The solution package also includes a five-year maintenance agreement. The first branches will be equipped in the third quarter of 2007 and the overall project will be completed by 2008. By winning this order, Wincor Nixdorf continues to implement its strategy of leveraging its core competences in business with banks and retailing companies to tap business potential in neighboring sectors.

As part of the project, at least 125 front-end systems a day will be replaced and loaded before installation with Deutsche Post's branch software. This is a demanding task: Deutsche Post is the postal services provider with the largest sales revenue in Europe, and its services are delivered to two to three million customers a day in Germany. Ongoing operations thus should be disrupted as little as possible by this refreshment of the IT landscape. Wincor Nixdorf can boast many years of experience when it comes to the smooth integration of new technologies during operation. "After all, in this project we are clearly building on our core competences as a solution provider for bank branches and retail stores, which are directly related to the current branch structures of postal services providers," says Stefan Auerbach, the Wincor Nixdorf board member in charge of global bank business.

The all-around package of integrated individual components that Wincor Nixdorf offered played a crucial role in Deutsche Post's decision. One particular factor was the total cost of ownership, i.e. the costs over the entire product lifecycle. Fujitsu Siemens Computers is the partner for supplying the personal computers and the configuration is rounded out by peripherals such as printers, monitors, scanners, etc. All the systems will be integrated in Wincor Nixdorf's established services infrastructure to ensure efficient maintenance; the services will then be carried out on site in partnership with Fujitsu Siemens.

As a result of this framework agreement, Wincor Nixdorf is taking on the general contractorship for a Deutsche Post project for the first time. "The solution package offered by Wincor Nixdorf leverages synergies in rollout, IT systems and service, and enables us to take a large stride toward optimizing processes," says Friedhelm Schwarze, head of Branch Operations at Deutsche Post.