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Advanced apps gain momentum at NACS

ISO Financial Technologies and manufacturers Tidel and Triton are among the companies that will launch new ATM applications at next week's NACS Show 2002. All have recently inked deals with service providers such as Western Union, Euronet and CashWorks in an effort to get some of these applications off the drawing board and into the c-store.

October 3, 2002

The way Tommy Glenn sees it, there is no downside to offering advanced functionality at the ATM -- at least not the way he envisions it, with manufacturers, transaction processors and deployers all working together to make it happen.

"This will be profitable from the first transaction," said Glenn, the president of Financial )Technologies (FTI), a Jackson, Miss.-based ISO with about 4,000 ATMs under contract. "There's no added cost to the merchant or the ISO."

In an industry not noted for its teamwork, Glenn has spent the past year working with a group of manufacturers, processors, ISOs and service providers, trying to get at least a handful of advanced applications off the drawing board and into the c-store.

The cooperation is necessary because new software is required on both new and existing ATMs to offer any advanced transactions, including check cashing and prepaid phone top-ups. Processors also must support these non-traditional transactions at the host end.

The sheer number of different parties involved presented Glenn with his biggest challenge. "We had to convince each one of them that there was a business case for them," he said.

Introducing the apps

The result of Glenn's efforts will be on display at next week's NACS (National Association of Convenience Stores) Show 2002in Orlando, Fla., where FTI will show check cashing, prepaid wireless top-ups and prepaid long distance on Triton and Tidel ATMs in its booth (#5743).

FTI issued three news releases this week -- announcing separate deals with Triton, Tidel and Euronet, which provides financial payment middleware to wireless carriers and other service providers.

Earlier this year FTI announced a distribution deal with CashWorks, the developer of a program which uses a proprietary POS terminal called PayPort to approve check cashing transactions and an ATM to dispense the funds. CashWorks is currently working with Tidel, with Triton expected to offer check cashing support later this month.

CashWorks has also signed deals with several other ISOs, including Houston-based Cardtronics and Momentum Cash Systems.

Glenn called the flurry of agreements "a step in the direction that (the industry) needs to move."

Beyond the surcharge

With overall per-ATM transaction volumes on the decline -- falling from 4,973 per machine in 1998 to 3,308 in 2002, according to ATM & Debit News -- Glenn said it's becoming increasingly difficult for most retail deployers to achieve growth using a traditional surcharge-based business model.

While he expects that it will take some time for new transactions such as check cashing and phone top-ups to catch on with consumers, Glenn said it's high time for the ATM industry to begin offering them.

"We can't really worry about whether any of these things are going to be a home run," he said. "It's time to start hitting some singles."

According to Glenn, FTI has already rolled out five Tidel ATMs in the CashWorks program and plans to begin offering prepaid wireless and prepaid long distance on some of its machines within 30 days after NACS.

Tidel also will show CashWorks check cashing and Euronet prepaid phone time at its ATMs in booth #1122 at NACS. "We think these services provide even more value to our hardware, which we believe is already the best value in the industry," said Matt Johnson, Tidel's marketing manager.

New services will be available on Tidel's is ATM series, Johnson said.

Making Waves

Anita Nobles Arguelles, Triton's marketing manager, said that Triton expects to begin shipping ATMs with software for its new Waves -- With Value Added Enabled Services -- program by Dec. 4. Waves will be offered on Triton's 9700, 9100 and 9600 models -- in that order.

Triton will introduce the first services to be offered through Waves -- Western Union money transfers, CashWorks check cashing and Euronet prepaid wireless phone top-ups -- in its booth (#3113) at NACS.

Triton intends to add new services to Waves in multiples or "bundles," Arguelles said, to minimize the number of upgrades required to offer advanced transactions.

"We think there's a power in that," she said. "That way, a merchant can opt to turn on A, B and C or just A and C, or any combination that works best for him."

Another advantage, Arguelles said, is the fact that merchants with existing hardware can offer new services with little expense.

An inexpensive implementation will be necessary to win widespread acceptance from merchants and, ultimately, consumers, Glenn said. "With no delivery or personnel cost, I don't think there will be any pushback from merchants."

FTI plans to load the new required software on ATMs as part of its regular service rounds, Glenn said, beginning with the 500 machines it owns. "We're going to add the software to all of our terminals unless a merchant absolutely tells us not to."

In a few cases, Glenn said, older ATMs may require memory upgrades.

According to Glenn, Triton and Tidel are offering the necessary software licenses to FTI and other distributors at no cost in exchange for an ongoing share of income generated by the new transactions.

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