• Implement a pilot, proof-of-concept kiosk solution within several ACE hardware stores
  

• Increase visibility of ACE Hardware’s online Web presence, OurHouse.com
  

• Measure effectiveness of a retail store-based kiosk solution to increase online Sales and customer loyalty
  

• Keep the proof-of-concept low cost
  Implement quickly and in a variety of key retail outlets eploy user-friendly and tamper-free kiosks
  

OurHouse.com and Ace hardware leadership desired to investigate the implementation of Internet kiosks at retail store level to increase awareness of OurHouse.com, and to increase brand loyalty to Ace Hardware.

The leadership, aware of Ephibian’s kiosk success with Get2Net and Everyday.com kiosk implementations, engaged Ephibian to produce the kiosk aspects of the OurHouse software solution. The effort entailed several features distinct to OurHouse’s kiosk implementation:

It was the first wireless transmission application of Ephibian’s kiosk software. This entailed that we work closely with the wireless provider (Hughes) to ensure communication was seamless, responsive and that the operations center could track issues relative to network outages distinct from software issues the server-side content was to be somewhat unique to the kiosks versus the normal Internet user of the OurHouse website.

Ephibian worked closely with the OurHouse server-side website development staff to tailor the content to the Retail Store audience.

The Retail outlets do not run 24x7, as was the case with the previous Kiosk implementations. Ephibian developed a customizable “sleep mode” capability which could be set at Store level.

The resulting proof-of-concept, deployed to eight locations, monitored and measured for its business benefits over six months time, included:

• Banner & Screensaver Ad Serving and Rotation;
  URL filtering
  

• Database-backed Session Tracking (for business metrics), Session Timing
  

• Session “Clean-up”
  

• Inactivity Timeouts and a Nightly Sleep Mode
  

• Computer Security, including Reboot Security
  
  
• Remote Diagnostics and Remote Reboot
  Capability, including SNMP Support
  
  
• Remote Software Update Capability;
  Credit Card and Printing Subsystems
  
  
• Proved the technical feasibility, provided metrics for the business case
  
  
• Secure, tamper-proof Internet kiosks
  
  
• Rapid responsiveness over wireless communications
  
  
• Usage and demographic profiling for Business analysis
  
  
• Java software built atop the Linux operating system had excellent stability
  
  
• Using Intel-based hardware architecture kept kiosk costs low
  
  
• Free sponsored sessions or pay-for-use capabilities