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Pictured above from the left: Presenting the Best Payment System award, Phil Reynolds, Managing Director of Vendex; accepting their award, Vianet’s Matt Thornton, Client Director; Rachel Little, Marketing Manager; Mark Parry, Commercial Director; and on the right, The Vendies 2022 host, comedian Ian Moore.
On Thursday, 9th June 2022, Vianet travelled down to the capital to attend The Vendies 2022. This year’s Vending Industry Awards, hosted by Vending International, were held in the Grand Connaught Rooms in Holborn, Central London, and welcomed a wealth of suppliers and operators from across the UK’s vending industry.
Vianet was crowned the winner of two awards; ‘Best Payment System’, and ‘Best Supplier Website’. The Company was also ‘Highly Commended’ for the ‘Corporate Responsibility’ award, alongside the category winner, Mondelēz International.
The ‘Best Payment System’ award is a major achievement for Vianet, as contactless payment reached new highs of demand throughout the pandemic and the Company’s brand new contactless payment and telemetry solution, ‘SmartContact Pro’, was introduced to the unattended retail market to meet demand.
Vianet’s contactless payment, telemetry, and data services work in synchronicity to provide invaluable insight for the industry looking to utilise cashless payment data. Vianet offers the only truly end-to-end solution on the market, having already helped many vending businesses adopt cashless technology and data capture across their estate to make informed decisions.
Winning ‘Best Supplier Website’ is an excellent accolade for Vianet, following the launch of its new and improved website in November 2021. Changes were introduced to the website to improve the users understanding of Vianet’s products and services, improve the user journey, and introduce a streamlined login area for accessing service dashboards remotely.
Vianet was shortlisted in seven award categories, which were decided by a judging process in the spring. Each award entry was reviewed by an independent panel of industry experts, comprising leading names from across the sector. The judging panel assessed the entries in accordance with a strict set of criteria to determine a shortlist in each category.
The shortlists went to an online vote, where professionals from the vending sector were invited to make their voices heard by casting a vote for the products, operators, and individuals that they believed would be worthy winners. Each stage of the vote held a 50% weighting in the final decision.
Mark Parry, Vianet’s Commercial Director, attended the awards, stating, “We had a fantastic day in London for The Vendies, and I’m extremely proud of the Smart Machines division and our support functions who have contributed to this success. Already in 2022 we have had some great achievements, launching new features into SmartVend and expanding our reach in the payments market. These awards are testament to this and the hard work of our team.”
Huge congratulations to the other award winners at the event. There is incredible talent within the vending industry at present and it is fantastic to see this recognised. To find out more about the winners of The Vendies 2022, please click here.
Pictured: The Vianet team alongside other ‘The Vendies 2022’ award winners at the Grand Connaught Rooms, London.
YOU CAN WATCH THE RECORDING OF OUR LIVE EVENT BELOW:
Vianet & special guests present ‘Power through the Pandemic: The Rise of Contactless Payment’, a seminar focused on the shift in consumer behaviour during the COVID19 pandemic. The speakers will look at how this global pandemic has accelerated the decline of cash payment in the vending, self-service & unattended sectors.
Cash has long been king in the vending market. However, with innovation in contactless payment technology and corresponding growth in consumer adoption, momentum has steadily grown towards a time in the near future when the majority of vending machines only take contactless payment.
That was in a world before COVID-19, a global crisis the many of us have endured and none of which will ever wish to experience again. Though cash use was predicted to decline over the coming years anyway, COVID-19 has catalysed an acceleration in this decline greatly, due to minimising human contact with surfaces, and also the suspicion infected cash could carry the virus and cause human-to-human transmission of the disease.
Echoing this, we also talk about the recent announcement also in the UK Budget 2021, of contactless payment limits rising to £100 . The global pandemic has accelerated a move away from cash with shoppers often being encouraged to use contactless in many retailers for public health reasons, and this change in consumer behaviours is driving further advancements in the payment world.
Your Hosts:
Mark Parry – Commercial Director – Vianet
Graham Kingaby – Managing Director – NIVO Group
Your Guest Speakers:
Joseph Scarborough – Founder & Owner – SnaxGroup
Matt Luckhurst – Regional Sales Director – OTI Global
Chris Worgan – Director – JW Vending