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January 30, 2008

ATMS AT RISK OF GREATER DOWNTIME, ACCORDING TO NEW GUIDE FROM LEVEL FOUR

Comprehensive Guide designed to assist banks understand the business value of advanced ATM monitoring in a Windows environment

LONDON, 30 JANUARY 2008: Today, Level Four, a leading supplier of open standards-based ATM software, published a Guide to ATM monitoring. Designed to assist ATM deployers and processors extract greater intelligence from their ATMs and put more intelligence back into the network, the Level Four Guide is easily accessible by ATM business and operations professionals.

Level Four has drafted the Guide in response to the fact that, since IBM discontinued support of OS/2, Windows has become the ATM operating system of choice. According to Retail Banking Research, 64 per cent of ATM deployers in Western Europe have adopted Windows for their ATM networks while Dove Consulting projects the figure to be 63 per cent in US ATMs in 2008. However, with regular operating systems patches and software updates being deployed to the ATM as well as the increasing trend to use multiple hardware types within an ATM estate, a new level of risk has been introduced into ATM networks. Compounded with the ongoing challenge of the maintenance and control of ATM networks, deployers are experiencing greater ATM downtime in a Windows world.

With over 1.5 million terminals worldwide, financial institutions recognise that the ATM channel is a key customer touchpoint and have attached increased value to it beyond simple cash dispensing. Any ATM network downtime therefore impacts customer satisfaction and loyalty. Indeed, a survey conducted by ICM Research on behalf of Level Four in July 2007 indicated that a third of UK respondents (38 per cent) would consider moving their main bank account if their bank’s ATMs were regularly out of service or unable to dispense cash. There is a pressing need to monitor and control all elements of ATM networks more closely to increase network reliability, especially when financial institutions are seeking to introduce new revenue-generating services to customers.


The Guide also addresses:

• The steps that financial institutions should follow to implement pro-active intelligent monitoring at ATM terminals, rather than the outdated reactive central monitoring approach in use today.
• How intelligent ATM monitoring can leverage financial institutions’ investment in the Windows operating systems and modern ATM hardware by improving efficiency of the network, ensuring high quality of service and driving revenue.
• Cost savings and efficiency gains through redefining the relationship with third party maintenance providers.
• Technical considerations associated with advanced, intelligent ATM monitoring.
• The future opportunities at the ATM in a Windows world.

Ian Kerr, CEO of Level Four, said: “To remain competitive in the ever-changing retail banking industry, now is the right time for ATM deployers to invest in advanced ATM monitoring due to the continued pressures to deliver sophisticated, revenue-generating customer services and to maximise network uptime. Deployers should keep in mind the significant benefits that employing an independent strategy for ATM monitoring can bring, and use this to their advantage when making ongoing decisions about ATM hardware and software.”

For a copy of Level Four’s Guide to ATM monitoring, please go to: http://www.levelfour.com

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About Level Four
Level Four’s development and testing products have been built to address the needs of ATM deployers seeking to maximize their investment in the ATM channel.

BRIDGE:test is targeted at banks and ATM deployers who are running, or seeking to run, a modern ATM network based on the industry-wide CEN/XFS open standard.  BRIDGE:test provides an enterprise regression test platform to test CEN/XFS based applications in a controlled environment. Customers gain benefits of the breadth of testing and improved quality assurance as well as reduced time to market due to increased testing efficiencies.

ATM Developer is targeted at banks and ATM deployers who are running states & screens protocol controlled applications such as those based on NDC or 912. ATM Developer provide a graphical environment in which customers can maintain the configuration file from creation to validation.

Since 1995, Level Four has built an impressive global customer base of banks and payments processors including, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB, Bank of America, CIBC, VocaLink and Standard Bank of South Africa. Headquartered in Dunfermline, Scotland, Level Four has offices in Dubai and Charlotte, NC, USA. http://www.levelfour.com  

Level Four’s online ATM industry resource: www.atmindustryinfo.com 

For more information, please contact:
Nicola Koronka
Hotwire
+44 (0) 20 7608 4673
levelfour 'at' hotwirepr.com