Net sales in the Banking segment were 1% down on the previous year (2007/2008: €1,547 million) at €1,532 million. EBITA (Glossary) fell 10% to €145 million (2007/2008: €162 million) and the EBITA margin to 9.5% (2007/2008: 10.5%).
The reporting year was marked by the partly conflicting trends affecting our individual markets. On the one hand, the financial crisis triggered a global decline in demand for ATMs that also hit Wincor Nixdorf. This reduced our economies of scale, while at the same time, increasing pressure on our profit margin. On the other hand, we did see further growth as a result of continuous developments in Software and Services (Glossary) and in end-to-end solutions for business processes.
Net Sales and EBITA History: Banking. €m
In terms of business and development, our main focus was on the following areas:
Exploiting Further Opportunities for Rationalization
of Cash Handling for Customers through Automation.
Our aim is to optimize and pursue the further automation of cash processes while improving security and compliance with auditing requirements along the entire cash supply chain (Glossary) – using innovative new technology. To meet these goals, we continued to develop our hardware portfolio and our analysis and consulting (Glossary) resources and also strengthened our Software and Services capability.
Supporting Customer Branch Operations.
During the year under review, we successfully added a number of new services to our portfolio that help our retail banking customers to design and manage their branches in the most efficient and sales-oriented way possible. This portfolio covers everything from planning and opening through to ongoing branch operation. The concept met with a positive response from our customers, who showed particular interest in the modernization of existing branches. Another new element in the portfolio provides a comprehensive analysis of branch networks, consolidating a range of parameters into a single performance indicator.
Bundling Sales Channels on a Single Software Platform.
We have now bundled together all those elements of our software portfolio that concentrate on the banks’ front-office sales and service processes under the umbrella of our PC/E Suite. In particular, we implemented the software required to manage the different sales channels on a single platform in a number of other large-scale projects. As this software was designed with a service-oriented architecture (SOA) (Glossary) , once a new function has been developed, it can be reused for all the sales channels. This paves the way for the rapid and cost-efficient introduction of new functions into our customers’ systems.
New Software for the Mobile Sales Channel.
In the year under review, we expanded our PC/E Suite to allow banks to offer their customers mobile banking portals as a communications platform. The new software uses the bank’s existing IT infrastructure, e.g., for Internet banking, and processes the data for display on a cell phone. This makes it possible to offer mobile banking without an additional, redundant infrastructure while providing familiar Internet banking services and a high level of security to mobile devices. The software has been available since August 2009. Another new software application allows end users to make cash transfers and cardless cash payments via cell phone. The bank’s customers can order payments of a specific amount for themselves or another person. The transaction can be initiated through a large number of sales channels such as self-service terminals, the Internet or the counter/checkout. There is particular interest in this solution from customers in countries where many people do not have their own bank accounts.
Expanding Professional Services (Glossary) .
We are continuing to expand our portfolio and resources in the field of Professional Services. By way of example, we can take individual software components from our own portfolio, tailor them to meet specific requirements and integrate them into our customers’ IT environments. This service ranges from strategic IT consulting and conceptual planning through to the maintenance and updating of applications. At the same time, we expanded our portfolio of specialist banking services, such as process consulting and migration for core banking systems. We completed a number of successful projects on behalf of banking clients, such as the restructuring of credit processing procedures. Internationally, we can now call on a sufficient number of employees working in cross-border teams in the field of Professional Services for banks, giving us sufficient resources to handle larger-scale consulting projects throughout the world.
Managed Services (Glossary) and Outsourcing (Glossary) .
Due to the increasing pressure on costs created by lower earnings, there was a good response to our upgraded portfolio of Managed Services, which involve our taking over specified tasks or processes as part of a customer’s IT operations. As well as making further developments in this area, we also expanded our Outsourcing capacity.
New Security Concepts.
Fiscal 2008/2009 saw the successful launch of our restructured security portfolio under the name ProTect. Beginning with an analysis of potential risks, it covers hardware, software and services in order to protect banking processes. It also allowed us to start marketing consultancy packages and tailored security solutions for retail banks. In the product area, we enjoyed considerable success with our anti-skimming modules and with customer projects on biometric authentication procedures.
