We’re currently exploring different mobile apps (current contract is ending so doing are due diligence) and had a question about Innovative Mobile.
During the demo we saw they were very adamant about the quality of using NFC/RFID as part of the self checkout feature, while other vendors were at either cautious in promoting those features or were so distrustful of the reliability that they have opted to to develop an RFID solution at all
So…is anyone out there actually using RFID based self checkouts with Innovative Mobile and if so how is it?
Hey @jmgold, I have tested NFC (RFID) with our Innovative Mobile app several times and it seems to work good but does not flip the security bit. My tests are focused on Polaris API only as we don’t offer SIP2 connection with Innovative Mobile. I was very happy to see that Solus had so many features around how NFC handles tags like multi-part, but I don’t recall any features to flip the bit and I have not looked further as we are not currently offering the selfCheckout features… my tests are all after-hours.
We’ve been using RFID selfcheck within the app since we went live a few years ago. We have “Use API for checkouts” checked in the settings, but have SIP2 configured too, so I’m not entirely certain it’s truly using the API. I know it’s working, and I’m going to leave it until it stops, or someone in support tells me to change it. Our security bit does get disabled during the process, too.
In my personal experience, you sometimes need to work a bit to get the tag to read, but that seems to come down to the individual item. With hardbacks, sometimes it will read through the cover, other times you need to open the book and hover over the tag directly. I didn’t think it was actually used very often, but I’ve recently heard differently from frontline staff. I haven’t had a single RFID-related complaint or support request filter back to me in the entire time we’ve offered it, so I assumed that meant nobody was bothering with it.
Hey Steven,
Would you mind sharing your Solus Admin settings, compared with what we have tested before? Here is a screen capture of the settings, I suspect the Security Model is what needs changed but the Create a Self-Check Tab | Solus Library App Help Docs documentation seems to lack the details needed to ensure we properly test.
Thanks! Glad to hear it is working will for you. We did have to be on v7.5 to get the “Use API for Checkout” feature to work and it did work like a charm.
The security model is the same, but I don’t remember where we initially pulled that from. We’re using Bibliotheca tags and tag programming software, if that’s at all relevant.
I ended up changing Multi-part RFID value from Allow to “First Item Only” because we use multi-part tags on our DVD/CD’s and only tag the media so the “Allow” setting was waiting for a second tag, which was not present. I guess I could test Code 39 but I don’t suspect this being the cause. We too use Bibliotheca tags and software, is your software set to ISO Object tag formatting or a different value for programming the tag?
Thanks everyone for providing feedback to Jeremy - this is all super helpful for us too. PLS is in the implementation process and about to start testing RFID checkout for our 8 member libraries (1 already has the app with barcode checkout & checkin - no gates). I’ll keep you updated on our progress
