Intelligent Deposit.
One key area of innovation is our ongoing development work on intelligent deposits. Examples include intelligent cash and check deposits and the automated handling of returned empties (reverse vending) in the retail sector. Our banking solution verifies checks and cash for authenticity using the latest high-precision image processing technology and can automate the entire account-entry process, thus eliminating the need for further manual processing of cash and checks. We have already initiated a program to transfer this technology to the area of front-office operations, where automated check processing is considered an equally viable solution.

Net-centric Software.
Net-centric software is used to help our customers in banking and retail further reduce their costs over entire installed lifetimes (total cost of ownership). Under this approach, the software is installed on a central server, avoiding the need to store the entire program on each ATM or ePOS system and thus reducing costs for both software distribution and maintenance. Additional functions can be added to net-centric software, allowing it to be deployed in other sectors such as postal service organizations and service stations. We are also working on the development of tried-and-tested components from the self-service field for use in the counter/checkout environment.

Monitoring and Control of Customer Systems.
Another key area of innovation is the development of solutions for monitoring and controlling systems at our customers’ premises. As a service provider, we design our solutions to reflect the processes in retail and business environments as closely as possible and to highlight the operational status of all network-based systems at any time. For instance, our solutions manage and control product platforms using specific diagnostic functions; they report on the operating status of equipment and monitor entire business processes within multi-vendor networks. They can even take over full operational management under an outsourcing model.

Cash Management.
In the area of cash management, our aim is to optimize the cash cycle across the whole spectrum of cash transaction points in banks and retail stores, ranging from checkouts and safes to ATMs. With their cash recycling facility, our ATMs are designed to streamline the cycle right from the outset. We are also developing software solutions using mathematical optimization models that are able to identify the ideal replenishment intervals for ATMs and automated teller safes. In this way, we are able to achieve a reduction in our customers’ cash logistics costs without compromising availability, while at the same time downscaling interest expenses. In the long term, we aim to combine new hardware and software solutions with intelligent IT services to develop a cross-industry cash management model that will make cash circulation as efficient, local and demand-led as possible. We refer to this development as “closed-loop” cash cycles.

Security.
Security is the overriding issue for all our customers. We are working to pull together innovative base technologies in an intelligent way. Our aim is to further improve existing concepts such as the distribution of electronic keys to optimize cash logistics, anti-virus protection for IT networks, secure data communications and anti-fraud protection for our systems and solutions and to develop new security products. We are increasingly integrating video monitoring systems into our customers’ IT environments, drawing on our expertise in the image recognition field to improve anti-fraud protection in the field of self-service technology.

Serviceability.
Our project to improve serviceability covers a wide range of issues and offers benefits for our own processes as well as those of our customers. By developing a system to gather, process and analyze detailed information about each system’s components and status, we can control service processes more efficiently, carry out preventive servicing and plan the most effective maintenance schedule.

Some 790 specialists are working on the implementation of this innovative strategy at our seven development centers in Germany, Burgdorf (Switzerland), Singapore, Jakarta, Shanghai and Boston. Our core competences are mechatronics, the development of embedded software, platform and application software, and image recognition. We also gain access to valuable know-how from our carefully selected partnerships with other leading organizations carrying out fundamental research in the technology field. All these research and development activities form part of the entire Group’s efforts to lower production costs. By ensuring it has all necessary information about suppliers’ processes, the purchasing department is able to identify the most suitable method of production and thus improve the overall competitive position.