Buying a new kiosk for your business requires you to weigh up plenty of things. One that might not be top of your checklist is what happens when a kiosk reaches its end of life several years down the line.
People start making retirement plans years before the actual event – often from the moment they enter the workplace and start paying into a pension fund. There are good reasons to apply this kind of forward thinking to kiosks, too.
Longer life = bigger ROI
Top of the list are financial considerations. Kiosks represent sizeable investments, so you want to get the maximum possible returns before you have to fork out for a new one again. A big part of that is making sure your kiosk keeps running for the longest amount of time possible.
But that’s not just a case of choosing the model with an average lifespan of 9 years over the one that the manufacturer says tends to run for 7 years. Especially with modular kiosk builds, ‘end of life’ can be a difficult concept to pin down. The different component parts – the touchscreen, the CPU, the payment terminal, the body – can all have very different levels of longevity. The question then becomes one of upgrades and replacements, and how long that is financially viable before you just need to buy a whole new unit.
That requires knowledge of the different parts, the different shelf lives, how long different manufacturers will provide support, what other factors might push you into needing to replace a component. That’s all information you should be gathering before you buy.
Sustainability matters
Another important consideration is sustainability. The mounting issues around e-waste from commercial devices like kiosks. If (as every business should these days) you take your responsibilities around sustainability seriously, it’s important to think about what will happen to any kiosk you buy when it reaches end of life. How many of its components are recyclable? How easy will it be to replace and upgrade components piece by piece to extend its operational life?
And so does security
Finally, another reason you should be thinking about kiosk end-of-life even as you shop around for a new one is security. While the finger tends to get pointed at unpatched, out-of-date software as the main threat vector for hacks and data leaks, the importance of secure hardware cannot be overlooked. With kiosks, criminals take advantage of unsecured USB terminals to attach skimmers and keyloggers, or upload malware. Older systems might lack physical components like Trusted Platform Modules (TPMs) necessary for cryptographically protecting the device and all its data.
Cyber and data security are rapidly evolving fields, so it pays to think ahead. A kiosk that only meets minimum security standards today is likely to become vulnerable in a short space of time, forcing you into upgrading or replacing earlier than you planned. If you want to retire your kiosk as far into the future as possible, you need to know its security credentials are as future-proof as possible.
Longevity matters if you want to get maximum value from your kiosk purchase. That means you need to be planning on pushing back its end of life as far as possible from the very start. If you’d like to know more, please contact the Acante team.
