The evolution of ATMs in the digital age: Interview with Octavio Marquez and Roselyne Jauffret from Diebold Nixdorf

By Gaia Lamperti

Diebold Nixdorf is the world-leading banking solutions and retail technology company specialising in the sale, manufacture, and installation of ATMs, point-of-sale terminals, and physical security products.

In times of digital transformation in banking, new consumer behaviour, and the rise of the cashless economy, the company is playing a key role in helping banks to automate, digitise, and transform their services.

In a joint interview with IBS Intelligence, Roselyne Jauffret, VP EMEA South & Africa, and Octavio Marquez, SVP Global Banking, highlighted some of the recent focus areas for the company.

Diebold Nixdorf is definitely playing a key role in the shift to digital, so how have your services been changing, adapting, and transforming in light of the acceleration that was caused by the pandemic?

Octavio Marquez (OM): In pre-pandemic times, banks were looking at ways to reduce their physical footprint, figuring out how to move faster into digital and better serve customers there. And I guess it makes sense, since most of us as consumers are very used to interacting with digital channels in other aspects of our lives. What Covid did was accelerating that shift into digital while, at the same time, exposing that there is still a very important need for some sort of physical presence. So, our services and product portfolio are evolving towards supporting the banks as they shift to more digital services. But we are also thinking about how to keep touchpoints where customers can interact with them in the physical world. We want those touchpoints to be very different from the traditional branch, more automated and cashless. We want branches to become more of an advice centre. This has created a very interesting opportunity for us because as banks redesign their physical footprint, they’re creating a lot more self-service areas in every branch. The ATM has become the only cash point in a branch turning into a very critical component of the infrastructure. And these self-service devices can’t be your traditional ATM that used to hand out cash, but also need to be capable of receiving deposits and payments. We have the opportunity to put a lot more intelligence on these devices, evolving software to include things like marketing at the ATM, biometrics, contactless transactions, and a lot more functionalities.

Could you offer an example of Diebold Nixdorf’s products specifically designed with that thinking behind them? 

OM: When we design our products, we think of the Internet of Things, so, for example, DN series cash recyclers have sensors in every component, whether it’s the mechanism to dispense, the mechanism to receive cash or the one to read cards. They are constantly being monitored, and that way, we can be aware of when a device is going to fail and proactively manage it. We need to make sure that ATMs become highly available, and the only way to do that is by creating this Internet of Things type of connectivity.

What role do consumer behaviours and habits play in determining the kind of approach to rolling out your products across different geographies?

Roselyne Jauffret (RJ): We have seen very different consumer behaviours depending on the geographies considered, so I think Covid has helped banks understand that they have to deal with different kinds of customers. It has become key to be where the customer is and meet their needs. ATMs are a great channel to do that, particularly in countries where consumers still need to address a physical touchpoint. Some understood this before Covid, but others started to understand it only now because they had no choice. We are helping banks to embrace this new thinking, but they also need to implement it on their own or, with the competition out there from telcos and FinTechs, they will struggle to remain competitive.

OM: We think that the traditional way of segmenting banking customers is no longer valid, and we need to focus more on needs and customer journeys than the traditional demographics based on age and gender. Even when we talk about Baby Boomers, Millennials, Gen X, Gen Y, we feel that those are too broad of generalisations. We did some research with NielsenIQ, and we segmented consumers based on technology savviness, degree of independence in the customer journey, and interests. If you segment that way, you can really address their needs and create a unique experience for everyone.

And talking about expansion and new geographies, where do you see the most significant opportunities? 

OM: Clearly, we see huge opportunities in many of the emerging markets, Africa for us is a great opportunity, but I would say that even very mature markets like the UK represent a tremendous opportunity for us. Particularly, banks in the UK are looking to outsource ATM networks, and we do offer services to also run their infrastructures for them. It’s a trend that will continue and a very important new market for us. Another landscape where we’re investing heavily in is payments, a segment that most banks need to modernise in order to remain competitive. We have launched a new payment platform with technology to scale and APIs that make it very easy to integrate into other technology parts of the bank.

RJ: In Africa, we are currently trying to dig innovative ideas for banks and other financial institutions in the loan sector. Africa is still heavily cash-based, and a significant portion of the population that is still unbanked went directly to mobile, hence why banks suffer a lot of competition from telcos. But we are helping more and more banks build their own microloans schemes to offer small amounts of cash from ATMs that can be then reimbursed progressively. It has become a way for ATMs to provide new services.

At a recent conference joined by IBS Intelligence, Diebold Nixdorf’s booth had a sustainability focus, inciting participants to engage with ESG topics. So, how much relevance do the company and its client base give to it? What are some of the initiatives Diebold is committing to?

OM: ESG is clearly a very, very important topic for us. On one side, we have a big concern for our environment and social causes, as every company in the financial services sector should. On top of this, socially responsible companies also perform better and are better perceived by their clients, employees, and investors. We feel that it is very important to be engaged in activities on a social level and this also has to translate into being a better corporate citizen and driving the company’s social agenda. At Diebold, we also have a strong focus on making our products more sustainable. Our new DN series machine is 40% smaller than prior generations, which means less waste, less bulky and also more energy efficient. We are also looking into ways to fix our damaged ATMs with remote technology because avoiding making our technicians travel to sites helps to offset our carbon footprint. Our biggest area of focus is to continue to make the company more environmentally responsible every year.

RJ: On the diversity and inclusion side, we recently ran an internal survey, and in my team, I got 90% of positive answers, which means we are on a good track and taking these topics very seriously. Personally, I also think the company is quite strong on that, and it’s a key differentiator from the competition. When we look at our teams, we are always very cognizant that diverse teams produce better results. So, we’re always very focused on making sure we have different voices from different perspectives in each of the teams and more inclusive work culture.