What happened so far?
In the year 2008 the bank teller application from the 80s of the ARZ (data processing center for several banks in Austria) was adapted to the SBS KIXBranch 1.0 Platform. KIXBranch 1.0 enables sharing of peripherals (magnetic stripe reader/-encoder, pass book printer, cash dispensers, etc.) between different work stations in the branch network. Basis of the KIXBranch 1.0 Platform was the J/XFS standard, which was a criteria for a modern teller application at that time.
Other customers followed this approach and migrated to the KIXBranch 1.0 Platform.
In 2012 the ARZ came to SBS with the idea of a new teller application. Although numerous successful improvements have been added to the old application (e.g. Windows 7 migration), ARZ wanted to be ready for the future with a new lean browser based application, that seamlessly integrates into the arctis framework and processes of the ARZ.
During many workshops between ARZ and SBS experts the use-cases for the new teller application were elaborated. Thereby the existing hardware of the banks connected to the ARZ was subject to a critical examination. Obsolete peripherals with only low volumes in the field were sort out.
Beneath the critical examination of the hardware also the KIXBranch software stack was inspected and the design was adapted to current requirements. With KIXPeripherals the former technically-oriented interface is now going to be raised to a functional level, which is directly based on the technical requirements of the ARZ. Device specifications must - if they have no technical impact - remain transparent for the teller application.
During the workshop it has been decided that J/XFS should be still supported, but devices should only be included over the J/XFS standard, if their functions can be covered over the – even already outdated – J/XFS standard. Besides the connection of various peripherals, the new platform also provides simulated devices, so developments and tests at the cash-desk application are possible with the new platform without physically existing devices.
Thus, an overall architecture, as shown on the following page, yielded.
As it is shown on the figure above the KIXBanch-J/XFS-framework was integrated into the new architecture. The resulting new overall architecture is summarized under the product name „“KIXPeripherals“. Thus, customer still can use the KIXBranch-J/XFS-framework or convert to the new KIXPeripherals framework.
The KIXBranch print framework has been also adapted and expanded, because ARZ changed the raw data-print to a forms-based print. By so called subforms all requests of saving books- and document processing can be defined in separate form files per saving book or rather per document.
Since July 2015 the new ARZ teller application is operating. Currently functions for saving books and magnetic stripes processing are activated. In a following phase functions to control cash dispensers are going to be activated too. At the same time new cash dispenser models (e.g.: Glory Vertera, Glory RBG-200) are supported by using the new interface.