News

NCR, Automatia team up to ensure ATMs dispense cold, hard cash

October 14, 2013

Finnish winters can be brutal, with temps falling as low as 22 degrees below zero — extreme cold that can be problematic when it comes to keeping the electronic and electro-mechanical components of an ATM up and running. In a project for Finnish IAD Automatia, NCR Corp. has devised a solution to help minimize downtime due to the bone-chilling cold.

Automatia tapped NCR to replace 600 of its 1,700 ATMs with NCR SelfServ 25 and 26 machines. The project is an extension of an Automatia upgrade that started in 2010 with the replacement of 300 lobby ATMs in the Automatia network with NCR SelfServ 22 units. 

As part of the deployment, the NCR professional services team developed a custom pressurization kit to combat the effects on the ATM of extreme cold — and even dust. The result is greater availability of ATMs for consumers, NCR said in a news release.

"Finnish retail banks rely on Automatia to provide an up-to-date network of ATMs across the country," said Automatia CIO Esa Makkonen. "Fundamental to this service is a high degree of uptime for ATMs."

A key partner in the Automatia deployments is Fujitsu Finland Oy, the NCR release said. The company maintains almost all ATMs in Finland, and also develops applications for self-service customers. 

"[R]etail banks need to be more agile," said Hannu Mantymaki, software services manager at Fujitsu. "Software is key to making this possible. Fujitsu has been working closely with Automatia, NCR and retail banks to ensure that flexible, innovative software solutions are integrated into the latest hardware being deployed throughout Automatia's ATM network."

According to Maarten Bais, director in Northern Europe for financial services at NCR, the project will enable branch network transformation for banks served by Automatia.

"Automatia is enabling this ... by providing the latest ATM solutions from NCR to their network across Finland. Of particular note is the innovative technology developed with the Automatia team to combat down-time issues associated with extremely low temperatures that arise in Finland."

Read more about installation and deployment.