KAL has once again emerged as the world's leading independent ATM software vendor in research recently carried out by London-based Retail Banking Research (RBR). This important biannual study of multivendor software included indepth interviews with 66 financial services organisations in 39 countries.

Multivendor ATM software where software from one vendor runs on hardware from a different vendor, has grown by 67% over the last two years. This indicates that banks are looking to extend functionality more cost effectively, and to benefit from the option to deploy ATMs from multiple suppliers.

KAL is one of the top three vendors in this market with a 21% share globally, and the only leading provider whose focus is exclusively on ATM software. This group has opened up a significant gap over the rest of the pack with other companies listed in the study accounting for 7% or less of the total market.

"This is good news for KAL. The key point in this research is the global adoption of a multivendor approach to running the ATM network. We are confident that this trend will continue and will positively impact on KAL's market share going forward" - KAL CEO Aravinda Korala

In 2004, Shinsei Bank in Tokyo went live with the world's first multivendor cash recycling ATM application. Recycling ATMs require fewer visits for cash replenishment because the cash deposited into the ATM can be used straight away for the next customer's withdrawal. Fewer replenishment visits mean lower service costs. Shinsei Bank has reduced costs even further by using the Kalignite KTC system to manage its network of recycling ATMs. Remote management by KTC minimises and often eliminates the need for ATM site visits by a technician.

The K3A application at Shinsei Bank is a single software application that operates without modification on five recycling ATM models manufactured by OKI, Fujitsu, and Hitachi. This enables Shinsei Bank to choose the best ATM at the best price for each location, meaning even greater savings for the bank. Not only that, but it was Japan's first ever ATM application with support for the international XFS ATM software standard, making multivendor ATM software possible for the first time.

In fact, the Kalignite Software Platform first supported cash recycling back in 2002 when KAL and Omron worked together on the Omron BH recycler and made it one of the first XFS-compliant recyclers available on the market.

The world's largest multivendor ATM network is at China Construction Bank (CCB) and is powered by Kalignite.

CCB, one of the largest banks in China, became China's first successful multivendor rollout in 2003. In December 2007, KAL reported 18,000 ATMs had Kalignite installed at CCB. As of today there are 24,000 ATMs installed with Kalignite out of over 32,000 ATMs. The remaining ATMs which are still OS2 machines will run Kalignite once they are converted to Windows XP.

CCB's ATM network is a mix of vendors including Chungho, Diebold, GRG, Hitachi, Hyosung, Keba, KingTeller, NCR, Triton, Wincor, and Yihua. There are a large number of models in the network with many cash recyclers.

OTP Bank is the largest bank in Hungary and operates the region's largest ATM network of over 2000 ATMs (accounting for nearly half of all ATMs in Hungary). OTP's Kalignite software is multilingual so its ATM customers can choose from English, German and, of course, Hungarian.

(In case you didn't know, Hungarian – also called Magyar – is a non Indo-European language which is quite unique in Europe and is considered one of the most difficult languages for English-speaking people to learn.)

With Kalignite, the word "multi" really means "a lot" – not just two or three. At many banks like OTP, Kalignite is supporting multiple languages on individual ATMs. In addition to the three languages at OTP, Kalignite software is operating at banks around the world using Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French, Italian, Spanish, Norwegian, Polish, Thai, and many, many more.

Over 80% of Norway's bank ATMs are powered by KAL's Kalignite Software Platform. And if you thought that hydroelectricity had something to do with powering Norwegian ATMs, that's also correct.

But, coming back to what sits inside those Norwegian ATMs, the software application running on top of KAL's Kalignite Software Platform is from EVRY.

The EVRY Mulitvendor ATM Software is now running live on ATMs manufactured by Wincor Nixdorf and NCR, amongst others. And it's thanks to KAL's Kalignite Platform that the EDB application is fully multivendor compliant with extensive support for all XFS-ready ATMs.

EVRY is the No. 1 provider of IT services in Norway and has over 6,000 employees in Norway, and the rest of Europe.

Finger Vein Recognition (FVR) is an exciting technology that enhances the security of ATM transactions and provides benefits for both the bank and the end user. FVR is highly reliable and accurate, offering demonstrably higher performance when compared with other biometric technologies. The impact of FVR on the ATM solutions market is clearly demonstrated by Japanese banks rolling out the technology across the country.

KAL has incorporated support for the FVR devices from Hitachi-Omron (HOTS) into our Kalignite software suite and now supports it in all our multivendor ATM/kiosk solutions. Japanese banks incentivise its use through higher withdrawal limits for FVR-secured transactions – a great way to encourage the use of this new technology without forcing customers to do so.

Indeed, there is more good news for banks – this new technology can be retrofitted to existing ATMs and consequently the bank does not need to wait for the ATM replacement cycle to purchase FVR-enabled ATMs.

KAL is delighted to be at the forefront of incorporating and supporting this emerging technology to the global marketplace for ATM and kiosk projects. Greater security is now, literally, at your fingertips.

Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the world's oldest bank , has deployed the Kalignite Software Platform along with "NPT Solutions" - an ATM software application from Tecnologia Avanzata dei Sistemi (TAS) S.p.A. Monte dei Paschi was founded in 1472 and is one of Italy's largest banks with approximately 1800 branches and over 2500 ATMs in its network.

TAS, the leading ATM software provider in Italy, has worked in partnership with KAL to create the comprehensive ATM software solution known as "NPT Solutions". Thanks to KAL's Kalignite Platform, "NPT Solutions" is a fully multivendor ATM application with extensive support for Italian software requirements such as support for the SIA protocol.

NPT Solutions application is now running live on ATMs manufactured by NCR, Diebold, and Wincor Nixdorf.

KAL and Tisco Bank of Thailand worked together to deliver innovative new transactions on banking kiosks in Thailand. The Tisco banking kiosks, which are installed nationwide, include Smartcard and ePurse transactions, as well as payment transactions for utility bills, insurance, mutual funds, loan instalments and more. Tisco’s Kalignite kiosks communicate with multiple hosts simultaneously to perform these transactions, thereby simplifying the back-end integration complexity for the bank while carrying the transactional workload on the kiosk itself.

Additionally, in what is probably a world first, the kiosk application also doubles up as a teller station solution inside Tisco’s bank branches. The flexibility of the Kalignite kiosk application allowed Tisco to use it at the bank’s teller stations to perform the same set of transactions for teller-assisted customer transactions with a modified transaction flow.

In order to keep Tisco’s kiosk costs under control, KAL integrated its application with off-the-shelf kiosk devices purchased directly by Tisco from some of the leading component vendors in the world. Tisco hired a local company to carry out the final hardware integration while KAL delivered all the necessary software including the XFS SPs for this exciting project.

KAL’s groundbreaking development work with Tisco is just another excellent example of how KAL is helping bank customers around the world take back control of their ATM and Kiosk networks.

Kuveyt Türk Bank of Turkey has launched the unique Extreme Teller Machine (XTM) based on KAL ATM Software. The XTM combines multi-touch ATM functionality with video conference-based support for branch transactions, providing service 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Selim Bayhan, vice president of application development, said: “The innovative XTM was ready for market deployment very quickly because it was built on KAL’s multivendor Kalignite Platform.”

The Kalignite Platform enabled component integration, system testing and deployment to be completed within just a few months of being conceived by the bank. The XTM comprises 19 device components, many of which are not usually used at ATMs or in other types of self-service systems, such as a signature pad, document box with shutter, A4 printer, camera, and telephone.

Already integrated with the GRG ATM hardware and all other XTM components, the Kalignite Platform allowed Kuveyt Türk Bank to build the XTM application with minimal support from KAL. Using the Kalignite Platform, Kuveyt Türk Bank created the XTM’s business logic, user interface and terminal-to-host communications by itself, selecting virtually any components it wanted to integrate with the XTM. The result is an innovative self-service system that minimises branch start-up costs, reaches more customers, provides 24/7 banking services and provides a unique user experience. These units are now in live use in Istanbul and have been a great success with customers.