5,700 ATMs managed by one software platform.
The bank selected Wincor Nixdorf’s ProClassic integration software as the best solution of four different applications it tested. In a final pilot project, the bank tested a network of 60 ATMs to reaffirm its decision. “After all, we plan to upgrade all our 5,700 ATMs successively to the new platform,” explains Gloria Amelia Cervantes Ruiz, Subdirector for the bank’s ATM business and direct sales channels.

A key focus of the pilot project was to test whether all ATMs would deliver the same availability, level of service and functionality. The Web integration was tested with a simple currency exchange rate request function in a first step toward implementing an application completely based on Web technology. For Diego Basurto, Manager of Banking (Glossary)  Systems at Wincor Nixdorf Mexico, the move to Web-based applications is the future. “With our ProClassic integrations solution, we can quickly implement new products,” he says. This applies to the Web-based exchange rate application as well as to bill payments per bank card, and all other new services that HSBC develops and integrates into the Web application easily by its own. More than 1,500 ATMs from Wincor Nixdorf now operate in the HSBC self-service network, with the 100 percent Web-based multivendor (Glossary)  software platform. In addition, our IT services and solutions company is also responsible for on-site support, adds Diego Basurto.

The next step involves migrating the ATM machines supplied by other vendors to the new platform. Machine certification, testing and evaluation are underway. Next year, more than 2,000 ATMs from other vendors are to be equipped with the Wincor Nixdorf software solution. As for the challenge facing HSBC developers as a result of this migration, Edgar Fragoso Rodriguez, Subdirector development at HSBC, says: “During the migration, which will take some time, we need to work with both the existing and new technology. Suffice it to say, it’s exciting to be a pioneer in Mexico with the first Web-enabled software platform.”

Deposit self-services versus waiting lines.
HSBC was confronted with a completely different challenge with its second IT project. At the beginning of 2005, the bank’s ATM business unit launched an initiative aimed at reducing the waiting lines at counters. The bank sought a solution to migrate a good share of the counter transactions – more than 50 percent of these are deposits and bill payments – to self-service machines. In addition to transactions, the machines would need to accept both banknotes and coins, and to do so in large quantities. This was a requirement that Wincor Nixdorf was able to meet together with a second partner.

In tests conducted in HSBC’s own lab, Wincor Nixdorf demonstrated a solution that convinced the bank on two fronts: “It could handle up to 400 banknotes with an acceptance rate of 90 percent,” says HSBC Project Director Maria Luisa Reyes Juarez. “We were impressed how simple and fast this ATM was connected to the banks’ IT systems and is able to be maintained.”

Following a test pilot with two machines, HSBC Mexico decided to order 30 ProCash 3100xe terminals with the Coin Deposit Sidecar. In 2008, the bank plans to order an additional 100 machines. Customers have readily embraced the new self-service terminals, preferring these in growing numbers over counter service, according to internal studies. Moreover, although the number of cash deposit machines is still relatively small at HSBC, more than 10 percent of all deposits and bill payments are processed today in a branch at these machines. The short-term goal is 15 percent. A major goal of the HSBC Mexico’s growing use of self-service technology is to free up branch employees to concentrate on core competencies, such as consulting. With self-service systems (Glossary) , HSBC also aims to expand its presence in targeted locations and further strengthen its competitiveness. “With the new cash deposit terminals, we want to achieve the same 38 percent market share that we currently have with normal ATM transactions as well,” asserts Gloria Amelia Cervantes Ruiz.