News

Banks moving away from bundled ATM, software purchasing

October 7, 2016

Financial institutions around the world are increasingly looking to separate ATM hardware and software purchasing. The reason — growing complexity in the self-service banking channel and opportunities afforded by a more sophisticated software setup, according to "ATM Software 2016," a study by RBR.

A significant driver of separate hardware and software purchasing is the institution's ability to choose from a broadened range of hardware vendors. This means that they are better able to select self-service devices that fit their needs — and benefit from more competitive pricing.

"[Separate hardware and software purchasing] gives the deployer flexibility to compare vendors and select those which best fulfil its requirements at any given time," said Brazilian ATM deployer TecBan, a participant in the study,

According to the research, banks today are more often considering the total cost of ownership in the ATM software sphere, rather than breaking down cost-benefit analyses into testing, rollout, licensing and other elements.

According to RBR Associate Daniel Dawson, who led the research, "While banks naturally continue to look carefully at the cost of ATM software solutions, the operational factors in favor of separate software purchasing are now far stronger than the factors against it."

Another factor driving independent software purchasing is the trend toward assisted self-service — one of the major growth areas in retail banking technology. Integrating systems such as video conferencing requires a sophisticated — and unified — ATM software platform, RBR said.

The complexities become even more pronounced for financial institutions that want to combine assisted self-service with mobile and internet banking to provide an omnichannel customer experience.