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Tidel shows reworked Chameleon at NACS

Tidel's Chameleon, renamed the 3800, has a new look, new operating system and new software development partner. ATM USA is one of the first ATM operators with big plans for the 3800.

November 3, 2003

The Chameleon, an advanced function terminal which manufacturer Tidel billed as "the most dramatic breakthrough in ATMs" when it launched the product in 1999, never really caught on with deployers.

That was then and this is now, said Matt Johnson, Tidel's vice president of marketing. A reworked version of the Chameleon, now called the 3800, got star billing in the Tidel booth at NACS Show 2003 at Chicago's McCormick Place.

Chameleon was "perhaps ahead of its time," Johnson said. Following real-world examples of advanced ATM functionality, most notably 7-Eleven's Vcom program, the market is now more receptive to the idea of moving transactions such as money order purchases to an ATM, he said.

Tidel's 3800 caught lots of looks at NACS Show 2003 in Chicago.

The footprint of the 3800, which runs on a Windows NT operating system, has been scaled down so that it is comparable to other Tidel models.

The machine's 12-inch color touchscreen adds oomph and makes it easier to navigate through transaction prompts -- important when new and unfamiliar transactions are added, Johnson said.

Tidel has partnered with software developer Infonoxto create interfaces to a variety of peripherals, including a money order printer, check scanner, bill acceptor and thumbprint scanner (for biometric identification of folks cashing checks)

Deployers who may not need the horsepower of a 3800 but are interested in positioning themselves for future functionality can convert Tidel's firmware-based 3400 to a PC-based platform by switching the board and adding TCP/IP connectivity, Johnson said. That essentially turns the 3400 into a new 3600 model, which runs a Windows CE operating system.

"The key to it all is scalability," Johnson said. "With the 3400, there is a definite upgrade path."

Tidel expects to go into production on both the 3600 and 3800 in 2004's first quarter, he said.

Flying the functionality flag

"Tidel has the first prototype and this is the second one. If the show had been a week earlier, we wouldn't have been able to show this," said ATM USA national sales manager Tom Settles, gesturing toward a shiny 3800 the Raleigh, N.C.-based ISO plans to market to retailers as the PAYtriot.

ATM USA is targeting existing retail customers with five or more locations. At PAYtriot locations that generate 500 transactions a month, including standard and advanced ATM transactions, Settles believes that retailers could clear as much as $2,000 a month.

Like Tidel's Johnson, Settles feels that consumers are now more open to the idea of advanced self-service transactions, at ATMs as well as other terminals. "Look at how big the airport check-in kiosks have gotten," he said. "People really like them, and they use the heck out of them."

ATM USA plans to offer money transfer, bill payment, money orders, check cashing and prepaid products such as cellular phone time in addition to standard ATM transactions. Settles believes that money orders may be the strongest performer, at least initially.

"We've talked to six of our customers. One of them sells 10 money orders a day at the counter," he said.

Settles compared the PAYtriot's functionality to that of 7-Eleven's Vcom, which is manufactured by NCR. It costs roughly half as much as Vcom, he estimated.

An advantage to Tidel's partnership with Infonox, Settles said, is that certification issues are minimized because the software developer handles the back end on all of the non-traditional ATM transactions.

ATM USA will likely sell the 3800 outright to merchants rather than using it for placements, Settles said, although 50/50 placements are a possibility for merchants willing to load their own cash.

Full placements could be cost prohibitive if consumer acceptance of new transactions takes off, Settles said. "You'd have an armored (carrier) in there every other day with the check cashing and other transactions."

ATM USA plans to let merchants try out the PAYtriot before committing to a purchase, Settles said. "We'll put it in there and let them operate it for 60 days. If they like it, we'll write them a purchase order. If they don't, we'll take it out at our expense."