Working with technological advancements is all about creating tomorrow’s solutions. What will we really need? Where can we make life easier for people? Kittikorn Detnoi and Tor Niklas Strøm make up two thirds of the current development team at Microlog. Together, they daily work on requests and questions from customers who want a simpler everyday life, and as a progressive development team, the path from a request to new functionality is often short.

One of the most important new launches is a “mini version” of the larger payment machines you can find in doctors’ offices all over the country today. “When we started, we were given a few smaller versions of the hardware so that we could get to know the software and how the payment machines work in practice,” Tor Niklas says, “- and through this work we have simultaneously developed a version that we are now making available to our customers.”

The new portable payment terminals offer the same option to choose payment method, with options ranging from card, Vipps or invoices, but are adapted to smaller healthcare facilities. The payment terminal is equipped with a touch screen, making it easy to use. “Today, you purchase or rent the larger version, but it is both space-consuming and relatively expensive for smaller facilities. The smaller, portable version is therefore ideal for healthcare organizations with few employees, or who, for example, travel to see patients,” Tor Niklas Strøm explains.

Naturally, the smaller machines communicate just as well with different record systems as the larger ones, and they are an excellent way to test whether a payment machine is the right decision for a healthcare facility.

Nonetheless, Microlog does not only work with healthcare. As of today, they also supply machines for gift card purchases, ski passes, parking and various forms of ticket sales. In close cooperation with, among others, Vipps, they facilitate simple and seamless payment for several of the both smaller and larger tasks of everyday life.

They are now also helping to make parking safer for car owners across the country. “In cooperation with one of our customers, we have spent a great deal of the last time developing functionality that allows the user to lock car parks during certain periods of the day, while still allowing car owners to pick up their car when it suits them – regardless of the closing hours.” Kittikorn and Tor Niklas explain; “By using a screen located outside the car park, any person who has parked there will be able to access their own vehicle by entering the registration number of the car. That way, you no longer have to deal with opening hours or a third party to unlock the car park once the car is parked there. This provide both those responsible for the car park and the car owners with additional security for the car’s safety.”

The solution has been developed after one of Microlog’s customers started talking about how nice it would be to better secure parking customers through locked parks. And now this is possible – thanks to a small development team in a creative office at Langhus.

There are many more new and undiscovered projects and development opportunities out there just waiting for the team at Microlog.

Microlog has recently experienced strong growth and increased demand. Siri Elisabeth Sogstad is a sales coordinator at Microlog and is responsible for the service and support department in the company. She says it has been an exciting journey to be part of, and that they are looking forward to the future.

Sogstad joined Microlog in June last year, and comes from the shopping center industry, where she worked for over 14 years. This means she has a unique understanding of what it´s like to be a customer of Microlog, which in turn has been useful in doing the best possible job as a sales coordinator.

“I am responsible for all deliveries Microlog has, in all industries, both in Norway and abroad. My main responsibility is to ensure that all customers get what they have ordered, at the right time and with the quality that both we and our customers want” says Siri Elisabeth.

As well as being a sales coordinator, she is responsible for the service and support department at Microlog. This includes responsibility for three technicians, who work to assist their customers in the best possible way. She says that these are technicians with long experience and high technical competence.

“The service technicians are professionally strong in their field, while at the same time they have a clear customer focus. It’s an extremely skilled service team to work with, who knows the products we offer very well, and we work closely together every day,” says Sogstad.

Training and follow-up in the centre

She also says that when Microlog delivers a vending machine, emphasis is placed on providing good training for its customers. This means close follow-up in the start-up phase, with good training and introduction to the product, to make their customers able to handle both the machines and customer-related questions afterwards.

“It is important for us to ensure that our customers have the skills and tools they need to handle the product towards their end customers. After delivery of a product, we therefore follow up afterwards to ensure our customers are satisfied, and to confirm everything is working as it should,” says Siri Elisabeth.

Microlog´s service and support department also has a strong focus on good and accessible support, where their customers should have several contact options should anything arise. She says their customers will have support available if they need it.

“We have a good response time to our service inquiries. We provide service to our customers via e-mail and telephone support. In addition, we have a system where we can remotely monitor all our machines at our customers’ premises at any time. In this way, we can quickly capture if something happens, which gives us the opportunity to solve any challenges quickly and easily. If necessary, we also have the opportunity to visit our customers, for service and guidance,” explains Sogstad.

Continuous emphasis on further development and renewal

The work with satisfied customers also involves an active emphasis on preventing problems from arising at all for Microlog’s customers. She says that they therefore, among other things, start the day by a remote check of all vending machines, to look for potential problems to solve them as quickly as possible.

“We have a system where we remotely control if something is not as it should be, so throughout the day we have full control over our machines. If something is down, we can solve it right away,” says Sogstad.

Sogstad continues by telling it is very exciting to be part of the team behind Microlog, especially recently where a lot of new and exciting things have happened. In addition to the company experiencing strong growth, they have now employed two new technicians, and are looking forward for coming times.

“I think the most important element of being successful in a job like this is to constantly focus on further development and renewal. We can always improve, and even if things are going well, further development is important,” says Siri Elisabeth Sogstad.