News

Star intros remote ATM mngt. service

April 12, 2004

DENVER - Star Systems, a First Data company, has become the first company in the U.S. to develop and deploy advanced remote content management capabilities for ATMs.

The Star service, which is already up and running at nearly 200 PNC ATMs deployed at Wawa stores and Thorntons Inc. stores, allows deployers to customize content and graphics on demand; install software upgrades or patches; distribute audio files and re-boot or shut down terminals, all from a single-server location.

According to a news release, the service, which builds upon on-demand solutions from Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA), is designed for compatibility with Windows-based machines made by any ATM manufacturer.

"Star's innovation has allowed us to make much better use of our ATMs as tools to communicate with customers," said James Walker, PNC's senior vice president, Self-Service Banking. "Being able to change these message on-demand gives us incredible flexibility to make them as valuable as possible. With remote content control, we also can eliminate the expense of a manual, terminal-by-terminal update process."

"Financial institutions, retailers and other ATM deployers consistently say that they want to have more control and predictability in their ATM program, said Ronald Congemi, president, Star Systems/Debit Services. "Star's new service gives our participants unprecedented control over the content, security and operation of their ATMs."

Other features of Star's on-demand ATM control include the ability to pull reports directly from the ATM, allowing the owner to know exactly what versions of software/hardware are on the ATM; last marketing campaign displayed; successful content delivery confirmation; and providing the ability to manage delivery rates of new content to enable the ATM to continue conducting transactions while new content is delivered.

Star also collaborated with CA Technology Services to develop an interface to Star's management portal, Star Station, making it easy for ATM operators to securely alter ATM screen content on-schedule or on-the-fly.

Based on an average dispatch cost of $250, industry costs currently average nearly $6,500 per year, per ATM, to dispatch technicians for semi-monthly services such as loading graphics and security patches.

As financial institutions and other deployers convert to Windows-based capabilities on the more than 93,200 ATMs processed by Star across the United States, cost savings may be in excess of $600 million over the long term, according to the release.