Article

Q&A: Wincor Nixdorf USA CEO discusses challenges, objectives in new position

Wincor Nixdorf USA announced Oliver Weber as its new CEO in early May.

June 23, 2011 by Kim Williams — Reporter, NetWorld Alliance

Wincor Nixdorf USA announced Oliver Weber as its new CEO in early May, and today, less than one month into his tenure, ATMmarketplace talks with Weber about his goals, challenges and objectives in his new position.

Before his CEO appointment, Weber joined Wincor Nixdorf AG in September 2003 as head of Corporate Controlling in Paderborn, Germany. In April 2007, he was selected as chief financial officer and chief operating officer of Wincor Nixdorf USA, which is based in Austin, Texas.

The following responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.

ATMmarketplace: What are some of the challenges you have identified as the new CEO of the U.S. operations?

In 2007, I became the CFO/COO here at Wincor USA, and I had permission to further expand our infrastructure to support a growing business, and my mission now is to further grow the business and increase market share.

I think what you need to know is that all executives at Wincor are deeply involved in sales, so even in my role as CFO/COO, I had already been deeply involved in winning and meeting customers, and that helps tremendously.

So, it's very helpful to have an in-depth understanding about the value of our solutions and the major underlying drivers. I know the customers, and I know what it takes to further grow the business here in the U.S., and I think that's the main reason I was promoted to this role.

Which products and services do you think are more likely to succeed in the U.S. market?

If you think about deposit automation, which we launched on a large scale years ago and are now in the fifth generation, the market is by far still not saturated. We are currently developing the next generation, and we're seeing a lot of interest in the marketplace from our potential customers.

Our Cash Cycle Management Solution (CCMS) is currently being brought to the market right now, and it will help our customers reduce their costs and also increase the customer experience while they are banking, or in the store at the check-out lane.

(Editor's note: CCMS is a combination of retail hardware, software and services designed to secure cash and enhance store operations. The intent of the solution is to automate cash processes to allow employees more time to spend on the sales floor, thus increasing operational productivity and reducing the costs associated with cash handling.)

One of the biggest challenges our customers are facing at the banks is still cash handling cost reduction opportunities. CCMS offers them the ability to reduce these costs by 20 percent.

If we're talking about retailers and the front end of the store where customers are checking out, our technology can reduce the checkout time by 60 percent. This is very important to our retailers to improve the customer experience and increase efficiency.

What are some of your goals and objectives with regard to sales, partnering and events?

The marketplace is showing great interest in our solutions: CCMS, deposit automation, self-checkout solutions and cash management in the retail space. So, I've just decided that I'm going to appoint two VPs, one each for the east and west coasts, to further expand our sales infrastructure in those regions. We have to have more sales people onboard to be able to respond to the growing interest in our solutions. 

As far as partnering, we have and we will evaluate strategic partnerships. One of our most successful partnerships is with FedEx, which is responsible for shipping all of our spare parts in the marketplace. And with a service organization that is growing and represented in 49 out of 50 strategic markets, this partnership is key for our success.

We are also working with partnerships on the services side and will continue to evaluate future partnerships.

As far as events, we will continue to attend the usual shows. What we launched three years ago and will be expanding on, however, is the product and solutions road shows. We basically take our technology and invite customers to customer forums. The responses are overwhelming and the feedback is great. We will do much more of those in the future. 

What would you say to people who may think Wincor Nixdorf USA has encountered some struggles in the U.S. market?

I think to support the growth of our solutions and product sales, we have to find the right talent, and we have to further build up the infrastructure. So those are two of my tasks, as well as to enable the organization to expand in this marketplace.

In the first year or two, I wish to continue along the growth path we are on, and secondly, I want to bring the CCMS solution to the marketplace and make it a real game-changer. 

I think every market is diverse. Wincor is doing business in more than 100 countries, and in more than 40 countries we own legal entities. The U.S. market is very dynamic and extremely receptive to our technology, or technology in general, and I think that's our sweet spot. Therefore, I think this market offers enormous potential for us, and we will benefit from this potential.