Launching Joint Study and Development of Next-Generation ATM System
- Building Common Environment for ATM Utilization by Financial Institutions and Vendors -
Nov. 17, 2008
NTT DATA Corporation
NTT DATA Corporation (headquarters: Koto-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Toru Yamashita; hereinafter “NTT DATA”), together with Oki Electric Industry Co, Ltd. (hereinafter “OKI”) and Fujitsu Limited (hereinafter “Fujitsu”), has begun study and development of a next-generation ATM system with the goals of reducing financial institutions’ costs and enhancing convenience for customers making use of ATMs.
The next-generation ATM system envisioned by NTT DATA will be a new environment in which the ATM will serve as a major strategic focal point for the provision of customer services by financial institutions. It will be built as a system for joint utilization by participants, who will able to make use of existing ATM facilities (see Note 1) regardless of the financial institution or ATM vendor. As a result, financial institutions will be able to more quickly and easily provide a variety of ATM-based services while at the same time lowering their system costs as they pertain to ATMs.
In the past, NTT DATA has provided numerous shared systems for accounting and finance and branch office terminals for financial institutions, as well as shared services for financial settlement infrastructures. Leveraging that track record and its rich experience, the company will expand the scope of its shared systems into the field of ATM systems. NTT DATA has targeted fiscal 2009 for completion of the next-generation ATM system.
Background
Presently, financial institutions make available a range of ATM-based services to its customers, but great costs are incurred in the system maintenance and operations that support those services. Also, security measures, more new services, conformity with regulations and other enhancements will be required to meet the needs of our society, and those costs are expected to impose a great burden on the financial organizations.
In response, NTT DATA has conceived of a next-generation ATM system that aggregates functions enabling ATM systems to have common system elements, which can be used jointly by financial institutions and will enable rapid, flexible expansion of services in the future.
By utilizing that system, the costs, which used to be borne separately by the individual financial entities, can be cut. Additionally, a variety of responses can be taken on a timely basis, while customers making use of ATM machines will find greater convenience.
As a result of studies aimed at bringing the concept to reality, it was determined that the UNISONATM+TM next-generation ATM software being developed jointly by OKI and Fujitsu will be adopted for the next-generation ATM system. UNISONATM+ is software for ATM systems implementing a Web architecture, and it embodies the know-how and advanced technical prowess of both companies. It is anticipated that employing that software will make it possible to quickly provide, at a very high level, the next-generation ATM system that NTT DATA has in mind.
Next-Generation ATM System – Description and Benefits for Financial Institutions
The following is a description of the next-generation ATM system and its advantages for financial institutions.
1. Cost reduction through common applications
1. Development of applications that can be jointly utilized by different financial institutions
Applications are now being developed that can be used by multiple financial institutions. That stands in contrast to current applications that run on ATMs, and are created by individual financial institutions. The result is expected to be lower development and maintenance costs for individual financial organizations.
2. Development of common applications for different ATM vendors
Financial institutions, which employ ATMs from multiple vendors, have been compelled to devise applications for the individual types of ATMs. Now, by offering multivendor applications (running on ATMs from several vendors with no differences), development for individual ATM vendors will no longer be necessary. That is expected to lead to lower development and maintenance costs.
2. Improved maintenance and enhanced customer service through the Web
In order to create applications that are common to the financial institutions and ATM vendors, a system infrastructure with a Web architecture will be created. The fruit of that effort will be the ability to respond at the system level to new technologies, services, and regulations entirely through server updates and modifications at the computer center. (That is, the work of installation will no longer be necessary on every ATM.) Maintenance will be facilitated, and services can be deployed in a timely manner. In addition, the financial institutions will be able to offer a higher order of customer service. For example, screen modifications for the benefit of ATM users will be made simpler.
3. Joint ATM monitoring
Substantial system and human resource efficiencies will be achievable by enabling ATM monitoring systems and monitoring operations of the individual financial institutions to be shared.
Comments by OKI
We anticipate that, the joint study and development of the next-generation ATM system by the three companies will promote the utilization of ATMs as strategic bases for the provision of customer service by financial institutions. In addition to greater ATM services by the financial organizations, the operability of the ATMs will be improved and services will be made available on a timelier basis. In those and other ways, users of ATMs across the nation will enjoy greater convenience.
Comments by Fujitsu
The market demands standardization of ATM applications. In response, Fujitsu and OKI announced a tie-up for next-generation ATM software development in December 2007. Now, with the participation of NTT DATA, the achievement of standard applications for the industry will be more assured, and standardization will be advanced.
Notes
*1 In some cases, old models of hardware cannot be accommodated.
- *UNISONATM+TM is the name of next-generation ATM software being developed jointly by OKI and Fujitsu.
- *Other names of products, companies, or organizations herein are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
For more information, please contact:
For media inquiries:
Mr. Tomohisa Sugiyama
Public Relations Department
NTT DATA Corporation
Tel: +81-3-5546-8051
For other inquiries:
Mr. Ryo Takeda, Mr. Eiji Inomata
Business Planning Group
Sales Channel System Marketing Section
Financial Systems Sector
NTT DATA Corporation
Tel: +81-50-5546-2031
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