KT Advances Small Business DX and Robot Platform with 'HiOrder'

Seamless Integration with Serving Robots... Accelerating Robot Deployment Speed

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Su-yeon] KT is launching the unmanned ordering system service 'HiOrder.' This is interpreted as a strategy to promote digital transformation (DX) for small business owners while establishing itself as a robot platform provider.

On the 7th, KT began promoting the 'HiOrder' service by introducing it to some small business establishments ahead of its official launch. HiOrder is a type of non-face-to-face table order system. Each table is equipped with a tablet PC, allowing customers to select menu items directly from the tablet menu and complete payment.

Last month, a visitor is experiencing a delivery robot at the KT exhibition hall held at MWC. [Photo by KT]

Since COVID-19, non-face-to-face ordering has been expanding. By adopting HiOrder, businesses can keep pace with this trend while reducing labor costs and alleviating hiring difficulties. Although similar services are already available in the market, HiOrder offers higher stability by building an optimal communication environment based on KT's network. It also supports various payment methods and the industry's largest number of languages, up to 10. An administrator app is provided to easily add or remove limited menus and simplify operation.

Recently, telecommunications companies have been focusing on business-to-business (B2B) services targeting small business owners and SMEs to find breakthroughs in the saturated telecommunications market. According to the Statistics Korea's '2021 Nationwide Business Survey,' there are 5.25 million businesses with fewer than five employees, but their small scale has slowed the spread of DX. The three major telecom companies are targeting the small business market by launching big data-based commercial district analysis and customized solutions.

In particular, HiOrder can accelerate the spread of KT's core new business, robots, as it integrates smoothly with KT's serving robots. When a customer orders via the HiOrder tablet PC, the serving robot autonomously delivers the food from the serving location to the order table without any additional operation procedures. Although the product has not yet been officially launched, some establishments have proactively introduced HiOrder linked with serving robots. Currently, KT supplies serving robots and disinfection robots in rental form, but progress has been slow. By expanding supply linked with the HiOrder platform, KT can speed up robot adoption.

This appears to be part of a long-term plan to popularize robots and evolve into a robot platform provider. KT intends to comprehensively provide services from pre-consulting for robot adoption, installation, remote monitoring, on-site after-sales service (A/S), to network construction. Last month, KT unveiled its self-developed robot platform 'Robot Makers' at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2023 held in Barcelona, Spain. The cloud-based platform aims to connect all necessary infrastructure for robots, including elevators, ordering/payment applications, doors, intercoms, and cold chain systems. By expanding the supply of HiOrder and serving robots, KT can solidify its position as a robot platform provider.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.