Knowledge is Power: Improve Visibility and Uptime throughout Your Multi-Vendor ATM Network

Remember life before the internet and smartphones? We looked up phone numbers in phone books, and had to rely on paper maps and gas station attendants when we got lost on trips.

Connectivity has changed our lives in many ways, most noticeably in bringing information to our fingertips. It’s as if the world has become a smaller place and we have access to vast amounts of information to make even trivial decisions, like where to eat or which socks to buy.

Now think about your ATM channel. Is it still kind of … sort of … stuck in the pre-internet, pre-smartphone era?

• Do you have clear visibility into your entire ATM network? What’s out there? What’s going wrong?
• Can you connect your ATM channel, mobile, digital, in-branch and back-end processes?
• Are you able to reach the right consumers at the right time through the ATM, and do it in a smart, personalized way?

Your consumers are visiting an ATM an average of seven times each month.

It’s a critical touchpoint you can harness to grow revenue and drive efficiencies – if you have the visibility and capability to do so.

Of course, that’s a big challenge, right? The ATM channel was complicated to start with. And now, your network has probably gotten way more complex, and you’re operating legacy equipment, varying software platforms, mixed fleets and myriad vendor relationships. There are many moving parts and you find yourself constantly surprised by what’s out there.

Our perspective at Diebold is that you can’t fix what you can’t see, and you can’t change what you don’t control. That’s why our multi-vendor, hardware-agnostic software solutions are designed to give you the access you need to see your network more clearly, and the ability you need to control your network more efficiently.

If you could easily do more with your ATM network, what would you do first?

Consumers have already expressed their wish list:

Most popular transactions/integrations desired by consumers[i]:

• 61% Bill pay at ATM
• 56% Cash withdrawals in multiple denomination
• 46% Real-time transactions (e.g. instant credit to account on deposits)
• 42% Check cashing at the ATM

You probably have your own wish list too; it might include things like …

• Limiting withdrawal amounts at ATMs during high-traffic time periods to reduce the chance of running out of cash.
• Changing the messaging at just a few ATMs for just a few days.
• Seeing a real-time view of how much hard-drive space is available on a subset of your self-service terminals before you make software updates.
• Marketing to select consumers – including off-us visitors – in an environment where they’re already in a banking mindset.
• More consistency across your platform.

If you were able to activate on just a few, prioritized items on these wish lists, how would it differentiate your brand, improve the consumer experience and drive efficiencies in your back-end operations? Rather than a cost, your ATM network may start to become a valuable tool in generating revenue for your organization.

And the fact of the matter is, you don’t have to make huge changes to implement some of this functionality. With just incremental adjustments or new applications, you can create real change and enhanced omnichannel connectivity in your ATM network. Diebold’s COMMANDER™ software suite offers a modular approach that easily integrates into a long-term retail banking strategy; it consists of a series of plug-and-play tools that give you immediate, understandable access to ATM marketing capabilities and operational information.

COMMANDER modules are intuitive enough for even non-technical users.

With COMMANDER, your staff has the ability to see crucial information about each and every ATM in your fleet, including the make and model, software updates, hard drive space, and much more. You can sort your ATMs into groups, then change the business rules on a subset of terminals at the touch of a button.

Understanding and easily updating your ATM channel is the first step toward 360-degree visibility and control. But for an even stronger ROI across your network, remote monitoring is also critically important. 

Four percent downtime results in 14.6 days of ATM unavailability.

Do you have eyes focused on every single one of your terminals? Or are some things getting missed and slipping through the cracks? Without full visibility to your network, there’s no way to ensure you’re providing optimal consumer experiences – and you may end up scrambling to reactively address downtime.

End-to-end availability management, a part of Diebold’s multi-vendor solutions, offers around-the-clock monitoring of the functionality and availability of every ATM in your network. Through OpteView® Resolve™, Diebold technicians use remote connectivity to tap into the hundreds of sensors inside each terminal, then proactively run diagnostics and watch for performance changes. When our system spots a problem, an automated alarm triggers an action that could involve dispatching a technician or remotely connecting the ATM to an automated help desk to fix the problem virtually and in near real time.

What has your ATM software done for you lately?

The right tools can remove the blinders that have hampered visibility and control within your ATM network. OpteView Resolve and COMMANDER are solutions designed to solve the challenges you’re facing today, while recognizing the complexity of the ATM channel. They empower your team to do more, and to activate on changes in less time.

It’s macro- and micro-level access that is really no longer a “nice to have;” in the mobile-enabled, consumer-driven world we live in today, your ATM team must have the capabilities and visibility to keep every terminal running at its best – and delivering the best ROI during day-to-day operations.

Diebold is an experienced, global partner with the ability to help you reduce legacy system dependency, increase flexibility and converge technology and operations. Let’s talk about how we can work with the realities of your current-state ATM network, and collaborate on a roadmap that will take you successfully into an omnichannel environment.

[i] ATM Future trends 2015 (ATM Marketplace)

By: Cijal Raj
Posted: June 7, 2016