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While customer service is a goal of every financial institution, most prefer to concentrate on their own customers. Cashing checks issued to non-customers is not a priority for them; in fact, it's a problem at busy branches where lots of non-customers pour in on payday and tie up the teller lines. InnoVentry, a San Francisco-based company that develops and markets automated financial transactions for the "unbanked," has coined a phrase to describe the phenomenon: cashing an "on-us" check for a "not-on-us" consumer. But while InnoVentry recognized the market, its sales force was too busy with other ventures to call on potential bank customers. Not a bad problem to have. InnoVentry has been deploying its RPM machines -- which cash checks and perform other financial transactions with no bank card required -- in retail locations at an aggressive pace. Since inking contracts with Kroger and Circle K in December of 1999, InnoVentry has installed more than 240 terminals with plans for another 800 or so by the end of the year. InnoVentry needed a partner with strong ties to a large number of financial institutions. Enter Diebold, the leading domestic ATM supplier in 1999. "There are a lot of banks out there, and it would be very time consuming and difficult for us to build a sales force and develop relationships with them," said Mike Preiss, InnoVentry's vice president of strategic alliances. "Diebold already has those relationships. It made sense for both of us to leverage Diebold's sales force." "We already have the feet on the street," agreed Ken Karant, Diebold's manager, financial industry, global marketing. In addition to marketing the machines, Diebold will install and service them. Diebold gains a new product to offer its customers, an important advantage in the rapidly changing and highly competitive ATM industry. "We recognize that broadening the transaction sets for ATMs is essential in today's business," Karant said. "In partnering with other companies, we can bring the best of breed to the table." While the relationship is not an exclusive one, Preiss said, "Diebold has been extremely responsive in developing the hardware changes that we've been interested in making to create this platform." The two companies have lined up a handful of interested financial institutions for beta tests in July. A full rollout of the terminals, 1062ixs outfitted with a variety of special hardware and software, is planned for September. A back-end system that allows a company like InnoVentry to effectively manage risk is a necessity in the check-cashing industry, Karant said. "You must know the person is who they say they are." To that end, Diebold has integrated a biometric facial recognition system into the terminals. A digital camera snaps a photo of a person's face during the initial enrollment process. A new photo is taken and compared with the original each time the machine is used. If InnoVentry's system fails to identify the user, he or she is prompted to pick up a headset and speak to an operator at InnoVentry's call desk. Another high-tech add-on: a check-imaging or "intelligent depository" module that produces a digital scan of the check, front and back, and sends it to InnoVentry for approval and processing. To streamline enrollment, Preiss said InnoVentry can supply a Web browser interface that allows tellers to collect data from non-customers at the teller station. The first time they wish to cash a check at the machine, all they need to do is have their photo taken. In addition to check cashing, the machines can conduct standard card-based ATM transactions. According to Preiss, InnoVentry's preliminary research indicates that up to 30 percent of bank branches are candidates for check-cashing machines. "A product like this, you don't just dream it up and throw it out there. Interest from a number of banks prompted us to create this product and this alliance with Diebold," he said. "If (banks) want to justify it purely on an economic basis, rather than a customer service basis, we think they should see something north of 1,500 transactions a month." Karant believes the market could amount to 1,700 units by the end of 2003. Preiss and Karant think some banks may want to look beyond the branch and consider installing machines at large employers with payroll accounts. "That way, everybody's happy," Preiss said. "The employer has provided a benefit to employees at no cost. Employees like it because they don't have to drive across town to a bank branch and wait in line to cash their check, and the bank likes it because they've freed up their bank lobby."