Banks are moving their automated teller machines from the OS/2 operating system to Microsoft Windows not to add capabilities but to comply with requirements like the Triple DES data encryption standard and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
That is the conclusion reached in a report released last week by Celent Communications LLC. The Boston technology research and consulting firm predicts that in the fourth quarter banks will accelerate their migration from International Business Machines Corp.'s OS/2, which has been the industry's leading platform for a long time, but which IBM is phasing out.
The nonproprietary systems they are installing in its place permit software from different vendors to run on the same platform within the ATMs, and this gives the banks more flexibility, according to Celent. By yearend there should be about 26,700 machines with Windows systems, the report said. By the end of 2005 that figure could increase nearly 500%, to 152,900.
Despite all the talk about the advanced functions that Windows- or Web-enabled ATMs could bring to financial institutions, most banks do not see a reason to add such features, said Gwenn Bezard, a Celent senior analyst and the author of the report.
"The move to Windows and open systems is really driven by maintenance issues, by the operations side," he said. "People on the operations side of the bank are willing to move to an open system, because it's going to be easier to manage the ATM fleet."
On the other hand, "many people on the business side are not sure of the business case for advanced functionalities," Mr. Bezard said. "They're not sure what type of service is going to generate significant revenues to justify the investment."
Of more immediate concern is the need to make the machines accessible to people with vision impairments and to comply with a requirement by Visa U.S.A. that banks use a more complex encryption standard in their ATMs, Celent said.
