An Innovative Automatic Teller Machine

An Innovative Automatic Teller Machine

Introduction

    Automatic Teller Machine is an highly efficient machine which is frequently used in every bank. It makes people easy and convenient to withdraw cash from the bank without waiting in line. According to the ATMIA's (n. d.) report, there have been more than 2.2 million installed ATMs all over the world. Many companies are attracted by the huge market and produce high quality products to compete in the market.

    Our Sunny ATM Co., Ltd is one of those companies which aims at designing excellent ATMs and selling them to banks. We have brought several products to the market and accounted for a few percentage of the market share. We are looking for an opportunity to become the most successful company in the ATM industry.

Background

    World Bank (n. d.) reported that the number of ATMs used by per 100,000 adults in Canada was 222.82 at the end of 2014. The number fluctuated slightly from 1995 to 2014. Although this is a mature market, we can still find some gaps in this industry. First of all, everytime when we want to withdraw cash, we must carry a plastic card with ourselves ,insert the card into the ATM and enter the PIN. If we forget to bring the card or forget the PIN of the card, we cannot withdraw any money at all. Moreover, when a card is swallowed by the ATM, we must call the bank to reclaim our cards. If the card is swallowed by another bank's ATM, we may not reclaim our cards forever. So, it's not convenient to withdraw money when we are in an emergency. Secondly, ATMs work by reading the magnetic strip on the card which holds the owners' information. But it's easy for criminals to collect the card information and PIN information so that they can copy them and create a fake card (Sharma,2012). As a result, card holders may have a huge economic loss. In addition, all ATMs in the market are propelled by electricity power with linking several heavy cables. The weight of ATMs in the market ranges from 473 kg to 835 kg (n. d.). How to transport these heavy machines is a problem. The other problem is that sometimes the ATM may break down when the power cut happens. What's more, the interface of the ATMs is always uninteresting. All ATMs show the same style that sometimes we cannot distinguish them from one bank to another. We feel bored about the same colors, same font and same characters. Therefore, there are a lot of improvements which we can make in the ATM industry.

    In order to solve these problems and improve our market share, we have made a detailed market research. We analyzed the data which we collected before and found the ways to filling these gaps. We want to make it easier for all the customers to use ATMs.

Achievements

    Through unremitting efforts, we have designed a innovative ATM recently which can satisfy most of the customers' needs. The new machine is made with an advanced kind of environmental friendly nanophase material and propelled by solar energy. As a result, the new machine with only one power cable and one network cable wired in case of an emergency is weighed about 200 kg, lighter than all other ATMs in the market. So, it's easy to transport more machines once and convenient to move around if needed. The new machine is equipped with a 25 inches touch screen on the top of it. We can only make transactions by touching the screen because there is no solid button on the machine. It allows us to custom ourselves interfaces so that we can enjoy simple but practical interfaces which only belong to us. The most important improvement is that we designed a face and fingerprint recognition system which allows us to withdraw cash without a plastic card. Although the Royal Bank of Scotland announced that people without a card can take money from the ATM by using their mobile phones to make a request. People will receive a PIN number to enter the ATM system and withdraw money (2012) . This technology is unsafe because anyone could have an access to our mobile phones. However, people are recognized only by their fingerprints in our system if they forget to bring cards with them. If the card is swallowed by a ATM, we can easily reclaim our cards by using our fingerprints. Of course, we will not be worried about copied card problem because every fingerprint is unique. In addition to the above mentioned advantages, we developed more useful functions such as long-distance assistance, gesture password and sound control system which allows blind person to use conveniently. So, the new machine is the most advanced ATM until now.

    The new machine will be helpful to gain the market share of our company. We have patented the technology and will profit from it soon. We decide to outsource the machines to other companies so that may reduce our costs and we will have more time to focus on selling and researching the next generation of the ATMs.

Benefits for Stakeholders

    The social responsibility of business is to make money for stakeholders (Thomas,1986). Firstly, due to the advanced technology, We will sell our new ATMs at a 15% higher price compared with current average price in the market. However, we will give a discount to our long-term corporative banks to open the market. Once the new ATM is accepted by the market, it will generate a lot of profits for our company. Any stakeholder will receive considerable amounts of money from the annual dividend. Secondly, our company is trying to be listed in stock market. Once the company becomes listed on TSX or NASDAQ, our stakeholders have an access to buy some preferred stocks. What's more, we will consider the current stakeholders first when we decide to sell additional shares. We believe our stakeholders will must be benefit from the new products.