ZUCHWIL, Switzerland – When purchasing professional coffee machines, networking is playing an increasingly important role. Coffee machine manufacturer Schaerer is one of the pioneers in the industry when it comes to digitalizing coffee machine oper ations. With the Schaerer Prisma, the company is now adding a customizable API (application programming interface) to its digital toolbox that makes it possible to easily connect Schaerer coffee machines to customer-specific apps, software solutions and systems (e.g. CRM or ERP).
The Schaerer Prisma
“The Schaerer Prisma opens up almost unlimited possibilities for our customers to use digital functions to improve their coffee operations. Some examples are connecting to apps for ordering and payment as well as creating loyalty programs and operating coffee machines in unmanned convenience stores”, explains Sandro Bianchi, product manager of Schaerer AG.
In addition to its ability to adapt to individual IT infrastructures and customer requirements, the Schaerer Prisma also functions as a local connection that enables significantly faster data transfer than cloud-based APIs, since the time for sending data between cloud and coffee machine is omitted.
With the Schaerer Coffee Link, Schaerer launched a powerful digital platform for the optimisation of coffee operations five years ago and has been continuing to develop it up to today.
Around 90,000 machines worldwide are now networked with the Schaerer Coffee Link and offer Schaerer customers around the globe a wide range of possibilities, from support in day-to-day operations as well as service and maintenance to the development of completely new business models.
Solutions for mobile payment, remote operation of coffee machines or the development of cloud-based interfaces for integration into customer systems are also already part of the company’s range of digital services.
Fast and reliable
“The Schaerer Prisma is another digital tool that helps our customers take advantage of the many opportunities presented by digitalization and to master their challenges”, says Bianchi.
The software architecture of the interface has several advantages: In order to meet customer-specific requirements, only the API has to be adapted — in some cases, complex changes to the basic software of the coffee machines are no longer necessary. In addition, Schaerer Prisma is a local application.
“Like many other manufacturers, we still use cloud-based API solutions for some applications. However, a local connection such as with the Schaerer Prisma has the advantage of allowing for secure and significantly faster data transfer between the coffee machine and the customer system”, explains Bianchi.
Thanks to the direct communication with the coffee machine, for example, payment can be registered and confirmed at the coffee machine in unmanned coffee shops even before the customer has left the store.
The most recent and particularly innovative example of the application of the Schaerer Prisma is the use of the API for the unmanned, modular store concept of a renowned Swiss company. The store is to provide food, cold beverages and coffee for employees 24/7 in office buildings without sales staff.
Customer identification
The concept relies on facial recognition for customer identification and payment for food and coffee. To allow for this, the Schaerer coffee machine had to be connected via API to the facial recognition technology as well as to the customer software. Bianchi says: “From the first call to see if we could make this vision a reality to the preparation of the first coffee specialities took only two weeks — including machine delivery and interface integration.”
The unmanned store concept is scheduled to be launched in 2022. “Thanks to the flexibility of the Schaerer Prisma, the range of applications can be easily expanded at any time. We already have some ideas for this”.
About Schaerer AG
Founded in 1892 and headquartered in Zuchwil, Switzerland, Schaerer AG is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of fully automated professional coffee machines. As a traditional company with many years of history, the Schaerer brand stands for Swiss values combined with an in-depth knowledge of coffee.
The company expresses these brand attributes with the company logo “swiss coffee competence” and experiences them equally in its product development and in the Coffee Competence Centre, Schaerer’s own coffee expertise and training centre in Zuchwil.
Moreover, the company is characterised by extreme flexibility with the guiding principle “We love it your way” — be it in reference to customer requests, customer-specific products and large orders or the product range which offers the customer a wide range of customised configuration options. Customer-oriented and with extensive coffee knowledge, Schaerer supports customers of any size all over the world in offering their guests the highest level of coffee enjoyment.
Schaerer has been part of WMF since 2006 and of the French consortium Groupe SEB since the end of 2016. All B2B brands of the Group are bundled in the “SEB PROFESSIONAL” consolidated sales organisation. In addition to Schaerer, it includes the WMF and Wilbur Curtis coffee machine brands as well as the Professional Hotel Equipment division with the WMF Professional and HEPP brands.
