The Investment in Software

Companies that already have industry specific software will find it necessary to determine if their software company’s capabilities and plans for new products match the Antares operator’s business goals.

The investment in software is ongoing, and for a package to provide the necessary benefits, the provider needs to be able to deliver the customer’s needs.

Antares vending operators should not only consider their existing information needs, but their future needs as well. For instance, a company with three routes may not feel it can justify investment in a route inventory control system, but if that company hopes to grow to 10 routes, the investment will then be justified.

A company also might not be sold on the benefits of category management. This is a system that simplifies product selection at the route and warehouse levels and gives management more control over individual machine menu. If you feel that in the future, this method can be useful in your Antares vending operation, it will then need to have a data reporting system that will support it.

It may be difficult to predict future information needs, a software system that offers a comprehensive package of management tools will be a better investment.

Many a time people feel that they have to have a big enough customer base to justify the expense, but they overlook the fact that when the customer base is large enough to warrant a system, it also becomes a greater effort to load the system and build the data base.

Inventory control is the key benefit that vending specific software packages offer.

Inventory control

It is important for every Antares vending operator to have ADC (automated data collection) inventory control systems from the first day to spare any future aggravation.

At some point of their vending operation, every vending operator should plan on using DEX. It provides the tools for cash and inventory accountability, and it is the architecture on which new features, such as remote monitoring and cashless vending, is based. This would of course require investment.

Financial Management in Vending

With costs increasing and new accounts still hard to find, it behooves vending operators to bone up on financial management. Small vending operators usually don’t pay a lot of attention to financial management. They believe that if they are covering their costs and making a decent profit, they are doing well.

Business conditions can change unexpectedly, and an operator who doesn’t have good financial benchmarks is at risk of not grasping the impact of the changing conditions. Antares operators need to understand that keeping a business in good financial health requires staying regularly on top of several factors.

Most companies have a profit and loss (P&L) statement, which measures the profitability of the company. This is how the profitability of some Antares vending companies is measured. It begins with the company’s gross sales for a finite period of time, and then shows all of the operating costs, including product costs. The operating costs are then subtracted from the gross sales, giving the net profit for the business.

Operators need financial benchmarks

How does an Antares operator get to know if his costs are out of whack? Fortunately, there is a set of industry averages available, the National Automatic Merchandising Association’s Operating Ratio Report. This report is conducted annually and is designed to provide comprehensive, yet straightforward guidelines for analyzing profitability. The report summarizes key financial ratios in managing a vending business. The basic elements of financial management in any business are financial operating ratios.

Ratios give perspective

If you have had a bad year, it may not be as bad as it seems, once the financial ratios are reviewed. At the same time, even in the best of times, operators can find themselves unable to meet their payroll if they fail to pay careful attention to these fundamentals. For the successful running of your Antares Corp. vending operation, you will need to pay attention to these fundamentals.

This report evaluates a variety of operating ratios across the industry and then compares the typical NAMA member’s figures against the industry’s top performers to help pinpoint areas that could be improved to increase profitability.

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