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NCR vows to dominate self-service at inaugural U.S. conference

June 8, 2006

WASHINGTON - Saying he is "passionate about the space," NCR president and chief executive Bill Nuti kicked off the company's first U.S. self-service conference by pledging "tremendous investments over the next several years" to make the company the leader in self-service for many years to come.

Nuti addressed a crowd of about 75 attendees from companies deploying or considering deploying self-service devices, including kiosks, self-checkout units and ATMs. About as many NCR staffers mingled with them in Washington yesterday and today in an event that was equal parts seminar, product exhibition and cheerleading for the growth of self-service not only as a set of technologies, but as a way of life.

"We have to educate leaders of business on how important this is," Nuti said.

The growth of self-service transactions shows the importance of the applications, he said. Last year, Google boasted more than 27 billion searches on its Web site, but the number of ATM transactions - just one type of self-service use - was about 50 billion.

NCR has held self-service conferences in Europe the past three years, with the most recent being in Barcelona, Spain, in May. About 300 people attended that show, up from about 75 for the first one. Officials hope the growth of the U.S. show mimics the European increase.

Nuti stressed several aspects of self-service that will drive its growth and serve as rungs for its further climb in the industry:

Intelligent deposit. Nuti said that ATMs able to accept cash and checks without the medium of an envelope experienced between 50- and 100-percent increase deposit volume. NCR displayed at the show ATMs that printed images of deposited checks on the receipt.

Bill payment. Already, wireless companies receive $1 billion a year - 10 percent of their revenue - in the form of self-service facilitated payments.

Backend/front-end integration. Self-service applications are significantly more powerful when backend data management is able to interface with the front-end. At the conference was a Personas 71 outfitted with NCR's new Aptra Relate software. The programming greets users by name and stores preferences such as language, common withdrawals and receipt preference. NCR's teller-assist units provide bank personnel information about customers using counter-mounted kiosks, enabling tellers to offer products like specifically tailored loans and investments. Such data-driven applications require sophisticated and massive data management. Nuti said NCR's acquisition of data warehouse company Teradata means NCR is the only company able to service both front-end and backend needs.

Several NCR applications were exhibited that were either new or sported new functionality.

Medical. When medical facilities install self-service check-in kiosks, Nuti said, wait- times decrease 50 percent for new patients and 75 percent for returning patients. Another benefit enabled by strong backend data management is the ability of information to be shared with researchers in real-time, helping establishments such as the Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in Florida track the effectiveness of experimental treatments.

Branch automation. Nuti said U.S. banks are spending $1.4 billion this year on branch renewal at the same time bankers estimate 67 percent of a teller's time is spent on low-value transactions, and about 40 percent of their time overall is spent waiting for customers to complete their end of the transactions. Teller-assist devices will enable one teller to service three to four customers at a time, the way self-checkout uses one clerk to oversee four lanes.

Retail. The next step in self-service checkout Nuti calls "self-tender," where cashiers scan and bag items and the customer handles payment on his own. Where in the case of smaller purchases it is efficient to have the customer handle all components of the transaction, self-tender expedites larger purchases by having trained personnel move the merchandise.