The Digital Signage Insider
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Budgeting for an Interactive Kiosk Project

Author: Bill Gerba on 2004-12-08 10:43:21

Back in September, my article on budgeting for a digital signage network (Budgeting for a Digital Sign or Electronic Sign Network) generated a lot of interest among readers -- and a lot of requests for a similar budget for interactive kiosk projects.  While I certainly intended to provide a similar analysis, my research was hampered by the fact that there are so many kinds of kiosks out there, with so many unique properties that can wildly swing costs in either direction.

Fortunately, the good people at Kiosk Magazine have done some of the heavy lifting for me, with their article "Cost: How much can you spend--and avoid spending?"  The article does a good job of explaining the various parts that commonly go into a kiosk, and gives median prices for each based on a survey done with vendors.  One thing to note is that their pricing results reflect orders in quantities of one, so your mileage will likely vary depending on your order size.  Here's a summary of their analysis (taken right from their page, so you really should read the whole article):

DEVICE	SPECS	MEDIAN PRICE
Full Kiosk	Touchscreen, CPU, Enclosure (only)	$3,440
Touchscreen	17" lcd	$1,180
Touchscreen	15" lcd	$872
Thermal Printer	Across all models	$630
CPU	With OS	$736
Keyboard	Industrial	$334
Enclosure (only)	Across all materials	$1330
UPS	Across all models	$114
Card Reader	Across all models	$113
Bill Validator	Across all models	$368
Fully Loaded Kiosk	*	$6,583

This takes care of the kiosk hardware.  By and large, the services and ongoing costs of managing a digital signage system are the same for a kiosk, excepting other services for changing printer paper or toner, or loading and unloading cash collectors and dispensers.  The typical kiosk will have a useful life of between 3 and 5 years, so you can easily amortize the cost over 36-60 months if that makes sense for you.  So what does our final tally look like now (for a single kiosk for 3 years):

Kiosk (median price)	$3,440
Kiosk Software	$400
Management software (36 months)	$1,800
24/7/365 technical support (36 months)	$3,600
Installation	$1,000
Initial project management	$300
Total	$10,540

That brings us to a cost of right around $300 per month for the 36 month term.  One thing that is missing from the stack, though, is your application software.  While I've included fees above for your operating system and kiosk software package, that's not going to be enough unless you're doing a simple Internet kiosk.  You'll need to develop your front-end application or pay to have it done for you, and that can cost anywhere from  hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars depending on what you need.  Obviously this could have a big impact on your budget planning, so think ahead and focus on your kiosk application software before doing anything else!  That's a rule taken right from our "Top 13 Deployment Mistakes...and How to Avoid Them" guide.  If you haven't read it yet, I suggest that you do so :)

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