News

Why the World Looks to Paderborn during Wincor World

January 25, 2004

Nestled in the middle of Germany, where the Westphalian lowland plains meet the mountain ranges of the Teutoburger woods, Egge Mountains and the Sauerland, lies the venerable Cathedral and modern university city of Paderborn. High-tech and the middle ages, computers and the church; in hardly any other city in the world will you find such a harmonious blend of apparently contrasting ideas.

Which is one of many reasons the world itself will look to Paderborn during Wincor World, the annual banking and retail showcase hosted by its resident global technology innovator, Wincor Nixdorf.

"Communicating Visions" is the theme of Wincor World 2004, at the Welle Exhibition Center Feb. 3-5. Sixty partners will present 400 exhibits, demonstrating leading-edge products, services, consulting services and solutions for banking and retail organizations.

The expected 7,000-plus visitors also will be able to attend several of 40 available workshops and lecture programs, as well as a symposium with topics spotlighting the future of retail and banking.

"It's not a sales event," said Uwe Krause, director of marketing and product development, banking, for Wincor Nixdorf. "It's not a knowledge event. It's a cooperation between us and the major market innovators of technology."

The partnerships on display at Wincor World are geared to helping customers develop end-to-end solutions. Rather than seeing one piece of the puzzle in one context and having to identify others elsewhere, companies wanting to find all their answer in one place will be able to do so at this show.

"Normally, a customer can see a telephone solution at a special event for IT technology. He can see ATM solutions at an ATM event. But at Wincor World, he can see the combinations for all his processes, from the beginning on," Krause said.

"This event is process oriented, and this makes a big, big difference to other exhibitors."

Global solutions to global ATM/banking issues

For banks, the main themes are cash processes, deposit and recycling technologies and multi-channel banking and security.

With cash processes, Wincor Nixdorf will show how standard transactions can be transferred to self-service in a customer friendly way and how cash systems can be optimally maintained. In addition, the company will present analysis methods and tools for the choice of cash system based economic aspects and for the optimal combination and configuration of cash systems at the branch level.

With the help of software-supported analysis and the use of innovative cash recycling and depositing technologies, Wincor Nixdorf will show customers how they can reduce their costs substantially.

"The dilemma in retail banking in the most countries is that they don't have a modern focus on monetization in the branch. They have only an administrative focus," Krause said. "They are changing money. They are accepting checks. They are not selling products like loans. And so the major change is to change the mentality of the financial institute to bring the retail action. They have to sell products like loans, and they have to be concentrated on profit. It makes no sense to have in a traditional retail branch six people: one director, one guy responsible for administration, three cashiers changing money or something like this or accepting cash, and one sales guy. They must reduce from six to four, and of those four, have two of them in sales activities."

In the area of deposit and recycling technology, Wincor Nixdorf will demonstrate solutions to automate the entire deposit process, from processing individual receipts and bundling bank notes and checks to cash recycling. The ProCash/FOnet software solution offers fully automated cash recycling, including self-service coin and bank note processing in a once labor-intensive area.

Sales channels such as home banking, mobile banking and call centers are becoming increasingly important. With its multichannel ProClassic/Enterprise software architecture, Wincor Nixdorf will show how customers can combine these channels cost effectively. ProClassic/Enterprise is equipped with comprehensive self-service components, offering ideal ways to integrate new sales channels. Together with its partners, Wincor Nixdorf will demonstrate the integration of call centers and home banking as well as CRM and document management systems.

With innovative security solutions, Wincor Nixdorf aims to help customers avoid attempts to manipulate their ATM and electronic payment systems. The company will show new solutions to prevent so-called skimming and Lebanese Loop attacks on ATM systems, as well as SCOP (Secure Cash-Out Procedure), which prevents non-authorized ATM payments through software manipulation from viruses.

Paderborn: The town that Nixdorf built

The computer pioneer and industrialist Heinz Nixdorf-and founder of the company that became the partially eponymous Wincor Nixdorf-played a significant role in the city's development, paving the way for the advances in information technology from which Paderborn has made a name for itself worldwide. Paderborn is also home to the largest computer museum in the world, one of more than 10 museums situated in the city.

"The relationship between Paderborn and Wincor Nixdorf is very strong," said Andreas Bruck, head of corporate communications for the company. "Very often, if you ask residents of other countries and other cities about Paderborn, they always say, �Well, it's the home of the computer firm Wincor Nixdorf. So, in a way, it's the firm which has made the town popular."

The unique flair of the east Westphalian capital, which has evolved over the last decade into a lively, attractive yet accessible city, makes a trip to Paderborn an experience of a rather special kind.

Many and diverse are the historic sites bearing testimony to over 1200 years of history - reason alone to visit this time-honored cathedral city � ranging from the Romanesque-Gothic Cathedral, the Weser Renaissance-style Town Hall and the medieval Imperial Palace to the baroque Jesuit Church, to name but a few. Schlo� Neuhaus, former seat of Paderborn's Prince Bishops, is situated a mere couple of miles from the city center. Lying in the midst of dozens of acres of parkland, a visit to this moated castle and its beautiful baroque gardens is not to be missed.

Between show events, the extended pedestrian zone will invite you to stroll around and browse in the many shops to your heart's content, after which you can relax and soak up the atmosphere in one of the charming street caf�s or simply just sit back and enjoy life.

More than 200 springs forming the source of the Pader, Germany's shortest river, are located just a few paces from the hustle and bustle of the pedestrian zone.