Check me in!

Check me in!
Tags: Advertising / CRM, Bank Automation, Cash Dispenser / Recycler / Acceptor, Transaction Processing
January 17, 2012

I finally found time to read the report “2011 ATM Software – Trends and Analysis.” It’s at the top of the list of the most popular white papers on ATMmarketplace.com for December, according to a promotional email that came my way this morning. I found it to be an interesting read as no doubt many of you did, too.

Three items really stood out for me: the first was about Wells Fargo and its ATM customers in San Francisco, who can now opt “to have transaction receipts sent to their email accounts” (page 5). The second, deeper into the report, described how “Banks will break out their ATMs by type — onsite, deposit-taking, event-based, shopping malls, etc.” (page 7, from a statement by Nicole Sturgill of research firm TowerGroup).

As for the third item, it was about a future that would support more innovative ATMs, where “in addition to withdrawing cash consumers will be able to download music, purchase greeting cards and toiletries, and check movie listings” (page 30, from a report by the San Jose, California research firm Global Industry Analysts, Inc.). Definitely a break with what many of us ever expected to see dispensed from our favorite corner ATM.

My interest in these three points harkens back to my time at ACI Worldwide. Inspired by a lively exchange with a colleague where a considerable number of adult beverages were involved, I later led a roundtable discussion involving a major bank’s employees and representatives from the service bureau that handled the reservations system for a major airline.

The opportunity?

Help road warriors like me expedite the airport check-in process by allowing ATMs to dispense not only much-needed cash, but also boarding passes. As I jumped from one city to the next I was always running out of time and standing in line was never a process I enjoyed.

The outcome was less than I expected, as the major bank’s employees couldn’t see volumes that justified additional ATM software. But now I can see that I wasn’t adventurous enough.

Imagine this fellow road warriors: We walk into the lobby of our favorite hotel and head for the ATM; we pull the cash we need for the following day; we have the machine encode our ATM card as our hotel room key and provide us with toiletries based on our profile; we order room service timed to arrive after we unpack. And finally, we order up a movie and request that it download to our wireless PC or tablet should we fall asleep before it finishes.

As we check out the following morning, we again head for the ATM where we have our statement emailed to our home office computer, get our boarding pass sent to our phone along with an updated itinerary and weather information and, oh yes, order a cab. Newly deployed wireless power will also give us an opportunity to recharge our phones and tablets as we interface with this latest generation ATM.

Of course with the likely advancements in biometrics, perhaps all of this will be achieved simply upon recognition. We are getting oh so close to what we saw in the Tom Cruise movie, Minority Report, which was recently reinforced after a fashion in his current movie, Mission Impossible.

As I thought about the three points from the white paper and the failed meeting with the bankers, I wondered if that failure perhaps had nothing to do with the idea I presented, or its not being being adventurous enough. Perhaps instead it was more a reflection of the real need for vastly improved ATM software, as suggested in “2011 ATM Software – Trends and Analysis.”

The white paper reported that when survey participants were asked “What is the primary driver (or drivers) for changing ATM software?” most said “added functionality” (such as advertising and new transactions). And when asked “What are the new features of ATM software you most desire?” they said they wanted the “ability to easily make changes.” Of course the flexibility of being able to add new function with ease goes hand in glove with good software that makes it simple to do. All while controlling costs, of course.

The popularity of ATMs shows no sign of declining anytime soon and I suspect that our increased dependence on cash may have nothing to do with their increasing popularity. To borrow a phrase from another industry, it could end up being as much about “location, location, location” as any other factor. And for road warriors this makes all the sense in the world!