 "Euronet India Ensures Monitoring On A Per ATM Basis")
The uptime of a bank’s ATM network is getting critical with the increase in the number of ATMs. To meet the requirements of the increasing banking population, the BFSI CIO has to ensure that SLAs are met from time- to-time and ATMs are available for cash dispensation and other services.
In order to meet the demands of its customers, Barclays Bank has recently deployed 30 offsite ATMs in Mumbai and Delhi. These ATMs include essential features such as cash withdrawal, cash and cheque deposits, balance enquiry, mini statement, cheque book and statement requests along with visa money transfer and mobile recharge. The ATMs have been set up in partnership with Euronet Services India. Euronet entered the Indian market in 2004 and developed the ATM management platform, Cashnet. Biztech2.com caught up with Sunil Nair, MD - Euronet Services, India to get more on this.
What are the important characteristics of Euronet Services India’s ‘ATM Managed Services’?
The ATM Managed Services offered by Euronet Services India have a number of differentiating factors. The ‘Cash Drop Off’ system of cash replenishment at ATMs has been our biggest differentiator. This is more suited to the Indian market considering the seasonal requirements, demography and so on.
This system works on an in-house developed tool, Cash Forecasting, which is tuned into the cash requirements of the bank’s ATM based on the locality, the festival season, salary cycle and various other parameters that are typical to the Indian geography. This helps us in being proactive rather than reactive.
It may be noted that many banks manage ATM replenishment information on an excel sheet, whereas Euronet has developed reconciliation tools that sync the Core Banking System, switch and the ATM.
Tell us about Euronet’s services on the mobile channel
On the mobile front, we are connected to almost 16 banks. This roughly translates into about 35000 - 40000 ATMs. Mobile services are also available at retail touch points, both in the organised and unorganised sectors. We are by far one of the few outsourcing companies who own a switch, and over a period of time we have developed tools around it that are designed for the Indian market.
Monitoring Centre is the backbone of ATM management. How advanced is it at Euronet Services India?
We have done all possible automation of our processes in our monitoring centre in Mumbai. Information is tracked on a per ATM basis, with the history of that ATM available on the monitoring tool. It helps us understand the health of the ATM over a period of time, cash dispensing history, trends of issues faced by the machine and so on. This helps us take a proactive approach and that has been the genesis of all automation at Euronet.
This proactive approach prevents cash blockage because liquid cash has a cost and instead of feeding cash into the ATM, the bank can use it for other productive purposes.
How are your systems connected with the bank’s CBS for seamless information exchange?
Euronet provides three outsourcing models. The first model is complete outsourcing, where we become the bank’s switch, which is directly connected with the Core Banking System (CBS) and the ATMs. For a bank, it doesn’t have to invest in the IT infrastructure.
The second model is a slight variant where the bank’s ATMs are connected to us and we connect to the bank’s switch.
The third model is the managed services model, where the bank’s switch is connected to our monitoring centre, which continuously receives raw data from the switch. This is processed for further action like forecasting and the like. Here, in some way or the other we are connected to the bank.
Our USP is that we are connected with banks, mobile operators, organised and unorganised retailers on the same switch.