ATM Management made easy with Diebold
Agilis® Office Suite

Client
First Charter Bank located in Charlotte, North Carolina

Diebold’s Agilis Office Suite software modules allowed First Charter Bank to reduce costs and increase both the efficiency and security of its ATM network.

Network size
138 ATMs, including 67 off-premises, bank-branded ATMs throughout First Charter’s service area.

Service history
First Charter competes with four of the largest financial institutions in the United States and owns a network of predominantly Diebold ATMs, both new and legacy models. When the bank began looking for management options to enhance its entire ATM channel, First Charter turned to its trusted business partner, Diebold. Diebold Professional Services developed a customized, integrated self-service system tailored to First Charter’s specific needs. First Charter Bank continues to grow in competitive markets. With that growth comes the need for more efficient management options for an increasingly complex ATM network. Managing the network, employee service time and journal entries, as well as strengthening network security have become increasingly important, as has controlling costs and increasing efficiency as the network expands.

First Charter’s goals for improving its ATM network were to find better ways to manage journal files, to remotely manage its machines and centralize the operation of the network, to increase the security of the network from both external and internal threats and to add customized ATM screens.

Diebold’s Agilis Office Suite met all of First Charter’s objectives with one source for hardware, software, installation and technical assistance.

Journal Office™ enabled First Charter to simplify journal settlement issues, reducing the amount of time branch employees spend interacting with ATMs and increasing the amount of time they have to take care of customers. Journal Office provides quick access for specific ATM transaction inquiries and automatic retrieval of electronic journal data. The data First Charter receives from Journal Office is sortable and readable, and is produced in a form that makes it easy to use in management reports. Also, Journal Office is scalable to suit any-sized ATM network, which was appealing to First Charter.

“We realized significant costs savings with Journal Office,” said Barry Jones, senior ATM coordinator and banking officer for First Charter. “It also allowed us to streamline our settlement processes, which could be very time-consuming for a network of our size.” Additional savings were realized with Diebold’s Remote Office™, which allowed First Charter to manage its network from a central location and conduct routine maintenance remotely, significantly reducing costs, downtime and service visits. Remote Office also allows First Charter to download screen graphics from a central location, providing enhanced screen customization with minimal effort.

“Being able to remotely touch an ATM from across the network gives us much more flexibility. Tellers can look at a problem and the technician can interact with them without going out to interact with the ATM,” Jones said. “It also allows us to get real-time information from our ATMs, which maximizes uptime, as well.”

Diebold’s ATM Security Office™ was installed to prevent unauthorized or malicious access to First Charter’s ATMs from both inside and outside the network, taking network security one step further and easing concerns about security as the network grows.

Jones said that after looking for a comprehensive solution, First Charter chose Diebold because of both an existing relationship and because Diebold offered the only comprehensive solution that also added value for the bank’s customers and management teams.

“Diebold’s Agilis Office Suite has allowed us to take greater control of our ATM network,” Jones said. “We’ve increased uptime, saved money by simplifying the management of our ATM channel, and reduced the time our tellers spend servicing the ATM, which gives them more time to spend with customers. That’s how we like to operate.”