Tekserve, New York’s largest independent Apple retailer and consultancy, today announced that it is working with OTG, an award-winning airport food and beverage operator, to deploy iPad kiosks in restaurants at New York’s John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia Airports, Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and Toronto Pearson International Airport. Tekserve Business Solutions will help streamline OTG’s iPad configuration and deployment to significantly reduce planning and implementation time of the project. The Tekserve team has already assisted in deploying 1,000 devices, with a goal of deploying more than 7,000 by the end of 2013.

OTG began providing an iPad experience in 2010, with the goal of giving the tablet a public-facing role in the company’s restaurants. Following the program’s pilot project at LaGuardia Airport in November 2010, airline passengers now use the iPad kiosks to order food, browse the internet and play games, all while the device tracks their flight status. Tekserve has served as the iPad provider and strategic consultants since August 2012, using a 40-point checklist to properly configure and secure each iPad for OTG so they are ready to install out-of-the-box, without additional effort from the OTG team. The iPads arrive at OTG in a secure case to protect the device, and with software protections to guard customer privacy. With Tekserve on board, OTG has deployed hundreds of iPads each week, reduced iPad prep time from two weeks to 24 to 48 hours, and slashed set up time per kiosk from two hours to 10 to 15 minutes. In total, deployment time has decreased 75 percent since the partnership.

“We are always looking for new ways to deliver this wonderful experience to travelers in an engaging and effective fashion, and teaming with Tekserve is a great example in how we are doing so,” said Rick Blatstein, CEO, OTG. “Given the scope of our iPad deployment, we looked for expertise that could quickly and effectively work with us to achieve our goal of deploying more than 7,000 iPads by the end of 2013, and Tekserve is providing the deep knowledge and proven experience we were looking for.”

“OTG is constantly evolving every aspect of airport dining for its customers, and it is no surprise that they are leading the charge in providing travelers with one of the most highly demanded devices to enhance their experience,” said Aaron Freimark, CTO, Tekserve. “Working with OTG was a natural fit for us, because we believe that iPads as interactive kiosks will disrupt what we know of customer service today. Putting appropriate technology in traveler’s hands allows them to explore their options more confidently, and more importantly, have fun with it. OTG is a great example of how giving consumers this level of confidence can lead to double-digit increases in sales and create an experience where customers forget they are using technology and can just enjoy a new enhancement to their travel experience.”

Albert Lee, Chief Technology Officer for OTG, will be discussing the OTG and Tekserve partnership at an upcoming lunch briefing in New York on December 6. To attend, please email business@tekserve.com for more information.

About OTG

OTG (www.otgmanagement.com) is an award-winning airport food & beverage operator with more than 150 restaurants and eateries in ten airports, including Minneapolis-St. Paul, John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia, Toronto Pearson (2012), Boston Logan, Tucson, Washington National, Orlando, Chicago O’Hare and Philadelphia. Since its entry into airports in 1996, OTG has been recognized throughout the industry for its exceptional customer focus and groundbreaking innovation; growing to become the second largest privately held airport restaurateur in the US in just over a decade.

About Tekserve

Tekserve Business Solutions helps CIOs and technology decision-makers best integrate solutions into the complex heterogeneous IT environment in the enterprise and includes Tekserve’s renowned Pro solutions, rich media production, storage and advisory services. The solutions practice is complemented by the Tekserve retail store, built specifically for consumers who want the best possible experience buying and using Apple products.