*About the author: Patrick Avery is the editor of Kiosk Marketplace and Self-Service World, two of ATM Marketplace's sister sites.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - At NCR Corp.'s 2006 Self-Service Universe summit, company chief executive Bill Nuti heralded NCR's commitment to driving the use and deployment of self-service.
With more than a year behind him at the company's helm and the company's stock soaring, Nuti took advantage of the 2007 summit to hammer his message home. The summit, a two-day event that pulled about 200 attendees, offers NCR an opportunity to share its perspective on the state of self-service.
"Any business, any government, any healthcare provider that does not have self-service as one of its primary delivery channels will not be competitive in the future," Nuti said.
In his keynote, Nuti preached the necessity of implementing intelligent self. He also said a new "customer-driven self-service movement" is taking shape, driven by three converging technology developments: self-service automation, the Internet and mobility.
Integration of the three will be key to reaching customers, he said.
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| Photograph by Patrick Avery NCR's new Retail Store WayFinder displays animated maps and dispenses gift cards. |
Consumers have fueled the growth of self-service. Last year, individuals booked 560 million plane tickets, rented 600 million DVDs, printed 8.8 billion digital photos and purchased $300 billion in goods and services through the self-service channel, Nuti said. In North America alone, consumers purchased $178 billion in goods at retail self-checkout systems.
Self-service also is expected to account for 58 percent of all customer-service interactions by 2010, up from 35 percent in 2005, according to research.
"The self-service trend is very real and becoming more important to those of you here today," Nuti said.
New technology and kiosks were on display at the event's Technology Forum. NCR has patented simultaneous two-sided thermal printing technology and plans to license it to other companies.
With two-sided printing, users can be more effective and efficient, said Peter Dorsman, vice president and general manager of NCR's Systemedia division. The idea behind two-sided printing is to allow businesses to take advantage of extra space, such as for promotions or couponing.
Relying on less paper also will save trees, electricity and shipping costs, Dorsman said. In the eco-friendly United Kingdom, two-sided printing has already hit grocery stores and is produced at three of the largest thermal paper mills.
NCR also introduced its Retail Store Wayfinder. The Wayfinder, a kiosk originally deployed in hospitals, has been repurposed for retail locations. Customers can search for products by category or barcode; the kiosk then shows maps from current locations to products. Customers also can animate maps, showing the easiest routes to the products Cashiers, restrooms and services desks can be found using Wayfinder, too. Even gift cards can be dispensed at the Wayfinder kiosks.
Wayfinder wasn't the only gift card kiosk. The company also showed its Xpress Gift Card kiosk - similar to Wayfinder, but without mapping functionality.
And NCR's updated FastLane self-checkout units, which are used by more 80 retailers in 16 countries, now include a multilanguage option, a bi-optic scanner and an audio-volume-control button. A mobile handheld device, which allows an attendant to monitor the units from anywhere in the store, also is included.
