AUTOMATION FEATURE
Digital connection SCHAERER’S PRISMA API PROVIDES THE SAME LEVEL OF SOFTWARE CUSTOMISATION THE SWISS MANUFACTURER OFFERS WITH ITS AUTOMATIC EQUIPMENT.
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ustomisation is crucial to coffee automation, whether it’s when the customer orders their drink or how the owner operates the machine. Swiss manufacturer Schaerer embraces flexibility when it comes to manufacturing its automatic coffee machines, and that extends beyond the hardware to the software it provides. Schaerer Prisma is an application programming interface (API), which allows a coffee business or operator to connect the coffee machine to their own apps, software, and systems, reflecting limitless possibilities. “Digitalisation follows the same story in every industry. The customer wants more information and to be able to monitor data, then once they have it, a way to action on it. This can range from creating entirely new business models based on data to supporting existing daily businesses, optimising areas like downtime by monitoring the reasons for it,” says Sandro Bianchi, Product Manager at Schaerer. “Schaerer has responded to this trend with several products and solutions, such as integrated payment solutions and a platform with about 90,000 connected machines online. This platform has a front end with analytics which a customer can use to monitor their business and we can use to create tailormade reports for them. Most importantly, we have built interfaces where customers can work with their own data, or like with Prisma, start controlling the coffee machine.” While many manufacturers and automatic coffee machines offer cloud-based API solutions – including Schaerer – Bianchi says part of what makes Prisma unique is that it is a local connection, providing a faster communication of data. “With a local connection you don’t need to worry about the latency you see with a cloud API, where it takes extra time for data to be sent to and from the coffee machine,” he says. “Faster communication with the coffee machine means, for instance, you can The Schaerer Prisma API allows a register and confirm payment at the coffee business to integrate their coffee machine machine in an unmanned store even before with their own apps and systems. the customer has left.”
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Schaerer’s APIs have been in use for several years, and Bianchi says Schaerer’s customers are growing creative in how they interact with their coffee machines. “Prisma came out of the need for the specific requirements of customers. Changing the base software to match a customer’s specific requirements takes a significant investment of time and resources,” he says. “Creating an API interface allows for that kind of interaction with the machine that is secure without any
