AT: David Fake
SINGAPORE — Embed has recently announced its newest technology, STATS, a cloud-based business intelligence dashboard that allows operators of all sizes to better manage staffing levels, improve staff scheduling and reduce human resource waste by making business insights work harder for operators, providing data from venues, including guest dwell time and game outages, and helping operators identify more successful games and forecast revenue. However, Embed has been a trailblazer in cashless technology solutions for FECs since they emerged on the scene in 2001 and establishing long-standing relationships all the while.
One such customer is Fun Factory, a Hawaii-based operator of North American FECs, which began its relationship with Ember almost 20 years ago, when Embed was contracted to integrate an early card reader technology (V4 smartTOUCH card readers) at its FECs.
As part of the transaction, Fun Factory was promised a sizeable ROI by the Singapore-based technology company. Embed delivered on that promise. However, as with all business relationships, there were challenges to overcome. But this relationship was already based upon a friendship and trust that began years before the two companies shook hands as business partners in 2003.
Linda Fernandez, president and CEO of Fun Factory, as well as Malcolm and Andy Steinberg, founder and owners of Embed had a chance meeting in an elevator at Young Presidents Association meeting in Australia more than 35 years ago and became fast friends, being in constant communication ever since, with both families traveling and visiting each other’s homes and business.
“Coincidentally, we were both owner/operators of amusements and FECs — we had Fun Factory in North America and Malcolm Steinberg was the founder of a well-established Australian company, Leisure and Allied Industries (LAI),” explained Fernandez. “We discussed all aspects of our business over many long conversations.”
One of those discussions included Malcolm Steinberg explaining a harness system that he had developed for his games and amusements. This was of particular interest to Fernandez, as Fun Factory had many coin-operated arcade games.
FECs, like the arcade games, were in a constant evolution all through the ‘90s. In 2000, Fun Factory initiated a search for a cashless system to ensure that they kept up with the times. With the Hawaiian Islands presenting a logistic and geographic challenge, the company knew it needed to work with an established and reliable system.
At the time Fun Factory began its search, there were not many card operators. Those that did exist, were not large or well-established, and most did not have a dedicated physical presence. This presented a challenge for Fun Factory, because, as Stephen Lau, the company’s CFO, explained, “We are in Hawaii, in the middle of the ocean. We needed to make certain that when we call, someone answers the phone.”
Even though it was only a two-year-old company at the time, Embed’s system was ultimately chosen. The deciding factor was two-fold — they were a company that emerged out of an FEC operator coupled with the trust that was already established through the Fernandez/Steinberg friendship. Fun Factory felt that Embed would best know and understand the challenges that they and only amusement and FEC operators experienced.
After installation of Embed’s system in 2003, Fun Factory saw an immediate increase in revenue. This trend continued as they transitioned each new location to cashless, noting a 10 to 15% increase at each location. “Every time we converted a venue, there was a surge in revenue,” claims Lau. “We have real-time data and the ability to promote in addition to efficiency.”
Fun Factory was also able to use the system to run promotions, and promotions were what Fun Factory had determined to be the best way to bring in repeat business as well as the statistics to show which promotions were most effective. “We have more data, customer spending trends and differences by location,” said Lau. “[The system] allows us to do a lot of different types of marketing.”
“Embed is the best there is,” said Fernandez. “I have done the research and know many of the systems out there, but Embed has done the most research. From promotions to integrating new features like pay-as-you-go, they cover all the bases, and when they find a base that is not yet covered, they work on it until they have it covered,” Fernandez continued. “And they’re not even paying me to say that!” she concluded.
One such base that Embed found to be uncovered was the immense impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had on the FEC industry, prompting them to seek a solution for its customers. “This accelerated the transition of businesses from manual operations to digital, from coins to cashless. We’re proud to be impact players during this transition as our cashless system provides FEC operators with more ways to engage their customers in safe gameplay and entertainment, elevating the guest experience,” says Embed’s CEO, Renee Welsh.
“For instance, guests now have an option to top-up or reload their game cards with our Mobile Wallet technology. This virtual game card sits in customers’ Apple Wallet or Google Pay for nonstop fun. Similarly, they don’t have to be weighed down by their winnings thanks to hardware solutions like self-service kiosks and smartTOUCH game card readers,” added Welsh. “Everything can be digitized now. From an operational standpoint, this enables our customers to free up their manpower, cutdown on labor and maintenance costs, and focus on providing better value for their guests. All these increase our customers’ bottom line.”
“Speaking of which,” Welsh added, “operators can adjust game pricing and create packages or promotions backed by data using our TOOLKIT suite, which is comprised of different integrated software solutions designed for operational efficiency. There is Sales (our point-of-sale), Reports, Prizes, Central Games Management, and Bookings, to name a few.”
In addition, with the release of STATS, a technology developed in conjunction with Amazon Web Services (AWS), the world’s most comprehensive and adopted cloud provider, that is being launched at the 2022 IAAPA Expo in Orlando, Embed has fully rounded out its offerings, that again covers all the bases of solutions to meet every need of its customers.
This Software as a Service (SaaS) solution is Embed’s response to the ever-growing challenges that traditional FEC operators, such as Fun Factory, face as the industry digitizes.
All FECs can benefit from comprehensive, relevant data, yet most find data analysis daunting. “Operators need data collated and analyzed instantly to make informed business decisions immediately. STATS was designed specifically to produce customizable, tailor-fit, real-time reports in a snackable, easy-to-access format according to specific business needs – minus the tech intimidation and data overload,” said Welsh.
With STATS, Embed is looking to provide operators of all sizes business insights that work harder and harder for operators. To accomplish this, the system provides data specific to each venue including guest dwell time and game outages, while helping operators identify more successful games and forecast revenue.
This article appears in the NOVEMBER IAAPA EXPO 2022 issue of Amusement Today.
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