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Software links those in the ATM cash supply chain

Software developer e-Classic Systems is trying to make the cash supply process more seamless for some of its customers -- ISOs, cash providers and armored carriers -- who are using its ATM Manager Pro.

July 29, 2003

A 1970s era commercial for shampoo featured a lathered, smiling woman gushing that she planned to "tell two friends" about her favorite grooming product, "and she'll tell two friends, and so on, and so on."

Software developer e-Classic Systems is hoping for a similarly cumulative effect that will result in an improved chain of communications between some of its clients -- namely vault cash providers, armored carriers and ATM deployers.

Tom Meurer, e-Classic's president, said the idea is to give deployers using ATM Manager Pro the ability to export cash orders to their vault cash providers and to import cash reconciliation data from their armored carriers -- both in the XML-based e-Classics format.

Using the e-Classics import/export function can help all of the parties minimize the time required to re-enter data that is typically sent in Excel spreadsheets via fax or e-mail, Meurer said.

"It offers a way for our customers to cut costs and reduce their paper load," Meurer said. "We can help them reduce the manual keying, the faxes and the spreadsheets."

It also speeds the actual delivery of cash and cuts down on the potential for human error, said Jack O'Toole, president of ISA-Ecash, a Massachusetts-based ISO that has been electronically sending its orders in e-Classic format to cash provider Chart Bank, also an ATM Pro user, for about five months.

"With someone doing data entry, you've always got the possibility that terminal numbers could get transposed and you'd end up with cash going to the wrong ATMs. Or $16,000 could become $6,000 or $160,000," O'Toole said. "By the time you find out about it, it's too late."

O'Toole hopes that at least some of the seven armored carriers that serve ISA-Ecash will consider using the e-Classic format as well. He believes that some armored carriers may buy into the concept with the encouragement of large cash providers and ISOs.

Palm Desert National Bank (PDNB), one of the country's largest vault cash providers, recently agreed to begin accepting cash orders in an e-Classic format from some of its clients, most notably E*Trade Access. PDNB will also convert the reconciliation data collected from armored carriers to e-Classic format and export it to E*Trade and other ATM Manager Pro users.

Mark Holland, PDNB's senior vice president, said that using e-Classics will speed the reconciliation process. "If there are any overs or shorts on a terminal, we'll know about them sooner rather than later. We can import it, work it, resolve it and report it back to (the ISO). It will cut down on a lot of e-mails going back and forth."

PDNB will continue to use its proprietary Trakker software to fulfill its customers' cash forecasting and reconciliation needs, Holland said.

PDNB also plans to begin exporting the billing information generated in Trakker in e-Classic format to its customers who are ATM Manager Pro users.

Holland noted that the companies' mutual customers, including some of the country's largest ISOs, are helping them identify ways to utilize e-Classics. "We're trying to improve the communication between customers and ourselves and add as much value to the relationship as possible," he said.

Meurer said that other vault cash providers who are ATM Manager Pro users such as Kansas' Horizon National Bank also have shown interest in importing orders and exporting reconciliation data in the e-Classic format.

Adding armored carriers to the loop would streamline the process even more, Meurer said. An ISO would export an order in e-Classic format to its cash provider, which would import it and then export it to the armored carrier. The carrier would in turn export the reconciliation data to the cash provider, which would import it and export it to the ISO.

"Nobody would have to re-key anything in that path," Meurer said.

At least one armored carrier which is already an ATM Manager Pro user, New Jersey's Shields Business Solutions, plans to begin importing and exporting data in e-Classic format. Ted Capaldi, Shields executive vice president, said the project is on hold while his company converts to a SQL server format.

Until about a year ago, Shields faxed reconciliation reports daily to ISOs and cash providers, then switched to sending it in an Excel format via e-mail. "Using the import/export functionality allows ATM Manager Pro users to get the full benefit of the system by minimizing the opportunity for clerical errors," he said.

Shields has used ATM Manager Pro as its vault system for the past two years, forecasting cash needs and coordinating service calls for its own ATMs, Capaldi said.