Unattended PIN Pads

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Self-service kiosks have been installed at the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna to provide better customer service to the growing number of visitors and reduce queuing times to purchase admission tickets.
 
Schönbrunn Palace, once the residence of Empress Maria Teresa and Emperor Franz Joseph, is one of Vienna’s most important cultural landmarks and was declared a Unesco world heritage site in 1996. With 2.5 million visitors a year and an additional 6 million visitors to the palace parks and surrounding attractions, the managing company of the palace, Schloss Schönbrunn Kultur- und Betriebsges.m.b.H., decided to install self-service kiosks next to the existing ticket desks to meet their increasing demand.
 
At the kiosks, visitors can purchase their admission ticket in a choice of five languages, and then use their credit or debit card to make their payment at the kiosk, where the admission ticket is also dispensed.
 
The kiosks employ VeriFone’s PCI PED-approved Vx700 unattended PIN pad, which combines high payment security with durability. This PIN pad also has one of the smallest footprints in the industry and can be fitted in kiosks in indoor or outdoor environments. The Vx700 is coupled with VeriFone’s ruggedised SCR710 hybrid card reader, which accepts both EMV and magnetic stripe cards.
The integration of the VeriFone PIN pads in the kiosks was carried out by TECS telecommunications & e-commerce solutions, who also supplied the payment system. Card transactions are processed quickly in an end-to-end secure manner, from the VeriFone Vx700 to the payment card companies.
 
As Michael Leonardelli, IT Manager at Schönbrunn Palace, summarised: “The self-service kiosks have helped to shorten the lines in our ticket office at Schönbrunn Palace significantly. The kiosks and the Vx700 payment modules step up to the challenge of robust performance and streamline the ticket purchasing process throughout the year, and especially during the peak season. We calculate that at the kiosk we sell around 2,200 tickets per month.”