing tool for corporates.
Besides banking and finance companies,
with an increasing emphasis on providing top-class service to customers,
even FMCG players are leaving no stone unturned. For instance, Hindustan
Lever is currently using an eye-catching transportable kiosk in
order to promote its dental care brand ‘Pepsodent.’ The concept
involves two monitors. One monitor is used for the touchscreen interface
and the second monitor is used for larger audience coverage, so
at least ten children can witness the kiosk in action. Multimedia
kiosks generally cost around Rs 2-4 lakh and require about 3-4 months
for development (content and kiosk fabrication).
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| The cost of deploying a kiosk
is almost one-fourth the cost of an ATM, says Venkat subramanyam |
Key challenges
While the idea of kiosks as a brand promotion tool has picked up
well among corporates, usage in the Railways has so far been lukewarm.
The touchscreen kiosk deployed at Ahmedabad railway station last
year has found few takers. Presented by a city-based company, the
kiosk provided all vital information regarding train timings, approximate
fares, domestic flight timings, catering rates, etc, but was perceived
as a novelty rather than as a device having any utility.
The reason for such and other incidents
seen throughout the country is attributed to techno-phobia among
the populace. People prefer to make a personal enquiry, even though
procuring information on the touchscreen window is much easier.
A lot needs to be done to derive the actual utility value of the
investments made to deploy kiosks.
Amidst prevailing doubts about its usage
by the Railways, a constant complaint from kiosk service providers
is the lackadaisical attitude on the part of authorities when it
comes to the safety of these devices. “We have come across lots
of cases wherein our devices have been tampered with and information
has been distorted. This has discouraged us from sinking money into
deploying kiosks for the Railways,” says J B Lalla, country manager
for kiosks at CMS Computers. The kiosks at railway stations are
deployed at the onus of the service providers, who are expected
to recover the cost through multimedia advertising and display ads.
Similar views were voiced by Subramanyam:
“A proactive approach on the part of the railway authorities to
recognise kiosks as a utility vehicle would go a long way in popularising
the concept.”
Future of kiosks
in India
Though rapid growth in the kiosk market will primarily be driven
by the banking sector, other sectors like retail and tourism are
likely to adopt a more gradual approach. But in any case, the concept
of kiosks is all set to go the ATM way—explosive growth in numbers
and usage.
 Warana
Nagar, situated about 35 kms from Kolhapur (Maharashtra), has
prospered by virtue of the co-operative sugarcane factory in
the region. The Warana Co-operative Society carried out a project
of deploying 54 village information kiosks that have successfully
streamlined the production process of sugarcane there. The project
has helped farmers save time and money spent on administrative
transactions. The co-operative society pays farmers for their
crops in four instalments, which are credited directly to their
bank accounts. The farmers visit the kiosks to obtain the payment
slips and determine the status of their bank accounts. In addition,
farmers can purchase fertiliser at depots located next to the
kiosks, paying cash or on credit. If they buy using credit,
they get a receipt for their purchase at the kiosk. Money spent
on transport of the crop to the sugar factory and the harvesters’
bill is also entered in the system. This project is said to
have brought savings of about $750,000 (Rs 3.6 crore) to the
co-operative. The estimated cost of the project was $600,000
(Rs 2.88 crore). |
Touchscreen kiosks are a common sight abroad. In fact, the absence
of a kiosk in important public places is an inconvenience of
sorts out there. Retail chains and banks widely use kiosks not
only for customer convenience but also to conduct important
market surveys. The world’s leading financial centres like
Wall Street and London Stock Exchange also use touchscreen systems.
In Australia, some restaurants take orders via unmanned multimedia
kiosks. Hospitals too are replacing conventional systems in
emergency rooms and operating theatres with touchscreen systems.
Kodak has deployed digital picture kiosks branded as ‘Kodak
Picture Maker’ at various points. With a touchscreen user
interface it is a consumer access point for printing and accessing
digital images, as well as creating copies of photographic prints
and also for digital camera users who want to be more creative
with their pictures. Kodak has placed more than 35,000 Picture
Maker kiosks worldwide, with over 22,000 in the United States
and Canada and 6,000 in Europe, Africa and the Middle East region. |
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