Article

Commentary: How do you see ATMs changing society?

Longtime industry participant Richard Buckle takes a trip down memory lane.

December 18, 2011

Richard Buckle is the founder and CEO of Pyalla Technologies LLC, a provider of strategic consulting and business development.

Let me introduce myself. There are members of this community who already know that I have enjoyed the opportunity to work for Nixdorf when it was still better known as Nixdorf Computers. In the time that I spent with Nixdorf, I saw firsthand how it commanded quite a presence at the Hanover Fair, long before the organizers split off CeBIT as a separate information and telecommunication industry event. And yes, there were several years in the early 1980s where I didn't miss the Messe!

From my time at Nixdorf I moved to Tandem Computers, better known today as a self-contained group within HP and operating as the NonStop Enterprise Division (NED), where I enjoyed watching the company become a force in the marketplace, providing essentially continuously available intelligent front-ends to many of the financial services' data centers. Following several enjoyable years at Tandem Computers I then moved firstly to Insession Inc., before it was acquired by ACI Worldwide, and then lastly to GoldenGate Software.

All the while, I didn't distant myself from the issues facing today's financial institutions, nor was I too far removed from the networks and devices that today continue to represent the face of these financial institutions to many of their clients. I have been working with vendors on networking protocols as the industry moved away from proprietary technologies rationalizing on IBM's SNA, before the Internet arrived, and the move to TCP/IP proved irresistible for all. And of course, almost simultaneous with these changes, we all watched the demise of some formerly-treasured rock-solid technologies and products such as IBM's PS/2 - OS/2 controllers as well as my all-time favorite, the IBM Series/1.

Through it all, fortunately, the lowly ATM survived. Indeed, for many of us, it thrived. I was still at Nixdorf Computers when one of their earliest models arrived in Australia, and I marveled at how it included a heating element to ensure proper operation in subzero temperatures – obviously a must-have feature in sunny Australia!

This year I participated in user community events in both South Africa and India and had an opportunity to see first-hand the role ATMs play within both countries. The marvelous advantage that comes with this technology is that it dispenses money whether it is located in an office building, the corner of a crowded railway station or alongside a dusty road in a rarely-visited village. As long as a country relies upon cash, the ATM plays a very important role.

Long gone are the days where in countries such as England, and even parts of Australia, the village pub anchored social life. Some may argue that they do remain the cultural heart of the respective societies. After all, where else can you keep up with local politics? Not to mention hear of the latest scores from the county cricket match. Yes, village life has changed a lot in the old country. But in emerging countries, there are less cultural equivalents, and I am wondering whether indeed the ATM will become the new pub? After all, from where I stood, as lines formed, the conversations flowed and there was rarely a moment when something wasn't going on.

The growth of ATMs and their continued presence in our communities is often discussed, and I notice that in the more advanced societies it has led to some observations about how they are now part of our legacy infrastructure. Indeed, cash is becoming obsolete and there's simply better ways to carry on business. However, in the coming years, some of the biggest ATM networks in the world will appear in the most unlikely of countries. No, few discussions in the future will be able to ignore the transition or treat lightly the contribution ATMs will be making when it comes to easing communities into ways of doing business we all just take for granted.

And these ATMs will be doing so much more than dispensing cash – yes, cash will be there, but with the network behind them and the infrastructure in place to ferry any kind of information and services to even the remotest of locations, the future looks pretty bright. Far beyond the support of local commerce, there are elections? education? entertainment? And much more. But about these aspects of ATM deployments, I will leave to another post.

Again, I am looking forward to hearing from you and welcome your feedback and comments. My business life today is centered on expressing opinions and providing commentary, and I really appreciate the feedback. With that, I will move on. How do you see ATMs changing communities, even societies, and will it all be for the best?

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