Your ATM software is out of date…

The ATM represents the ‘face’ of the bank for most of your customers – and especially so for your high-value customers. But that face is now embarrassingly out of date.
Contrast this with your online banking website, which is no doubt right up to date. Your site will have new technology and great graphics and your customers are able do most of their banking transactions using it.
Why then are these two channels so different? The underlying reason is that you have been ‘locked-in’ with your ATM software. Let me explain …

Why is your ATM software so out of date?
Over the years, you have likely delegated the ATM software decisions to your ATM team – as you should. When the bank bought new ATMs, the hardware, software and services all came bundled together, the result being that the bank got locked in to proprietary software.
Consider that the ATM hardware has a 7-10 year lifespan and that your old software is glued to that hardware. But your software requirements evolve much faster than your hardware requirements. This then is the major cause for your ATM software being out of date.
Let me give you just one example of how old software can have a damaging effect on your bank. ATMs have an ‘operating system’ inside them, just like your desktop PC. However, your ATMs probably still use OS2 or Windows NT – software that is now well out of date. If that is the case, then these ATMs cannot receive security patch updates in the way that Windows XP does. How risky is that to your bank? In fact, if you are still running NT or OS2 in your ATMs, this is not your only worry.

Are you shocked?
You should be, and the likelihood is your customers would be shocked too. After all, they know how important it is to keep their own home PCs up to date with security patches.

The solution?
The business solution is called ‘multi-vendor software’ for ATMs – this is standards-compliant software that prevents you from getting locked-in. The standard in question, called XFS, is a worldwide standard that loosens the grip between hardware and software and allows the two to have a separate lifecycle. It also allows you to plug-and-play hardware and software from different vendors, making it possible to have a best-of-breed policy when integrating ATM technologies.
Empower your ATM team to move to multi-vendor software for ATMs.