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Poll: ATM operators want to integrate mobile and Internet services

The 2011 survey found that investment in the ATM channel has increased in the last two years, according to more than half of the survey respondents.

March 30, 2011

The top priorities for ATM professionals this year are to integrate their ATM channels with other banking services, including mobile and the Internet, according to survey results released yesterday by Level Four Software Ltd.

Almost half of respondents stated this as their biggest focus, more important to them than executing a multi-vendor strategy, reducing ATM downtime or upgrading to new IT infrastructure. Sixty-three percent of respondents also said the biggest change to their ATM priorities has been to increase efforts in bringing new services to market through ATMs.

Ian Kerr, CEO of Dunfermline, Scotland-based Level Four (pictured), said this year's results represent a change compared with previous years'.

"Whereas previous years' results highlighted a focus on reducing ATM downtime, what we are now seeing is a shift toward developing the technological capability of the channel in order to offer customers a greater number of services, and to a higher standard," Kerr said. "While issues such as minimizing downtime must not be ignored, these results reflect advances that banks and ATM providers have made in the area. Having resolved some of the technical glitches through solutions such as automated testing, forward thinking institutions not only see the growing revenue opportunity of the channel, but they also have the capacity to act on it."

The 2011 survey also found that investment in the ATM channel has increased in the last two years, according to more than half of the survey respondents. The goals of the higher investment are to generate revenue and to improve the customer experience at the ATM.

"These results demonstrate what those of us working in the industry have known for a long time," Kerr said. "Investment in the ATM channel are increasing and far from competing with new methods of banking such as mobile and online, forward-thinking banks and ATM providers see these channels as complementary and are working to bring them together."

Level Four announced in February that it was conducting an online surveyto determine ATM trends. The poll, which was available on LinkedIn Groups for the ATM Industry Association in Europe.  The survey featured six questions.

Level Four offers software products for the testing and development of ATM services to banks and financial institutions.