CEE Kiosk Market

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By Arber Kekezi, Aquis Export Manager, Balkan Region/Southeast Europe
 
The Central and Eastern European kiosk market represents a large pool of potential for development. In the recent past, countries like Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovenia have experienced an average annual growth of 3%. This industry sector is progressing as major merger & acquisitions take place in the financial sector, which in general serves as a steering wheel for new technology penetration and as a good example for other sectors to follow.
 
The major driver for boosting investment scale in this region is the availability of EU special funds. The typical clients of kiosk solutions are initially banks, insurance and telecom companies, which in limited markets aim to gain maximum competitive advantage by offering new value-added services to their clients. Kiosks are considered as economic tools to satisfy client needs and enhance work effectiveness.
 
The considerable demand from the Central and Eastern European blocks for kiosk solutions is also partially facilitated from outside, meaning aggressive marketing strategies of well-known kiosk brands, such as Wincor Nixdorf, FriendlyWay etc. These companies aim to set standards of best practices and spread their technological achievements on a large scale.
 
Historically, these particular countries are economically price-sensitive and culturally quick-learners. Stemming from that, kiosk production has also developed on a local level and today ‘man-in-shed’ business activity represents a certain threat to the western industry in terms of pricing and market positioning. This fact has affected product differentiation strategies, and is currently driving R&D and software development. Companies are specialising in making unique designs, assembling hardware elements in compliance with technical requirements, meeting time demands and coming up with advanced software applications.
 
I project that the applications driving growth in the mid-future will be connected to e-customer service, e-government, ticket-vending, non-cash and cash-in payment transactions, e-banking, cheque & bar code operations, etc. Currently the market has a strong focus on multimedia applications suitable for online marketing promotions, like news letters, client testimonials, concentrated PR, etc.
 
The CEE market is slowly switching from information-based kiosk solutions to self-service technology. This is due to the skeptical attitude shown by users towards new technology, low PC skills among the older generation, and cultural implications deriving from born-in sociological values from former socialist societies. People prefer to handle their business face-to-face, rather than through a machine. These habits are gradually changing, and government’s role in motivating this change is crucial.
 
We at Aquis IT Solutions Ltd have worked hard over the years to establish long-term partner relations with Western European partners. Our kiosk solutions are of custom-made design and represent a very reasonable quality/price ratio. Asian kiosk manufacturers coming to Europe are certainly a threat factor to local CEE manufacturers and distributors like us, due to cost advantages, mass production and economies of scale – all of which apply to most industry sectors. Nevertheless, we continue capitalising on our customised services, customer-oriented attitude, strong business relations, well-branded marketing campaign and pro-active export activity. These competitive advantages are the core values of our business vision and we believe in our future successful growth. On the other hand, we work with numerous premium Asian vendors and take full advantage of any possible synergies.
 
In the next 2-3 years I expect Romania and Bulgaria to be rapidly developing economies with regards to the kiosk market. EU accession will be an important factor in this process. These countries will go through the same development phase as Hungary did 3-4 years ago. I believe that the future is in self-service, and CEE can look forward to rapid and major innovations in this department.