Article

Getting the (price) point

High-end features and low-end price -- ATM deployers want it all, but can manufacturers afford to give it to them? NCR and Diebold are trying to find out. by Ann All, editor

March 11, 2002

Determining what features off-site ATM deployers want and what price they're willing to pay for them is a puzzle that all manufacturers are trying to solve. It's been a special challenge for Diebold, NCR and other relative newcomers to the off site market.

"It's a dilemma that every manufacturer and deployer faces. People want a low price point, but they also want a lot of features," said Robert Nemens, marketing manager, worldwide marketing for Diebold. "Finding that middle ground is a challenge for us all."

After catering to the financial institution market for years, Diebold and NCR began reassessing their product lines after Triton and Tidel took the off-site market by storm. Their earliest off-site entries got mixed reviews. After some tweaking, Diebold's CashSource Plus and NCR's The Cash are now available in slightly different incarnations.

Diebold's CashSource Plus

An improved CashSource Plus, a POS-based terminal first introduced in April of 1998, is now called the CashSource Plus 100. It's been joined by the CashSource Plus 200, a more robust POS-based terminal, and the CashSource Plus 400, a PC-based terminal.

Nemens said the CashSource Plus 100 and 200 are positioned with Triton and Tidel machines in terms of functionality, while the 400 is more similar to the products of NCR and Siemens Nixdorf. The 400 was introduced to meet the demand for features like a larger color screen and enhanced processing power. Depending on volumes purchased, the CashSource Plus line is priced from $5,000 to $11,000.

Once found primarily on bank ATMs, Nemens said high-performance features now appeal to all deployers with an eye on generating revenue beyond the surcharge. As transactions per machine continue to decline, the off-site market is showing increased interest in couponing, promotional screens and even MPEG video. Staying on top of such trends is important.

"More and more we're getting demands for different applications that are going to give them profitable deployments," he said. "You can make a less expensive ATM, but it's in everyone's interest to try and bring more revenue-generating applications to the market."

Diebold's provisor currency module is an unusual application that was designed to reduce the cost of cash replenishment. The module, which allows a merchant to load cash directly into a machine, is available on the CashSource Plus 400. Diebold may add it as a standard offering on other models.

"The armored car cost is prohibitive at low-volume sites, but the provisor makes it very profitable to deal with sites averaging 600 transactions a month or less," Nemens said. "We're the only ones addressing this last large cost hurdle."

NCR's 8000 and MCD

NCR's POS-based The Cash evolved into the 8000, a joint project with TBS First. NCR manufactures the machine, and TBS First provides the software, support and service. Diane Warner, NCR's director of marketing, entry-level ATM systems, said the 8000 "combines TBS First's software and service capabilities with NCR's technological capabilities."

NCR also introduced the MCD, a PC-based machine with fuller features, including a 7 1/2-inch color screen, electronic journaling and multimedia cassette. Access Cash, TRM Corp. and McLane FSP have signed on as early customers for the recently-released MCD. NCR did not release pricing for the product.

Warner said NCR is positioning the MCD as "a dynamic tool" for those interested in on-screen advertising. "I think it's going to be a powerful tool, and it's going to generate revenue for the deployer, the company actually doing the advertising and hopefully for NCR."

The MCD comes in four models for the U.S. market: business hours single or double cassette and UL 291 single or double cassette. By offering just four models, NCR hopes to simplify the purchasing process.

"We've tried to make it very simple, similar to what Dell has done in PCs," Warner said. "We want it to be easy to do business with NCR." Ultimately, NCR hopes to follow Dell's lead even more closely by making it possible to order the MCD off the Internet.

The simplicity carries over to the actual design of the MCD. "We've always tried to be modular and plug and play in our architecture, and this is no exception," Warner said. "We look at serviceability from a hardware and software standpoint."

Information central

Remote monitoring is another feature much in demand by off-site deployers, who know they're not going to make money if their machines aren't up and running. Both Diebold and NCR offer software options to address this need on their lower-priced cash dispensers.

Diebold's CashSource Plus Manager enables status monitoring and downloading of graphics and text on the 100 and 200. "It offers the deployer a certain amount of control over their network," Nemens said.

Warner said NCR's Remote ATM Control is a "powerful tool" that provides the same type of remote management capabilities on the MCD.

The great outdoors

In addition to the CashSource Plus line, Diebold recently introduced the 1075ix, a self-contained, walk-up cash dispenser, and the 1077ix, a drive-up cash dispenser. "We're trying to put off-premise applications out there for every customer, and for every particular business issue they're trying to address," Nemens explained.

He said the 1075ix will be an attractive option for movie theaters, strip malls, amusement parks or convenience stores with no room for an interior machine. Deploying machines at such locations is expensive, because a new structure is typically built to house the machine or modifications are made to an existing structure. Nemens said the 1075ix can be deployed for one-third to one-half the cost of a traditional machine.

The 1077ix was introduced to capitalize on a quirk of customer behavior: drive-up machines generally have higher transaction volumes. Nemens thinks it will work especially well at locations that already do a good deal of drive-up business, such as fast food restaurants.

An ATM by any other name...

Though NCR and Diebold have made some adjustments in their product lines to appeal to the off-site market, both Warner and Nemens say their companies' reputation for quality is just as important to ISOs and other independents as it is to financial institutions.

"We've been in the business for a number of years and been the world leader for 12 consecutive years, so from that standpoint I think we're definitely a product and a brand that customers can trust," Warner said.

"The expectation our customers have is for us to help them be successful. That's pretty much what our strategic position is," Nemens said. "We put the same amount of research and development effort and quality control into the CashSource Plus product line as we do all of our products."

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