FAQ
Frequently asked questions
The questions operators, machine builders and payment teams ask us most — answered plainly. If yours isn't here, engineering is one message away.
What exactly does the DMS platform do?
It puts a self-service machine online end to end: Hero Nexus, our Android edge software inside the payment terminal, takes payment and drives the machine; QuadC, our cloud, collects telemetry, manages devices and distributes updates; and HERO, our browser-based dashboard, is where operators watch sales, stock and alarms live — with no software to install.
Is this a vending management system (VMS), or a platform?
Both — in that order of scope. A VMS is the management layer: machines and locations, planograms, pricing, stock and replenishment, routes, reports and user roles. A platform is everything underneath it — the device on the machine bus, the edge software, payment, connectivity and offline buffering, the cloud and OTA updates — with the panel on top. Every platform contains a VMS; not every VMS has a platform under it. With us the management software arrives inside the platform, so the sales figure in HERO is created by the payment transaction itself, not by a manual count or a file import.
Do I still need a separate telemetry box if the machine has a payment terminal?
No. Hero Nexus is fitted as the payment system and telemetry is its natural output — sales, stock, temperature and faults come from the device already sitting on the machine bus. A second box means a second SIM, a second antenna, another power feed, another listener crowding a single-master bus like MDB, and another panel to log into. It also means two versions of the same sale: the telemetry box counts vend signals, the terminal records card transactions, and the two never agree exactly. One device produces one record — there is nothing left to reconcile at month end.
Which machines can you integrate with?
Vending and coffee machines over MDB, machines driven directly through the vending machine controller (VMC), and PLC-controlled machines — car washes, EV chargers, kiosks, lockers, laundry — over Modbus. If the machine has a controller, we have a protocol path to it.
Do you support flower vending machines?
Yes. Flower vending machines — refrigerated locker or carousel cabinets — are PLC- or VMC-controlled machines like any other we integrate: the terminal takes card, contactless and QR payments, the platform reads cabinet temperature and door state as telemetry, and HERO shows stock and sales per compartment so wilted stock and empty lockers get caught early.
What about soup vending machines?
Soup machines work like hot-drink machines: they speak MDB, so Hero Nexus drives them the same way it drives a coffee machine. The platform reads boiler temperature and ingredient levels as telemetry, and low-ingredient alarms reach the operator in HERO before the machine stops selling.
Do I have to replace my old vending machines?
No — that is the point of our Smart VMC approach. A machine engineered for coins decades ago keeps its own controller; Hero Nexus registers on the machine's bus as a cashless device, so it starts accepting contactless cards, meal cards and QR payments with no change to the machine itself.
Which payment methods are supported?
Credit and debit cards (contactless and chip through the terminal's certified EMV stack), QR payments, and the Turkish meal-card ecosystem — Multinet Up, Edenred, Pluxee (formerly Sodexo), Setcard, MetropolCard and Macellan — plus İstanbulkart. One integration covers all of them.
What happens when the machine loses its internet connection?
It keeps selling. Hero Nexus is offline-first: it holds a local database on the device, so payments authorize, vends complete and telemetry is recorded while the link is down — then everything reconciles to QuadC the moment the connection returns.
Am I locked into one terminal manufacturer?
No. The platform is hardware-independent: it runs on Nexgo today and is built to run on PAX, SUNMI, Castles and Newland. The device-specific pieces live below the platform layer, so swapping terminal hardware doesn't mean rebuilding integrations or retraining operators.
How do software updates reach machines in the field?
Over the air. QuadC distributes signed updates to the fleet remotely — new features, payment configurations and fixes arrive without a technician visiting each machine.
Can I pull my fleet's data into my own systems?
Yes. QuadC exposes an open API for devices, sales and telemetry, and HERO exports reports to Excel and PDF. Your data is yours to integrate, whether into ERP, BI or a custom back office.
We build machines. Should we write our own telemetry software, or fit yours?
The panel and the sales chart take a few weeks; what follows takes years — protocols, offline resilience, reconciliation, OTA updates, multi-tenancy, payment certification, cloud operations and support that answers a route driver at six on a Friday. We don't build machines, so we are not your competitor: Hero Nexus fits on the line and talks to your controller over pulse, MDB or Modbus with no change to your board, QuadC keeps the record and runs the updates, and your buyer gets payment, sales tracking and remote management in a single fitting — in the same panel as the other brands on their fleet.
How long has DMS Tech been doing this?
Longer than most: the founding partners began the R&D in 1996 and incorporated as DMS Tech in 1999 — the same year we put the first online card payment on a vending machine in Turkey, on Yapı Kredi Bankası infrastructure. Contactless followed in 2008, transit cards in 2015, the meal-card schemes from 2018. The payment problem taught us the machines; the machines became the platform.
How should we compare vending payment and telemetry suppliers?
The brochures converge; the difference sits in the rows that never make it onto a quote. Six of them: does your hardest machine actually run — not just the MDB ones, but Executive, pulse, dry contact and PLC lines; who holds the EMV certification and the acquirer relationship, and can you keep your own acquirer; does telemetry come out of the payment path itself or a second box — that decides how many different sales figures you see at day's end; who owns the data and does the history leave with you; is the price a device fee, a subscription or a per-transaction commission — three very different curves, so model 36 months, not one; and what does leaving cost. Every row is verifiable before you sign: on a demo, pull the network cable and make a sale — that settles the offline claim in ten minutes.
How do we get started?
Talk to engineering — not a sales script. Tell us what your machines are and how your fleet runs; we'll map the integration path, usually starting with a pilot machine, and take it from there.
Still have a question?
Ask the engineers who built the platform. We answer in plain language, with real integration detail.