Wednesday, July 22, 2009

What is Data Exchange (DEX) In Vending

Vending business is growing at tremendous pace. For bigger routes, it becomes a bit difficult for route personnel to accurately find out the exact status of vending machine. Moreover, in current labor market scenario, finding proficient and sincere route personnel is quite difficult. This has led innovators and vending manufacturing companies to incorporate DEX or Data Exchange in vending machine system to find out exact data about sales made, cash collected and product inventory.

DEX or Data Exchange is NAMA standard for ASCII code based audit file. In time of electromechanical (dip switches) machines, DEX data was created by a DEX device fitted inside the vending machine. Now days, with VMC (Vending Machine Controller) coming in to play, DEX data is stored and retrieved from VMC only. DEX data provide a vendor accurate information about sales made, cash collected, coins, pricing, product inventory etc to the vending machine operator.

DEX data is transferred through a DEX port to a handheld device through a cable connection. The data retrieved can provide cumulative information about the vending machine performance and status since its installation. You can also find out information based on intervals of time since last DEX reading. Generally it takes a few seconds for retrieval of DEX data to handhelds. The collected DEX data from various machines is then transferred to office computer for record keeping and analysis.

To run a successful vending business, it is very important to have vending machines fitted with DEX data management systems. This will not only save time and money involved in manual data collection but will also provide accurate cash accounts for various machines on your route. Route personnel can service even more machines in same amount of time thereby saving the servicing costs.

DEX data can be very helpful in planning vending business operations. As you can track sales, inventory and cash flow conveniently, you can come up with time schedule for products refilling. Also you can analyze different products for sales performance at a particular location. You can compare your vending machines sales with different locations, thereby giving you idea about the best vending locations.

Planet Antares vending machines are fitted with advanced DEX systems to provide accurate data instantly. To make the most of your vending business, go in for futuristic vending machines from Planet Antares.

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