Johannesburg, 29 Oct 2012
The ATM Industry Association (ATMIA) recently held its 8th annual African ATMs conference and exhibition in Cape Town. Themed "The Future of ATMs in Africa", the focus of the event was how ATMs have become an integral part of the payments landscape in Africa, and how they are evolving into self-service payment hubs, which are creating many new business opportunities for ATM vendors and deployment companies.
Among the exhibitors was NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR), the worldwide leader in ATMs and multi-vendor ATM software, which has an exclusive distribution agreement in South Africa with Bytes Managed Solutions. International NCR representatives Mark Grossi, NCR vice-president, Consumer Experience Labs; Jeremy Toyne, NCR senior product manager; and Costas Koudounias, NCR regional marketing director for emerging markets, attended the conference to share their expertise.
NCR Corporation showcased a number of innovative technologies. The show included the NCR SelfServ 8 compact financial kiosk, which allows self-service functionality traditionally reserved for bank personnel and is suitable for any indoor location. Also, the NCR SelfServ 22, a compact free-standing ATM ideal for either bank branches or any other interior location, was on display. The NCR SelfServ 22 is capable of handling any volume of cash dispense transactions, and also provides a broad range of other services, such as bill payment, funds transfer, couponing and mini-statements. It also allows for pre-staged mobile cash transactions and dispensing via 2D bar code technology.
For the first time ever, Bytes MS demonstrated its solar-powered ATM technology, which is set to save costs, reduce environmental impact and ease the deployment of ATMs. The solution also provides battery storage to enable night operation of the ATMs.
"All these are attributes very important for banks in the emerging markets that are considering expanding their reach to remote rural areas where electricity may not be easily available, as part of their social responsibility to offer banking services to everyone and everywhere," said Costas Koudounias, regional marketing director, NCR Asia, Middle East and Africa.
"Bytes Managed Solutions makes every effort to contribute and attend all industry events in support of our commitment aligned with the emerging market trends and requirements," said Alan Anderson, business development director, Bytes Managed Solutions. "The importance of these types of events is that they confirm that our R&D investments are channelled into the correct areas of our business and specifically aligned with customer needs in emerging markets such as South Africa. This unique partnership truly benefits our customers with local value-add services, and also enables us to leverage global expertise and emerging market dynamics."
Speakers included the head of South Africa's national payment system as well as leading banks and independent ATM deployers. The conference agenda included presentations on technological innovations in the industry, technologies to watch for into the future, and several case studies looking at how ATMs are becoming increasingly important in self-service banking.
Participating in the panel discussion on future technologies to watch was Mark Grossi, who added valuable input about the latest trends and how technology will change the face of banking. "We debated the potential impact of new technologies and how these could be leveraged in education, retailing and finance," said Grossi. "The panel quickly engaged the audience and discussed the many opportunities and threats when it comes to ATMs and self-service, with mobile channels featuring prominently."
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