Finanz Informatik (FI) operates more than 23,000 self-service cash machines through their Sparkassen and Landesbanken in Germany. FI utilizes the manufactu-rers Diebold Nixdorf, GRG Banking, Glory, Hess, Keba, NCR, and ScanCoin to supply their customers with cash and to recycle banknotes and coins.

Initial Situation

Until recently, the self-service cash machines were opera-ted with the application software of the respective manu-facturer. This caused multiple inconveniences, especially when adapting the application. Every change had to be ordered directly from the self-service device manufactu-rer and then tested by FI.

Having only one application to be maintained and expan-ded convinced the FI to seek out a multivendor solution. After a selection process between several providers, SBS was commissioned to implement a multivendor self- service solution.

The advantages of a multivendor application is multi- faceted; minimizing efforts to coordinate new requirements and undergo tests as well as ensuring shorter production lead time.

MV Conversion Challenges

The heterogeneous nature of FI’s productive self-service systems was a considerable challenge in the context of switching to the multivendor software. The ability to recognize and correctly configure the numerous variants of the hardware components was paramount; therefore, SBS developed the so-called AutoDK, a software com-ponent that automatically detects the self-service devices.

In addition, the SBS KIX platform had to be expanded to include a connection to the FI PBM server, which handles both the processing of the transactions and the device control.

Advantages for the Sparkassen and Landesbanken By switching to the SBS KIX platform, the Sparkassen and Landesbanken benefit from new functions such as the additional user interface for visually impaired persons, the ability to withdraw individual denominations and the chaining of transactions (the execution of several business transactions in succession without reinserting the card). As part of the project, the customer user inter-face of the self-service devices was converted to HTML5 in order to support higher screen resolutions.

To protect end customers, the order in which amount and PIN were entered was also changed. In the past, there were isolated incidents in which end customers entered their PIN and were then pushed away during the trans-action, unknowingly allowing perpetrators to continue the transaction at will. With the new solution, the PIN is only entered after the desired amount has been selected.

The new functions, such as the emergency operation of the cash dispenser and the cross-institute deposit, enabled synergy effects through a uniform application for the first time.

Unattended Migration

Parallel to the integration and the individual adaptati-ons of the KIX platform, the migration of the self-ser-vice cash machines from the old software to the new SBS solution was implemented together with the team from Finanz Informatik.

The requirement of an unattended migration and an operational-data migration - essentially counter metric migration - was described in a newly developed unatten-ded migration process and incorporated into the standard deployment system of the FI. With the new procedure, the ATMs of the Sparkassen and Landesbanken could be automatically installed at night, so that they were availa-ble for customer operation the following morning.

Picture: © Finanz Informatik, Screenshot ATM Application

Installation of up to 1,000 ATMs per Day

The migration of the systems to the SBS software solution was carried out in several phases. After a test or pilot phase, up to 1,000 ATMs were transitioned to the KIX platform every day.

Current Project Status

Currently, all the self-service cash machines of FI’s Sparkassen and Landesbanken (with the exception of the standalone coin deposit devices) have been migrated to the multivendor software; partly successful operating with the SBS KIX platform for more than a year.