With the solution, the bank becomes the eighth Level Four Saudi banking customer to benefit from cost savings, improved productivity and faster time to market of ATM services.

The main challenge Bank Al Bilad faced in rolling out new functionality and services to customers at its cash machines was the manual testing of ATM applications prior to deployment. The time and cost intensive process delayed the bank's projects for bringing ATM services to market and also had an impact on the number of projects Al Bilad could handle at any one time. As one of the fastest growing banks in Saudi Arabia, Al Bilad aims to lead the field in providing many innovative and quality assured services at their ATMs, which requires a solution to help automate testing and develop new screen content and functionality on its cash machines.

To meet its testing challenges, Bank Al Bilad selected Level Four's ATM Developer. Using ATM Developer, Al Bilad can customise ATM screens, rapidly introduce new ATM functionality and undertake end-to-end testing of its ATM network. Level Four's automated tools eliminate reliance on manual testing, which results in faster, more thorough and accurate testing processes such as fewer faults in the network and reduced downtime. ATM Developer has a highly visual and intuitive user interface, making it easy for Al Bilad's staff to use, positively impacting productivity levels. The solution also ensures that Al Bilad's ATM services comply with regulations such as EMV standard for smart chip cards and SPAN2 (the second generation of the Saudi Payments Network that involves the implementation of electronic banking services across the country).

In response to growing demand for automated cash deposit at ATMs, Bank Al Bilad introduced its bunch note acceptance service. The bank uses Level Four's Bunch Note Acceptor module with ATM Developer for maximum quality assurance so that the customer experience is not compromised at the ATM.

Muhammad Dahroug, g, acting CIO, Bank Al Bilad, said: "We understand that the ability to react quickly to customer demands and to take advantage of technological evolution is a key competitive differentiator for banks, especially in Saudi Arabia where ATM services are getting more and more sophisticated. To ensure that we lead the field in our ATM service offering, we wanted to maximise our current investment in ATM technology. Level Four's ATM Developer was a logical and easy choice for us because the solution is live at several leading banks in Saudi Arabia so we are confident that it adheres to local requirements such as SPAN2 compliance and support of the Arabic language on top of being a proven time and cost effective solution to meet our ATM development needs."

Issa Keshek, managing director of Level Four, Middle East, said: "Adding Bank Al Bilad to our customer base in Saudi Arabia increases our market share of providing automated ATM testing to banks in the region to 95%. As the dominant ATM software provider in Saudi Arabia, we can assure Al Bilad's IT team that they can speed up the development and deployment process to introduce new customer services across the bank's ATM network. A result of quickly bringing to market new ATM service offerings is an enhanced brand perception to Al Bilad's customers."