The effectiveness of the ATM network is increasingly based upon the software solutions that are devised to combat any problems and therefore reduce downtime, says Keith Taylor.
For an ATM deployer, seeking to maximise revenues and deliver best customer service, a key issue is how to ensure maximum availability. For the consumer, ATM availability means completing the intended transaction. The machine may be working, but if your transaction needs a receipt and there isn’t one, then that transaction is not available to you. Similarly, the machine could be operational but out of cash. Whatever the cause, the consumer is dissatisfied and may go elsewhere.
Ensuring the sustainability of the level of convenience and quality of service you provide customers, whether it is a new or older ATM, is the key to successful self-service deployment and the decision as to how you manage this is as important as the initial hardware purchase choice. A recent study calculated that for a 2000 ATM network, a 1% rise in availability drives up to: 15 minutes less downtime per ATM per day; 4000 fewer unhappy customers each day; $200,000 more cash withdrawn each day; and an additional $350,000 in interchange fees over a year.
Even sophisticated technology can suffer from unsophisticated problems. Service at the ATM can be disrupted by incidents such as card, paper and currency jams and resolving such problems in a timely manner is essential to the smooth running of a network. But these are not the only problems encountered, and it is not just the speed of response, but the appropriateness that is important.
The ‘bucket of water’ syndrome
If the first fireman to attend a house fire arrives armed with a bucket of water, you’d hardly call it an effective response. In this instances, therefore, the speed of the initial fireman’s response is irrelevant. Nothing can be done until the appropriately equipped firefighter arrives, and the results, in terms of damage done, are barely affected by the fast but ineffective initial response. For a bank looking to maximise ATM availability, the same principle applies. A quick response alone can mean low availability when it’s the wrong type of response.
Correct diagnosis speeds the cure
So how do you ensure the right response? NCR uses state-of-the-art software to deliver a proactive and predictive approach that increases ATM availability. Our investment in local expert technicians, coupled with remote diagnostic capabilities, ensures that the first person to turn up at your ATM can fix the problem. If a card reader isn’t working it could be due to a card jam, however it could be that the card reader is worn and needs replacing. If you are able to remotely diagnose that the card reader is not responding and is not jammed, a local technician can be dispatched already aware of the nature of the problem and equipped with a new card reader.
Real-time monitoring of self-service devices enables more proactive management capability, and tools such as Gasper Vantage provide a management system that offers deployers a proven solution to increase ATM availability, lower service costs and increase efficiency of operations staff. These tools enable predictive, proactive data-driven fault management, enabling engineers to quickly identify and resolve the root cause of a problem. In some instances the technology may even negate the need for a costly call-out. Features such as Command Manager allow Gasper Vantage to issue host commands to self-service devices, reducing ATM downtime.
When cash costs money
Cash withdrawal remains the most popular ATM function and the availability of cash is central to customer service. But it doesn’t come cheap. Between 13% and 21% of the cost of operating an ATM is spent in cash-related activities – driven by the holding, transportation and replenishment. For the deployer, the complex challenge is to optimise the costs and process constraints against consumer demand – in essence this means the optimal amount of cash in the right place at the right time and all at the best possible cost.
Decision support tools such as Transoft’s Optica$h suite of products provide the solution to these complex issues across ATMs, branches and vaults by optimising cost against future cash-holding requirements. Using a proven and robust currency management system that forecasts future cash-holding requirements based on historical, event and cost information, has in some instances led to as much as a 30% reduction in the amount of cash held in the self-service network. This, coupled with a reduction in cash outages has driven considerable savings and availability improvement for those banks that have deployed the solution.
Using sophisticated self-service management and currency management systems, in some instances as part of an NCR Managed Services offer, NCR’s customers worldwide are reporting significant cost reductions and improvements in consumer satisfaction.
Keith Taylor is senior vice-president at NCR Financial Solutions Division
