NCR’s ATM-as-a-Service Innovation is Lifting Weight from Clients’ Shoulders
The modern retailer has a significant amount of weight on its shoulders. From the twin pressures of managing brick-and-mortar and online shopping experiences, to handling returns, ensuring good customer service, stock management, admin and accounts, maintenance, employees, and so much more besides - there's no shortage of plates to keep spinning at once.
And that's before you get onto all the additional stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and its devastating impact on many businesses around the globe.
Anything which can be done to alleviate some of this stress is sure to be welcomed, which is part of the reason we have seen a massive rise in the amount of work being outsourced to third-party vendors in recent times. By handing over whole departments of the business to outside contractors, retailers can remove huge swathes of work from their day and get back to focusing on what really matters.
NCR
As one of the world's leading payments providers, NCR Corporation puts innovation at the very core of its business model and prides itself on being a global leader in its field.
For example, it recently joined forces with digital-asset management firm NYDIG, as well as a number of community banks and credit unions to, for the first time, enable 650 US banks to offer an estimated 24 million customers the ability to make Bitcoin purchases.
However, we know you're here to read about field service rather than cryptocurrency, and so you'll be pleased to learn that NCR has been busy innovating in this regard as well.
Many retail businesses know the benefits having an on-site ATM can bring. While with the rise of contactless and mobile payments we have certainly moved towards a more cashless society, the modern ATM is much more than a simple cash dispenser. With an improved range of services on offer, an ATM can help bring more customers through those store doors.
This has led NCR to create its innovative ATM-as-a-Service product. With this exciting offering, NCR assumes all responsibility for the support and maintenance of its machines. All the retailer needs do is sit back and enjoy the benefits - while serving customers, of course.
"A comprehensive program built from 50+ years of ATM experience and 25 years of managing and running complex services for financial institutions all around the world, delivering value from day one - while freeing you to focus on your strategic priorities and less on those daily operational tasks that can be extremely time consuming," says NCR in its promotional material for the service.
ATM-as-a-Service
The innovative service reduces the workload of retailers and brings a host of benefits alongside the expected access to cash.
NCR can manage the deployment and ongoing service of the technology, keep it refreshed via alternative options and standardized configurations, and maintain customer expectations by ensuring the tech is kept running consistently. The service provider also accepts responsibility for regulatory compliance, ensuring all ATMs are secure - both physically and digitally - and provides data visualization direct to the customer, so retailers can easily see how their ATMs are adding value to their business.
Of course, being digital innovators means NCR is also deploying the latest in proactive maintenance technology. The solutions deployed allow the service provider to detect potential faults and other issues when they first show symptoms. NCR can then dispatch engineers to repair them before they turn into the kinds of problems which can cause ATM shutdowns and undermine customer confidence. IoT sensors constantly report back to NCR data centers and give its 20,000+ field service professionals a keen edge when performing their roles.
Such is the power of NCR's remote maintenance capabilities, it has, to date, resolved over eight million service requests entirely remotely - removing the need to disturb the retail environment by dispatching an engineer.
"With eyes on your ATMs 24/7, it's much less likely you'll encounter availability issues and, with the latest remote monitoring and diagnostics, many issues that do come up can be solved before they impact your ATM services or customer experience," said NCR in a blog post. "And with technology that protects consumer data (and helps fight fraud like card skimming) - not to mention developing increasingly innovative ways to interact - ATM-as-a-Service also helps improve customer loyalty."
Final Thoughts
The Everything-as-a-Service model is certainly rising in popularity and it's easy to see why. Instead of trying to be a jack-of-all-trades, it often makes more sense to hand over certain elements to real experts in their field so you can focus on the meat and potatoes of running your business.
ATMs are here to stay for the time being and it's great to see industry titans such as NCR continuing to innovate in this field.
You can hear NCR Corporation's Senior Vice President of Global Services Delivery, Mike Adams speak at Field Service Palm Springs 2021, taking place in November at the JW Marriott, Palm Springs, CA.
Download the agenda today for more information and insights.