News

An ATM by any other name...

It's getting harder and harder to tell an ATM from a kiosk in a new world of e-commerce and Web-enabled units.by Katherine L. Sears, associate editor

October 28, 1999

Since kiosks have emerged into multi-function, self-service terminals, where does that leave the ATM? With ATMs also carrying multi-functions, from concert ticket dispensing to e commerce capabilities, the line of distinction between the two machines appears to be blurring. Some industry insiders see the expansion of the kiosk as a good thing for the ATM industry. "The trend toward greater customer acceptance of self-service terminals can only help the ATM industry," surmised Lyle Elias, president of Greenlink Technologies, a Hurst, Texas-based ATM manufacturer. Elias said there are two different types of kiosks -- an information kiosk and a financial or self-service kiosk that may or may not offer ATM functionality. "A self-service terminal for financial applications is where I think the ATM world comes in," he said. If an ATM carries any other functions, such as ticket or phone card dispensing, Elias said it must incorporate POS functionality. After working with both kiosks and ATMs in terms of ad placement, Ray Knight, chief marketing officer of Miami-based Inter Active Touch Marketing (IATM), said he is placing his bets on the ATM industry as retailers' medium of choice for both brand recognition and consumer service. "I am a convert to ATMs," he said. Mine your own business Knight believes that self-service terminals in the form of both kiosks and ATMs offer a goldmine for advertisers. One of the benefits stems from the specific information about consumer behavior companies can retrieve through data stored on the terminal. Although today's deployers tend to use terminals for actual sales and service operations, Knight said that he believes they will become more valuable as an information tool. "I think kiosks will go to the next dimension and follow Internet portals and give something for free in order to get valid feedback on consumer data," Knight said. "The power is in that data base and data mining possibilities." Both Knight and Elias say there is no harm in cross marketing the mediums. However, Elias emphasized the distinction between the financial self-service kiosk and the information kiosk. While he sees parallels, there are differences that could cause problems while trying to market the various functions. "There are some services that, if you try to put them through the same terminal, actually conflict with each other," he said. "We can make the ATM machine do anything you want it to do, but it doesn't do any good unless there's somebody behind the scenes driving that ATM and providing that platform." Driving Miss EMMA Los Angeles-based Cash Technologies is marketing EMMA, an e-commerce platform that can drive a variety of functions that further blur the differences between ATMs and kiosks. Cash Technologies also is developing the ATMx, a multi-function ATM/kiosk. To Bruce Korman, chief executive officer of Cash Technologies, there is no distinction between kiosks and ATMs because of the new possibilities for both to perform a multitude of services enabled by EMMA. "Our system bridges the gap between the two and bridges the gap between all the networks," Korman said of EMMA. He presented a scenario in which an individual could use a kiosk/ATM to search for a job, then order airline tickets to travel to the potential employer site and pay his or her electric bill, all at the same machine. "The packet of information that is transmitted by the kiosk or the ATM to the EMMA processing system will be constructed the same way whether it's an ATM, kiosk or Internet PC," Korman said. Trend setting IATM's Knight said he sees our convenience-demanding society driving the trend to redefine ATMs as "more than just a source of cash... When you look at the new versions of ATMs coming out from the major manufacturers, they're definitely moving into having the ability to do several different functions all at one location." Kiosks have endured a process of trial and error for people to figure out "how to best use kiosks in a retail or consumer service environment," Knight said. With larger companies now recognizing the kiosk as a "proven self-service, information- dispensing machine," Knight said to expect larger roll-outs of new machines. One trend gaining popularity is the Internet-access kiosk, which has been deployed at high-traffic areas geared to travelers, such as airport and bus terminals. Still another application for ATMs/kiosks is just gaining ground -- establishing the terminal as an e-commerce portal, Knight said. Knight said that the ATM, because of its sheer numbers and large user base, serves as a "very powerful self-service vending machine." The kiosk industry, on the other hand, is still very fragmented. "For the kiosk players to move into the ATM arena, it's a much more complex situation," Knight said. The key for success, he said, is to heavily brand the kiosk's functions to integrate it as a way of life in a society which already expects every bank to have an ATM. Knight is excited by the prospect that both can one day be part of a grander vision of providing a "unique, digital place-based distribution system which enables brand awareness."