Unisys Corp. has struck a deal with Panini SpA to offer the Turin, Italy, company’s desktop check scanner under its own name.
The agreement, which will be announced today at the BAI TransPay 2004 trade show in Las Vegas, gives Unisys an entry into a growing market, but some observers say the Blue Bell, Pa., company is shifting away from offering hardware in order to expand its consulting capabilities.
Panini North America will manufacture the components of the My Vision X scanner that Unisys will assemble and test at its facility in Plymouth, Mich., and sell as a Unisys-branded system.
Corporate customers use the shoebox-sized device to make deposits by converting checks into electronic images and then transmitting the images directly to the bank. First Tennessee Bank has been offering the device under Panini’s name in a separate deal since December for this type of remote capture service.
But Gary Wallen, a vice president and the general manager of payment systems at Unisys, said it plans to offer the device for use at teller stations, where checks can be converted as soon as customers deposit them.
Wausau Financial Systems Inc. will resell the machines for Unisys, and International Bank of Commerce, which has 160 branches in Texas and Oklahoma, recently put in an order for the product.
The banking industry is preparing for the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act, which will take effect in October and is widely expected to promote the use of check images instead of the original paper items for clearing and settlement. Many banks want to convert the checks into electronic format as soon as they enter the payment stream, at the automated teller machine or at the teller windows.
Mr. Wallen said Unisys selected Panini as its partner after an extensive evaluation of several desktop scanners from multiple vendors.
Unisys pursued a manufacturing partnership instead of developing the system in-house because doing so allows his company to enter the market sooner, he said. “We don’t take putting the Unisys name on a product lightly.”
Alenka Grealish, the manager of the banking group at the Boston research firm Celent Communications LLC, said the deal shows that Unisys is moving its focus away from the manufacturing of hardware, where it is a well-known name, and toward consulting. Unisys said last year that it would follow this strategy.
“By making a decision to grow in the fee-income services consulting arena, you’ve got to dedicate resources there,” and away from the hardware market where falling check volumes have driven down sales of check-processing equipment. Ms. Grealish said.
Dave Youngerman, the president of Panini North America, said the scanner takes up less space on a teller’s desk than a sheet of notebook paper. “They’ve got their monitor, and then they’re putting the My Vision X in front of the monitor, and then their keyboard is in front of the My Vision X.”
