Many ATM deployers who are considering installing Microsoft Windows-based machines are probably thinking more about the highly hyped bells and whistles - new functionalities like check imaging - than about nuts and bolts.

But Windows also may make it easier to keep ATMs up and running, say vendors and service companies. Windows makes it easier to perform diagnostics at machines and offers the ability to perform at least some service and maintenance tasks remotely.

The diagnosis

PNC Bank has had fewer service calls on its 600 Windows-based machines than on its OS/2 models, said Shelly Chandler, the bank's vice president of ATM Banking. When techs do visit the ATMs, they are spending less time there -- largely because menu-driven diagnostic tools make it easier for them to pinpoint problems.

"We're seeing fewer instances where they need to identify the problem by the process of elimination," she said.

Matthew Burns, senior vice president of electronic banking for National City Bank, said National City has also experienced a reduction in service calls at its 1,500 Diebold Windows-based ATMs -- but he believes it may have as much to do with the age of the machines as the migration to Windows.

"If we replaced our machines with all new OS/2, I think we'd probably see the same kind of impact," he said.

Like Chandler, Burns said diagnostics are far simpler -- even for the National City personnel who handle first-line issues at branches. Intuitive interfaces and enhanced error reporting have "empowered them by inspiring more confidence in their ability to handle service issues."

Second-line calls to branches may decrease, he said. At busy branches, personnel sometimes escalated calls to second line -- which are handled by the vendor's service organization -- when they didn't have time to figure out what was causing problems at ATMs.

The capability to run some diagnostics remotely will be a boon to service providers, said Ed Hovan, owner of Bear Financial, a third-party service company that has installed about a dozen Windows-based ATMs manufactured by South Korea's Nautilus Hyosung for its financial institution clients.

"The more we can find out about a problem before actually going out to a machine, the better prepared we'll be to handle it when we get there," he said.

Details, details

Andy Orent, vice president of NCR's Financial Solutions division in the Americas, said that Windows-based ATMs, especially when combined with IP communications, offer deployers the option of reviewing a fuller set of native status codes for more detailed diagnostics.

"In an OS/2 environment, when those codes hit the switch, they get aggregated and a lot of them are discarded. With Windows, it's easier to dispatch the right tech, at the right time, with the right part," he said, noting that deployers can view codes relating to applications as well as hardware.

PNC has been better able to monitor and manage advertising campaigns downloaded to machines at the Wawa and Thorntons convenience stores, where the majority of its Windows-based ATMs are located.

Chandler, a longtime advocate of ATM advertising, said, "I believe customer-focused, in-store advertising could really take off with this technology" during her recent presentation on Windows-based ATMs at the ATMIA East Conference in Miami. PNC is working with First Data, which drives its machines, to develop day-part ads in which the machines will run ads appropriate for different times of the day.

Chandler said the bank will likely have 700 Windows-based ATMs by the end of 2005, a mixture of Diebold and NCR machines.

Because PNC has experienced some unexpected results with Windows, Chandler said, it has tweaked some of its procedures. For instance, it now requires "a couple extra steps" to get ATMs up and running when software is re-installed because graphics on those machines were wiped out. "We've had to make sure we arrange to have the graphics downloaded again."

Software sensibility

PNC has seen a 50-50 split between service calls involving software and those involving hardware, rather than the 10-90 software/hardware split common in machines running OS/2, Chandler said.

ATMs are becoming more software driven, said Robert Malik, senior vice president of third-party service provider Efmark, which has doubled the training time for its technicians as machines have become more sophisticated.

"It used to be if you could repair a copy machine, you were a good candidate to become an ATM technician; that's not as true today," said Malik. The ideal candidate for tech training has a two-year computer degree from a technical college and some background in telecommunications -- increasingly important as many banks using Windows are also switching from bisync to IP communications.

"It's more important for techs to understand the networking side of ATMs and the equipment like routers that goes along with it," agreed Woody Alderman, president of Atlanta Computer Group, a third-party service provider.

Nearer not necessarily dearer

NCR's Orent said that banks and other ATM owners are just beginning to discover some of the service-related capabilities of Windows-based machines. As deployers move to a combination of Windows and IP networks, he said, it will become less common to send techs to machines for routine fixes such as rebooting ATMs.

"A high percentage of service calls are resolved by rebooting the machine," he said. "With Windows and IP, we can do that remotely. You won't have to have the machine out of service for two hours to give the tech a chance to get there."

Some of the world's largest banks already distribute software remotely to their Windows-based ATMs, Orent said, a key advantage when it comes to patches and other important updates. Remote distribution is faster and costs "a fraction" of the traditional "sneakernet" method.

PNC has downloaded at least one software patch to some of its Windows-based ATMs, which piggyback on the frame relay networks of partners like Wawa. But Chandler said remote distribution is sometimes limited by bandwidth.

"We've had to involve our partners in the process more," she said. "With all of these new capabilities, we want to make sure we don't adversely impact their communications networks."