Creating a platform for rapid business growth at the ATM
China's Bank of Communications (BOCOM) was founded in 1908 and is one of the oldest banks in China. Today, its transformation from a centuries-old national brand into a modern commercial bank epitomizes China’s banking reforms.
The challenge: Develop a single ATM software solution to establish the platform for BOCOM's rapid business growth at the ATM.
Background
BOCOM’s ATM network comprised of several different manufacturers ‒ NCR, Diebold, Wincor Nixdorf, Hitachi, GRG, Fujutsu, Olivetti, Eastcom and OKI ‒ and models. Each hardware vendor supplied its ATMs with its own software. It was very difficult for BOCOM to deal with the multiple software versions and to distinguish which ATM model performed best. The bank also had to pay for expensive additional software development whenever purchasing new ATMs.
BOCOM needed one standard ATM software environment that could run all of its hardware.
Project requirements
Deliver a single software solution to:
- Provide one standardised software platform for the whole network
- Control development of each application version
- Unify and standardise all the local business versions from different branches
- Unify and standardise all the business processes across the whole bank
- Enhance BOCOM's customer service quality and image in the ATM channel
- Produce performance data on devices, service providers and administrators
- Choose best-of-breed hardware, free from the restrictions of "bundled in" software
The solution
KAL and our local development partner, Zijin Technology, provided BOCOM with KAL's single ATM software solution. This established the platform for the bank's rapid new business growth and introduced exciting functionality to help the self-service channel stay ahead of the market.
Key project outcomes
The success of the single software approach has enabled BOCOM to improve its customer service and enhance its image at the ATM by delivering:
- A consistent customer interface, receipt format and personalised service
- A uniform Electronic Journal (EJ) print format and administrator interface
- A uniform administration interface that enables the bank to easily run performance reviews on administrators and hardware engineers, and improves hardware availability
- Standard device status codes that make it easier for BOCOM to monitor and analyse all ATMs in operation
- All administrative functions in Chinese (including journal check and hardware vendor error code display) to provide better hardware security and less engineering maintenance and management monitoring time
- All version updates distributed remotely
- Real-time, remote monitoring of all hardware devices and each individual ATM
- Remote trouble-shooting
Zijin and KAL's single ATM software solution has provided the technical platform for BOCOM and China's rapid growth in self-service banking. Working together for the past 10 years has been very successful.
— Mr. Zhong, VP & Technical Director of Zijin
More about Bank of Communications
BOCOM is one of the four oldest banks in China. In 1958, the bank’s mainland business was merged with the People's Bank of China and the People's Construction Bank. As China's first national shareholding commercial bank, BOCOM has been the pioneer of China's banking reforms.