Diebold steps into the future of ATM banking

Marketing director Phillip Bedford talks about making radical changes to the current ATM business paradigm.

When Diebold launched its latest strategy “Diebold 2.0”, the company embarked on a new direction, veering away from the typical path of a traditional hardware company by transforming it into a services-led, software-enabled company supported by innovative hardware. A paradigm shift for the ATM industry.

“The company focuses on four services that align to drive innovation and transformation for its customers, while maintaining a strong focus on operations,” says Phillip Bedford, Marketing Director, Asia Pacific at Diebold. “These services are Managed, Maintenance, Security, and Professional & Advisory Services. In the last two years Diebold has invested in industry leaders to join the APAC regional team from banks, services companies and its competitors. This combination of knowledge and experience provides us with a 360 degree view of the market and our customers. 

“We also have scale across the region. From Asia Pacific, we currently service approximately 200,000 ATMs with a team of over 3,400 associates, including over 2,500 direct services staff in more than 11 countries.” 

Diebold recently opened its first Global Delivery Center in India which manages over 43,000 multi-vendor ATMs in Asia, Australia and the US. With close to 500 staff, the Global Delivery Center operates 24/7 and provides valuable services to an ever-increasing number of global clients. In addition, Diebold has regional managed services delivery centers in India, China and the Philippines. 

“We are expanding our services and software to cover multi-vendor ATMs to provide a platform-agnostic approach, enabling us to serve more customers who have different technology within their fleet,” says Bedford. “Last year, we acquired Phoenix Interactive, a multi-vendor software platform with a strong global customer base including a number of clients in Australia and New Zealand.”

Diebold is helping clients tackle the security risks associated with ATM banking, as potential threats to customers are on the increase. “We introduced Diebold ActivEdge, an ATM security solution that makes every existing skimmer obsolete. The industry’s first secure card reader, it counteracts skimming by altering the way an ATM card is inserted and read,” says Bedford.

Managed services portfolio

The company’s broadest services portfolio lies in managed services, where they have proven solutions for their customers to address the innumerable risks and opportunities of software, security, cash handling, compliance, and analytics, to name a few. “Diebold’s comprehensive managed services suite allows our customers to capitalize on opportunities, avoid threats and focus their time on their most profitable tasks and most valued consumers,” Thomas Karakalos, VP for Managed Services says. “With Diebold’s growing foothold in Asia Pacific, it is an essential part of the company’s long-term plan to provide the necessary infrastructure and services to suit the increasing demand,” he adds.

“Globally, we partner with many financial institutions to build customized solutions to help meet their business needs. We have two Solution Centers in Asia Pacific located in Thailand and Indonesia where our customers can understand more about our solutions and how we can collaborate together. Our research and development centers in India, China and Thailand create solutions specifically tailored to both the global and regional markets,” says Bedford.

A recent collaboration

The company’s professional services team recently collaborated with a leading retail bank in ASEAN to help drive financial inclusion. Diebold brought technology it had created globally and developed with its customer to create Singapore’s first ATM solution for visually impaired customers. More than 86 ATMs have been equipped with customized software to provide audio instructions with a special transaction flow making the overall experience convenient, fast and easy-to-use. The special audio equipment which is accessed using a consumers personal headphones provide a high level of confidentiality and user security.

“These solutions support our FITbanking™ philosophy, which is all about creating banking experiences to seamlessly FIT with consumer demands and financial institutions’ business objectives,” says Bedford.

“Although we are seeing a rise in the number of payments used by mobile devices, cash is still a main staple of our society. I believe there will be a reduction in the footprint of branches but an expansion in their services throughout the neighborhoods and communities through miniature branches and self-service kiosks. The underbanked will still be a huge driver for banks, so there will continue to be collaborative innovation on how to reach those customers. Lastly, big data and analytics will transform the way we perform services and the cash management ecosystem.”