Article

Going global: Transforming an established ATM brand into a vision for the future

Responding to market changes requires outside-the-box thinking.

March 25, 2009 by Tom Riley — VP Sales & Marketing, Airis ATM Technologies

The downturn of the global economy has impacted the ATM business and those who work within it in unforeseen ways. Just a year ago, some of the market challenges and drivers we now face could not have been predicted or expected. And a once-profitable way of doing business is no guarantee for future success.

Tom Riley

These market changes have pushed ATM companies to respond. From my own experience, as a member of the executive management team of Airis ATM Technologies, the last several months have been spent traveling the road of business renewal and redirection.

In 2007, when Airis purchased Cincinnati-based The ATM Exchange, it acquired a well-known and profitable ATM company. But the ATM industry was already changing, and our team knew we had to adjust some of our business goals and visions.

Know your core competency

The U.S. ATM market was nearing saturation, with limited incremental growth opportunity. Additionally, the once-stable industry, where ATM ownership was concerned, was beginning to experience massive and rapid consolidation. So The ATM Exchange business model — most notable for providing low-priced, refurbished ATMs to small financial institutions — was facing an immediate need for reevaluation and transition.

That transition involved a few things. One, we wanted to build on the reputation and niche business The ATM Exchange had created in the ATM refurbishing business, but we needed to add value through a more extensive service channel. We wanted to expand multivendor ATM support, and we wanted to reach a broader global customer base.

Understand your limitations

We realized that being a small business had its own limitations. And understanding those limitations, Airis chose to focus on the Americas, Africa and Europe, rather than the entire world at once.

But even a focused global approach posed some challenges. How would we communicate in a direct way with international customers?

Rely on partners

We quickly learned that we could not go it alone. By partnering with entities we once deemed competitors, we were able to extend our international reach with service and support. Strategic partnerships allowed us to manage travel expenses and improve operational efficiency.

The ATM Exchange had brokered international sales before our acquisition, but we had to push to develop even more global relationships. By working with companies such as ACAL ATM Parts in the United Kingdom, for instance, we were able to leverage not only our geographic reach but also our ability to access a limited supply of spare parts.

Considerations

1. Know your core competency and how to build on it.

2. If you do plan to expand, whether in service, geographic reach or business offering, don't bite off more than you can chew. Understand your limitations.

3. Rely on partners for additional expertise, rather than re-inventing the proverbial wheel.

4. Understand the markets you are working in, culturally, logistically and economically, especially if you plan to go international.

In the ATM industry, competitors oftentimes also are customers and partners, so fostering relationships with global suppliers is important. In this challenging economy, building relationships helped Airis adjust and adapt its own business model to focus more on the distribution of spare parts and less on refurbished ATMs.

To build a more direct relationship with original equipment manufacturers, we leaned on our fellow value-added-resellers of Triton Systems of Delaware and Nautilus Hyosung, and also increased our interaction with other established bank ATM manufacturers and their networks.

But communication remained and still remains the key issue.

Understand the markets you are working in

Effective communication must consider cultural sensitivity and diversity, as well as face-to-face interactions, and should rely on tools now available in the digital age. International travel budgets, global trade events, a Web site with multilingual capabilities and easy navigation, and support from state and federal departments of trade and commerce, we learned, are must-haves.

Not every ATM company will find value in international expansion, but every ATM player should be considering its next course of action and its ability to respond to market changes with agility.

Thomas Riley is a member of the Airis executive management team. He also is principle consultant and owner of Eureka Communications LLC, a marketing communications and consulting firm that works with small businesses in the global marketplace. To submit a comment about this commentary, please e-mail the editor, Tracy Kitten.