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Moving money: transaction innovators to speak at Self-Service & Kiosk Show

Industry leaders Palm Desert National Bank and St. Clair Interactive Communications will showcase their latest innovations in self-service at the Self-Service and Kiosk Show.

January 29, 2006

Self-service innovators St. Clair Interactive Communications Inc. and Palm Desert National Bank will be among the industry pioneers attending this year's Self-Service & Kiosk Show, Feb. 13-14, at the Doubletree Hotel in Orlando, Fla.

Representatives from both companies will speak at the show. PDNB's Sandra Hartfield, president and chief executive officer of the electronic banking division will discuss "After the Transaction: What You Need to Know about Deploying Financial Services Kiosks" on Tuesday, Feb. 14 at 10:15 a.m. Doug Peter, president of St. Clair Interactive, will explain "Retail Self Service and Multichannel Strategies on Monday, Feb. 13.

Both companies will also exhibit their newest solutions during the show.

Marketing director Chris Peter said St. Clair will bring a variety of kiosk applications to appeal to a wide range of attendees. In recent projects, St. Clair has emphasized integrated software packages to optimize costs and increase ROI and customer service. Peter predicts a "major shift" toward storewide and chain-wide strategic implementation of fully transactional, multifunctional kiosks integrated into existing data systems.

"St. Clair will be showing our complete suite of store-wide strategies for customer facing devices, with special emphasis on our recent implementation for the Giant chain of supermarkets," Peter said. "We will also be showing loyalty and gift card kiosks, our smart order application for quick service restaurants and catering, as well as applications in guided selling, customer service, remote operations and digital displays."

PDNB, meanwhile, will showcase its bulk cash handling and terminal management solutions. PDNB's vice president of marketing, Gloria Grand, touted PDNB's Trakker software as some of the best in the industry. The company also markets prepaid debit cards, often used in payroll applications that are compatible with Visa, Plus, STAR, NYCE and Interlink systems.

"(Our business is) management basically," Grand said. "We create the technology that allows someone to go pay a bill, or cash a check. Everything after the transaction is what we handle. We balance and reconcile the funds and the media that is in those kiosks or check cashing vehicles. For example, the Info Touch system is a bill pay system. Say you pay an AT&T bill. Someone has to take the cash and make sure it gets to AT&T."

Much of PDNB's new efforts are geared toward kiosk technology. Grand said the bank is taking what it knows from handling ATMs and putting that knowledge to work in the kiosk marketplace.

"We're going to see a proliferation of kiosks out there," Grand said. "And the technology will continue to get better and better."

[Editor's note: Info Touch Technologies became Tio Networks in April 2006.]