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Interesting apps on display at Wincor World

German kiosk and ATM manufacturer Wincor Nixdorf showcases its latest and greatest technology at Wincor World, an annual trade event attended by partners, customers and the press.

March 11, 2004

Most of the year, the warehouse in Paderborn, Germany is filled with sofas, tables and chairs. But the emphasis shifts from decoration to automation during Wincor World, an annual weeklong trade event hosted by kiosk and ATM manufacturer Wincor Nixdorf.

Wincor Nixdorf transforms a furniture warehouse in Paderborn, Germany into a showcase for its products and services at the annual Wincor World.

Julia Pallasch, Wincor's marketing manager for self-service products, explains that the 46,000-square-foot warehouse is the only facility in Paderborn, where Wincor is headquartered, that is large enough to hold all of the company's kiosks, ATMs and other products.

So for the past eight years, Wincor has rented the building, removed the furniture and put its wares on display there. This year Wincor shared the space with Fujitsu Siemens Computers, its onetime business partner.

Here, from this editor's perspective, are some of the most interesting things seen and heard at last week's show:

Vive la difference: Several of Wincor's products capitalize on cultural idiosyncrasies. For instance, Pallasch says the company's ProPrint 1000 does a "huge business" in Europe, where most bank customers neither receive monthly statements in the mail nor get receipts at the ATM. Customers can typically print out up to 10 pages of their most recent account history at a ProPrint 1000. Pallasch says ATMs and ProPrint terminals are often located side-by-side in bank lobbies, as banks don't want customers printing lengthy statements to monopolize the ATMs.

A Wincor Nixdorf employee customizes an ATM according to customer specifications at the manufacturing facility in Paderborn.

By the book: Another product not found in the U.S. but popular in Spain and several Asian markets is the PBT or Passbook Terminal, which allows customers to update their bank passbooks (Ah, the passbook -- another once-common item that, like the typewriter, has vanished from the American landscape.)

ProClassic in action: A demonstration of the open architecture software application being used by Bank of America on several hundred of its ATMs ran on a ProCash 2000, showing just how snazzy Web-enabled graphics can look. In the exhibit hall, a full-motion video offer for a credit card played on an attract loop and during the "please wait" and "thank you" screens. In the real world, the software, which is based on WOSA/XFS, gives BofA the capability to shoot targeted ads to users during the "please wait" portion of the transaction.

Personnel touch: An application called ProCash/FOnet will allow personnel offices to authorize travel expenses and salary advances so that employees can withdraw these funds from an ATM installed at their workplace. Companies benefit from reduced administrative costs, and employees benefit from the convenience of conducting these transactions when it's convenient. Wincor has already signed its first customer, the Madsack publishing company in Hanover, Germany.

Waste not: At a Fujitsu Siemens Computers recycling facility that also recycles Wincor ATMs, only about 10 percent of materials are sent to the landfill; the rest is either reused or recycled. The plant processes slightly more than 4,400 tons of used equipment a year, of which 16 percent is refurbished and 73 percent is recycled.

Big bucks: Wincor just introduced a new vertical cassette configuration for its ProCash 3100, a machine with cash-recycling capabilities that is popular in Switzerland and several Asian countries. According to Stephan Okroy, Wincor's information technology product manager, maximum cash capacity is a whopping 13,000 notes if four standard cassettes are combined with two vertical cassettes in the 3100.

If Wincor Nixdorf has its way, this Blue Safe will make safecrackers see red -- and avoid ATMs equipped with this unusual security measure.

Big bang: According to Andrea Carozzi, Wincor's senior project manager for cash systems, Swedes have a fondness for explosives that translates into an unusually high number of busted bank safes. Sixty safes were blown in Sweden in 2000, a remarkable number in a country with just nine million residents. Carozzi says that explosives are widely available in Sweden because they are commonly used in construction projects there. Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel is credited with the invention of dynamite.

Security to dye for: This summer, Wincor will pilot the Blue Safe, a security system developed with Swedish partner SQS (Security Qube System), at a Swedish bank. Employing technology similar to that used to deploy air bags, a small explosive charge will be triggered if the bright blue safe is tampered with, releasing dye that will stain the money inside. "We can make stronger safes, but (thieves) will just get more dynamite," Carozzi says, explaining that Wincor believes that ruined money may be a stronger deterrent to crime.

Betting on kiosks: Markus Sauter, Wincor's marketing and sales manager for lottery solutions, says that lottery retailers are a promising market for Wincor's kiosks. He explains that kiosks can be used to offer customers information such as rules for games, freeing up clerks at the counter to sell tickets. By adding a barcode reader, customers can also check to see whether they have a winning ticket. "If (customers) come in on Friday afternoon to see if they have a winner, they lengthen the queues and hold up the people who are there to buy tickets," Sauter says.

The CERTO is Wincor Nixdorf's newest kiosk.

Dynamic design: Wincor already had an attractive kiosk in the Orbiter, a tall cylindrical machine. The new CERTO kiosk ups the ante, with a sleek pedestal, small footprint and 15-inch touchscreen. It can be mounted on a wall, countertop or the aforementioned pedestal. Deployers can customize with a variety of peripherals, including keyboard, 12-millimeter printer, card reader and barcode reader.

Most distinctive décor: The 8-foot-tall green corn husks that were used, according to Pallasch, to symbolize Wincor's growth. Runners-up: the Oscar lookalike figurines (symbolizing glamour?) and "statues" resembling Einstein (brains?).

My house should look this good: Wincor's manufacturing facility is the cleanest factory I have ever seen.

You know you're in GermanyÂ…: Cold cuts at every meal, even breakfast. Everyone on the show floor in business attire - no golf shirts and khakis. Spied on the street: a pizza deliveryman driving a Volkswagen Beetle. ATMs in bank lobbies, not in retail stores.