AT: John W.C. Robinson
DALLAS, Texas — Cashless solutions provider Embed launched the new technology insights data visualization dashboard, STATS, at IAAPA Expo 2022 in Orlando.
Developed with and powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), STATS is a powerful data and report visualization tool designed to help family entertainment centers worldwide transform guest experiences, improve operational efficiency and boost revenue using data.
“We were ecstatic to see the amazing reception of both prospects and customers towards STATS when we launched it at IAAPA,” says Renee Welsh, CEO at Embed. “STATS was the demo-in-demand at our booth and the show — with the help of the brilliant representatives from Amazon Web Services, we illuminated show attendees with the benefits of cloud-based solutions such as STATS and the virtues of other Software as a Service (SaaS) products we offer.”
Embed has made its name in the amusement industry by continually innovating and expanding what technology can deliver and provide to FEC operators. But using technology to improve an industry is nothing new to Welsh.
Early in her career, she began the startup company Booking Boss, a cloud-based reservation software designed specifically for attractions, tour operators and activity providers. It was capable of managing ticketing and bookings centrally and could reduce queues and streamline processes.
“The startup culture, at its core, is about innovating and creating something new for a particular market segment. That’s what we did with Booking Boss,” explained Welsh. “As CEO, we’ve really brought that culture into Embed.”
In a commitment to technology innovation, Embed has been launching industry firsts year-after-year to enable, empower and ease the business of fun. For example, its Mobile Wallet virtual game card launched in 2019 remains the only non-banking, non-finance and non-loyalty brand to sit in customers’ Apple Wallet or Google Pay.
When it was first unveiled, the Mobile Wallet started to truly seperate Embed from the redemption card pack.
“We are on a continuous pursuit to develop tech solutions that will propel businesses to become the FECs of the future. At its core, the Mobile Wallet was inspired by the guest and in the desire to improve their experience,” explaned Welsh. “When you look at the guest’s journey inside an FEC, we just wanted to make it as seamless and interactive as possible. We were fortunate to be able to partner with Google and Apple, look at some of their latest tech and then look at how we could apply it to our industry.”
As opposed to traditional redemption cards, the Mobile Wallet connects an FEC directly to the consumer via their mobile phone.
“It gives the FEC operator the abilty to really capture their customer [gameplay] data, to be able to learn more about their customers actions within their facility to build loyalty amid their existing customers. The Mobile Wallet has a much broader benefit to the FEC industry in its ability to interact with the customer-base.”
With the recent pandemic acting as a catalyst in driving the popularity of contactless payment methods, there are now more than 1,000 locations utilizing Embed’s Mobile Wallet currently, and more than 50,000 customer registrations per month on the platform. The popularity and success of Mobile Wallet is undeniable. “We’ve got about 20,000,000 transactions that go through that platform now each month,” added Welsh.
With Mobile Wallet proving what’s possible, in 2022 Embed introduced its Tech of Transformation — a new line of innovative, integrated hardware and software solutions developed with technology industry leaders to transform the FEC industry.
“Embed’s a 21-year-old business this year, but we’ve really transformed the business inside out and looked at how we can create a culture of innovation.”
That has influenced how Embed looks at the amusement industry and how it looks at the guest experience and the customer journey.
“We do not want technology for technology’s sake. We use that fresh perspective from the startup culture then apply technology that already exists in other industry sectors to the family entertainment industry in a meaningful, profitable and sustainable way.”
The key innovation in Embed’s recent unveilings is STATS, which makes business insights work harder for operators, providing data from venues, including a range of revenue data and a revenue forecasting widget. It helps operators identify more successful games and forecast revenue to future-proof their business. SaaS solution is a response to ever-growing challenges that traditional FEC operators face as the industry digitizes. With STATS, operators of all business sizes can best manage their business, improve staffing levels and scheduling and reduce manpower waste.
FECs have evolved from decades of operating with quarters and tokens to utilizing redemption cards and, now, the rapid changing benefits of Mobile Wallet. And that continued evolution, with the guest in mind, is key for FEC growth and survival.
“At the very core of everything is the guest. If you’re not innovating and you’re not listening to your guest, then you stagnate and you die,” said Welsh. “I think two of the things that are incredible about this industry is its resiliance and its innovation. But, in the end, putting the guest at the center of everything you do is really important.
“The beauty of Embed’s technology is that it enables you to use our broad and deep feature set to be able to adapt and transition and take advantage of things such as dynamic pricing. Our new STATS product enables you to get realtime data visualization and look at performance from a game activity perspective, a manpower perspective and other options — and it’s all right there at the operator’s fingertips in realtime.”
The STATS insights platform leverages AWS to build user-friendly, customizable dashboards that visually present data, such as arcade game performance, guest activity and revenue forecasting to make understanding the deep insights of an operation easy and engaging. This also helps FECs better understand guests’ behavior and improve the guest experience. Built with AWS’s global cloud infrastructure, this cloud-based solution offers accessibility, security and low latency.
“A lot of businesses find data analysis daunting,” added Welsh. “Operators need data collated and analyzed instantly to make informed business decisions immediately. STATS was designed specifically to produce customizable, tailor-fit, realtime reports in a snackable, easy-to-access format according to specific business needs- minus the tech intimidation and data overload.”
Embed’s current data reports solution REPORTS, an analytics platform, allows operators to access different analytics reports that provide insights into information like game popularity, game revenue, and game profit.
“STATS is a step towards more in-depth, dynamic visualized data reporting. Our customers who use this rely on STATS REPORTS to address challenges with inventory management, loss prevention and revenue management,” detailed Welsh.
“As we look at statistics from around the industry, 30% of employees have said that they spend too much time on data manipulation. 45% said they spend all that time and are no wiser. They’re putting tables together with spreadsheets and it just becomes a bunch of numbers that show them no real meaning, nothing really derived.”
STATS combats this problem. With STATS’ in-depth, dynamic visualized data reporting, operators of all business sizes can best manage their business, improve staffing levels and scheduling, reduce manpower waste and forecast revenue based on retro data.
“We worked with small, medium and large operators — along with Amazon — to really understand their needs and have created very specific dashboards for our industry that will enable to derive the meaning from the numbers and statistics in a matter of seconds,” summed up Welsh.
From Mobile Wallet to ECAL to STATS and others, Embed has created a renaissance of valuable information for attraction/FEC owners.
“In an FEC there are so many data points that you can manipulate and look at, but we’ve really distilled that down into the most important things that can really make a difference to the operation,” said Welsh.
As attractions seek to become more immersive, and better cater their expierences to their clientele, the adaptabilty of the FEC environment is something that Embed’s tech continues to improve upon.
“If I look at things strategically, if there’s one thing we could do a better job at it’s loyalty and improving personalization capabilities.
“At the end of the day, it’s all about personalization and knowing your guest, knowing your customer,” said Welsh. “And utilzing technology to streamline and remove any barriers to entry and friction to the customer for when they arrive.
“There’s some really interesting tech that we’re experimenting with to look at that. But you never want to introduce technology for technology’s sake. You always need to ensure that the guest is ready for that leap.”
While Mobile Wallet and STATS were ground-breaking for the FEC community, they are just the beginning of what Embed has planned for continuing to innovate and redefine what’s possible for the modern FEC.
“We’re committed to ensuring that we’re always at the forefront of innovation. We’ve got some new inventive technologies with Apple, Google as well as Amazon that we’re working on. I can’t reveal them yet, but they’re coming.”
As time goes on, Embed is rapidly becoming an icon of the FEC supplier inudustry. But just as Bob’s Space Racers has become synonymous with Whac-A-Mole and Gold Medal has become forever identified with delicious popcorn, Embed hopes it will forever be identified with technology and innovation.
“Embed would like to be remembered as this tech-blazing company that was so ground-breaking that we transformed the business of fun, changing how these FECs are run and how they are viewed even by the public,” summarized Welsh. “We’re paving the way for FECs to expand their business offerings so that they become a one-stop shop where there’s something for everyone. Technology enables that type of customer experience.”
This article appears in the JANUARY 2023 issue of Amusement Today.
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