Customer profile customer service and insight...Microsoft Kinect for Xbox One Microsoft Visual Studio. 3 user’s session and increase customer insight, each kiosk uses a Microsoft

Business needWest Edmonton Mall needed to help

visitors find what they were looking

for quickly by providing accurate,

easy-to-follow directions to nearly

1,000 venues.

SolutionThe mall developed an interactive

kiosk solution based on Dell

workstations that gives people real-

time answers to queries, including

step-by-step directions, on both a

65-inch, 4K screen and their mobile

device.

Benefits• Improves patron experience

• Increases customer insight

• Minimizes costs and facilitates rapid

ROI

• Saves time for IT staff

• Gains a differentiating service that’s

highly flexible

Solutions at a glance• Client solutions• Client support

Modern kiosks improve customer service and insightWest Edmonton Mall gives patrons real-time answers on large screen kiosks that can beam data to mobile devices by using Dell workstations and Microsoft Kinect sensors

Customer profile

Company West Edmonton Mall

Industry Retail

Country Canada

Employees 1,500

Website www.wem.ca

“We’re realizing return on investment from our Dell-based kiosks in terms of improved customer satisfaction and image enhancement compared with local businesses and competitor malls in other areas.” Kevin Grimes, Director of IT, West Edmonton Mall

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“We’ve never found a partner that comes close to the success that we’ve had with Dell. Its team, the quality of its hardware and the backing of Dell ProSupport Plus channels … cause us to immediately turn to Dell when we are faced with a challenge.” Kevin Grimes, Director of IT, West Edmonton Mall

Canada’s West Edmonton Mall was facing all of these challenges with its paper directories. People needed more help navigating its 800 shops, 100 dining venues and numerous attractions including a waterpark, amusement park and two mini golf courses. To help ensure its 30.8 million yearly visitors have a positive experience, the mall decided to adopt digital kiosks. Kevin Grimes, director of IT at West Edmonton Mall, says, “We operate one of the largest shopping centers many people will ever encounter in their life. Most people are overwhelmed when they first enter our facility and don’t know which direction to go first. We wanted a more modern directory system to help our customers get comfortable and find what they are looking for right away.”

Gains a custom solution that’s flexible and easy to support After evaluating turnkey kiosk options, the mall decided to design its own solution. By doing so, it could create a dynamic, easy-to-modify interface that also makes use of data in existing IT systems to minimize costs and maintenance. Although staff considered “white box” hardware that they assembled themselves, they decided to build each kiosk on a Dell Precision T1700 workstation. Not only could engineers work with Dell to customize workstations to meet requirements, but they’d also save time and money in the long run by using Dell ProSupport Plus. In addition, Dell let the engineers test a model onsite before making a final decision. “We’ve had a lot of experience with different vendors, and we’ve never

found a partner that comes close to the success that we’ve had with Dell,” says Grimes. “Its team, the quality of its hardware and the backing of Dell ProSupport Plus channels — which we consider to be a very frugal investment — cause us to immediately turn to Dell when we are faced with a challenge that requires reliable infrastructure.”

Improves customer experience and insightIn seven months, the mall designed and developed its solution, and then deployed 12 kiosks. To make sure people enjoy real-time responsiveness from kiosks, each Dell T1700 workstation includes an Intel® Xeon® processor and two NVIDIA Quadro GPUs. In addition, to help collect information about each

With the internet and GPS services, people are accustomed

to getting directions in near-real time, in a format that makes

sense to them. So when they must use traditional, paper

directories at venues — especially larger malls — they may feel

frustrated. Small font sizes can make directories hard to read,

and information might be inaccurate because it’s too costly

to reprint directories every time a business changes. Plus,

directions can be hard to remember.

Products & Services

Services

Dell ProSupport Plus for PCs and Tablets - SupportAssist

Hardware

Dell Precision T1700 workstations with Intel® Xeon® processors and NVIDIA Quadro GPUs

Partner

Microsoft Kinect for Xbox One

Microsoft Visual Studio

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user’s session and increase customer insight, each kiosk uses a Microsoft Kinect for Xbox One sensor to detect users. Two PrimeView PRV65KLED 65-inch 4K monitors connect to each kiosk’s workstation via serial ports. One monitor has touch screen capabilities with two keyboards; the second provides a large, easy-to-read display for one or two kiosk users.

Explaining the kiosk design, Chris Dunsing, senior application developer at West Edmonton Mall, says, “We have thousands of people walking up to a kiosk every day, so we needed to ensure that when one person left the kiosk, another person didn’t walk up and continue the previous user’s session. By using a Microsoft Kinect sensor and a touch screen with a Dell workstation, we can track every single touch and have more certainty about the length of each user’s session, as well as the quality of experience each person has with our kiosks.” For example, the mall can understand the types of stores people are looking for and identify groupings of stores that the same customers are interested in. The mall can also see failed search attempts, so it can get insight into the kinds of businesses it may want to pursue in the future.

Getting quick information on a screen and on a mobile device When people search for a particular store using a kiosk, it displays a visually appealing map that indicates where they are, where their destination is, and step-by-step directions for getting there. To help simplify navigation, maps include easily recognizable points of interest, an image of the destination’s storefront and contact information. If the business is running a promotion that is published on the mall’s website, that information, including coupons, is also provided. If people choose, they can have the kiosk send the information that’s displayed on-screen to their mobile phone.

How do kiosks work? Each kiosk runs two applications. One,

developed using Microsoft Visual Studio, facilitates communication between the mall’s IT systems, the kiosks and patrons’ mobile devices. To beam data to Samsung devices, the application uses Near Field Communication. To transfer data to Apple devices, the application uses QR codes.

The other application supports the interface and was developed using the Adobe AIR, Feathers and Sonic Frameworks — tools popular with video game developers. “We wanted to provide customers with a fluid, animated experience — not your typical snap-on, snap-off kiosk interface,” says Dunsing. “We also designed the interface so that we can make changes with minimal effort.” For example, the mall can easily modify the color of fonts used on kiosks as well as the style and content of displays to meet changing requirements.

Leveraging existing IT to save time and money With the new solution, kiosks always provide accurate information. “Since we already keep our content management system and some other applications up to date with information about our mall, we use them as data sources for our kiosks,” says Dunsing. “The data services that run on our Dell workstations automatically extract information from these systems, so we don’t have to take any extra steps to keep our kiosks up to date.”

Directions provided by kiosks also take into account service outages. “If any of our elevators and escalators stop working or are powered off, sensors automatically let the content management system know, and it sends this information to kiosks so that people are alerted,” Dunsing explains. “And any directions provided to patrons will not include them until they are back online.”

Simplifying high availability Engineers also took steps to ensure that the kiosks are always available. “We have two hard drives and automated disk

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mirroring with the Dell Precision T1700 workstations, so if one hard drive should ever fail, the second automatically takes over,” says Grimes. “Additionally, we’ll be using SupportAssist with all of our Dell equipment, because it’s a very effective tool for quickly remedying issues.” Included with ProSupport Plus, SupportAssist provides real-time alerts about actual and potential hardware issues. Alerts include a pre-completed order for any required replacement part. Staff need only confirm the shipping address and the shipping timeframe.

Commenting on the mall’s experience with ProSupport Plus, Chris says, “We did have a video card fail when we were staging our solution for production. ProSupport Plus replaced the part within a day, so it didn’t interrupt our ability to deliver on time.”

Provides a differentiating service that boosts ROI The kiosks have been in production for four months, and nearly 1 million people have used them. Based on feedback, the mall knows it has gained a differentiating service. “We’re realizing return on investment from our Dell-based kiosks in terms of improved customer satisfaction and image enhancement compared with local businesses and competitor malls in other areas,” says Grimes. “Our kiosks give customers a hybrid brick-and-mortar experience, because they can use online queries to quickly find what they want to buy.” The mall plans to add other

distinguishing features to its kiosks. For example, developers hope to provide patrons with GPS-style, “blue dot” navigation directions. “It can be costly and difficult to innovate,” says Dunsing. “However, Dell’s responsive service and quality products really help our team to be effective.”

Dell, the Dell logo, Dell Precision and Dell ProSupport are trademarks of Dell Inc. Intel, Intel Logo, Intel Inside, Intel Inside Logo and Xeon are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. Dell disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others. Availability and terms of Dell Software, Solutions and Services vary by region. This case study is for informational purposes only. Dell makes no warranties — expressed or implied — in this case study. Reference Number: 10022485 © January 2016, Dell Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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“By using a Microsoft Kinect sensor and a touch screen with a Dell workstation, we can track every single touch and have more certainty about the length of each user’s session, as well as the quality of experience each person has with our kiosks.” Chris Dunsing, Senior Application Developer, West Edmonton Mall