In Research and Development (R&D), we constantly seek to address two key questions: firstly, what are the challenges facing our customers?; and secondly, how can we create added value for them through our hardware, software and IT services? In line with its strategic objectives, Wincor Nixdorf invested approximately €87 million (previous year: €78 million) in research and development in fiscal 2005/2006. This is an increase of 12% compared to the previous year. R&D as a percentage of net sales remained unchanged at 4.5%.
With a view to reinforcing our technological strength in the future and fulfilling our stated commitment to customer-oriented research and development, we recruited additional staff in R&D in the period under review. At the end of the reporting period, the number of employees working in R&D was 790 (previous year: 714), equivalent to 10% of the total headcount. They work at development facilities in Germany, Switzerland, Singapore, Indonesia, the U.S., and China.
Our R&D staff has been working on a significant number of new developments. Worldwide, we registered 54 (55) new patents, bringing the total number of active patents up to 920 (866).
R&D Areas of Focus.
R&D activities during the year focused on three key areas:
- convergent base technologies for our core Retail and Banking business
- integrated hardware, software and services solutions to provide customers with complete process chains
- serviceability of our hard- and software in order to make future customer installations easier to maintain.
One excellent example of how we implement convergent base technologies and take advantage of our range of integrated solutions is our Cash Management portfolio, which enables retailers and banks to automate their cash handling process. Options range from the automated acceptance of cash at checkouts to account entry and cash recycling, through the distribution of money via ATMs. A further example of the application of convergent base technologies comes in the form of our modular solutions developed for postal service companies, which now go beyond the self-service area to include the automation of counter processes.
In the Banking segment, we succeeded in establishing our deposit and recycling technologies in a number of strategically important markets. We have adapted both technologies to meet the specific requirements of key countries and integrated them into our customers’ processes. Our key product lines in the Banking segment, such as ATMs and terminal systems, have been continuously enhanced, guided by the needs of our customers. In addition, we have expanded our ATM portfolio to include a simple cash dispensing system specially designed for third-party providers.
Having completed development of our net-centric applications for managing large self-service networks (ProClassic/Enterprise) and proven their market readiness, we are now developing additional modules designed to add functionality in the counter/teller environment and at the branch level. We have also been paying particular attention to expanding our extensive IT security product family. Prominent within this area are programs for the distribution and management of electronic codes and software which fulfill the security requirements of globally active credit card companies.
In retail, we successfully piloted a new approach to automated cash handling and expanded our product portfolio to the point where it now offers a complete range of solutions. Self-checkout systems have proven their worth, and our product family has been further extended and tested successfully in trial applications at customer sites. The product lines currently offered to the retail sector, such as the BEETLE ePOS systems and terminal solutions for lottery companies, have undergone continuous development and adaptation to meet the needs of our customers.
Our emphasis in software development has been on adding new features and components to our TP.net point-of-sale software to enable the management of new concepts, such as self-checkout and new mobile scanning solutions, and to enable the centralized management of branch systems. The software has also been enhanced with features designed to analyze business processes.