Article

ATM software trends report evolves with the market

This year's software trends overview reflects the rise of branch transformation and the critical role of self-service technologies in its success.

July 16, 2015 by Suzanne Cluckey — Owner, Suzanne Cluckey Communications

The following excerpt is from "2015 ATM and Self-service Software Trends," the annual report published by ATM Marketplace and sponsored by KAL ATM Software. The full-length report is now available for free download from this website.

download a free copy of the full report

Of the 742 survey respondents, 49.1 percent identified as FIs, while the remaining 50.9 percent identified as "other." For geographic locations, an almost equal weight of respondents reported base operations in North America, Europe or the Middle East and Asia (29.1, 27.9 and 23.8 percent, respectively).

Participants with an ATM estate of more than 2,000 machines represented the bulk of survey respondents at 33.7 percent, while the 501 to 2,000 machine range followed closely at 28.8. Those representing smaller ATM portfolios entered in at 17 percent with 101 to 500 ATMs, and 20.4 with 1 to 100.

For the number of bank branches represented, having between 1 and 100 comprised the majority of survey participants at 35.6 percent, while those with more than 2,000 represented only 13.9 percent of respondents. For 101 to 500 and 501 to 2,000, there was equal sampling at 25.1 and 25.4, respectively.

Hot topics

It probably comes as no surprise that security and fraud prevention and optimizing operational costs were singled out as the most critical issues facing banks' ATM networks today. Significant focus was also placed on new functionality demands, customer experience and branch transformation.

"Optimizing costs are always a concern, and it is a fine balancing act between operational efficiency and customer satisfaction that all banks strive to maintain. Fraud prevention and security are important too and have a direct impact on operational efficiency and customer satisfaction and trust," said James Trocmé, senior vice president and ATM channel manager for Citibank in the United States.

According to the survey, the biggest challenges FIs face for achieving ATM and self-service goals is, by far, customer acceptance of new or different technologies. Less significant, but still important, are maintaining security and the increasing use of mobile phones for banking transactions.

"ATMs have historically provided a very static user experience with a nongraphical interface and the same core set of peripheral devices supporting a very limited transaction set," said Aravinda Korala, KAL CEO. "However, customers now expect, and banks are delivering, a much richer, and more dynamic experience with graphical, personalized user interfaces and new devices delivering a very wide set of transactions. We are seeing banks around the world providing amazing technology in response to customer demands."

"Once customers learn how to use ATMs or CDMs, they feel the benefits of self-service, but the banks must offer new technologies according to the customer satisfaction indicators," said Alejandro Mena, ‎vice president of ATMs and self-service at Banamex, Mexico.

Survey respondents identified better integration of the ATM with other banking, improved customer experience, and more automation in branches as the most immediate changes banks needed to make to their self-service networks in 2015 and 2016.

photo istock

About Suzanne Cluckey

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Suzanne’s editorial career has spanned three decades and encompassed all B2B and B2C communications formats. Her award-winning work has appeared in trade and consumer media in the United States and internationally.