This is an expansion of the existing managed services agreement covering incident and cash management, which has been in place since July 2016. This is first time that NCR’s Pulse Banking app, which displays the operating status of the self-service device network in real time, will be used for operation management at a financial institution in Germany.

NCR was selected in the course of a modernization project during which Sparkasse Jena replaced the Microsoft Windows XP operating system throughout the self-service device network. Sparkasse Jena took advantage of this technology renewal to re-visit their overall business strategy and re-focus their staff to support the savings bank’s core business activities.

Sparkasse Jena had already commissioned a cash-in-transit (CiT) company with cash logistics and cash management in 2013. When around 100 self-service systems had to be replaced in 2016, the bank decided to place the maintenance and operational responsibility for their ATM network as well as the management of the CiT company, in the hands of a single service provider. The decision was made in favor of NCR's managed services model. NCR’s APTRA Opticash solution is being used by NCR’s Cash Analysts to cost effectively manage cash demand. NCR’s managed services implementation saw a smooth transition from the on-going operations and in only three months after beginning the service agreement NCR was achieving 99 percent ATM availability.

"It was a very ambitious project, with a tight implementation time," explains Mike Neubert, department manager operations at Sparkasse Jena. "We knew NCR as a reliable partner from a previous migration project. NCR had already proved itself as a project partner at that time and did again in the new tender. Both sides learned and adapted quickly and we both will benefit from the insights in future projects."

NCR Pulse Banking app is being used for the first time in Germany at Sparkasse Jena. The app, which is unique in the financial industry, combines the various data sent from the ATM network and presents it graphically on a mobile device. NCR Pulse Banking includes real-time, high-level network performance analytics, as well as detailed incident management data, geographic status display and system status alerts. In the event of a malfunction, the NCR team can immediately identify the issue and resolve it quickly. Sparkasse Jena is considering making the status information available to their customers at a later stage, enabling them to always find the nearest functioning ATM.

"NCR has one of the most experienced service teams in the world: every three seconds we receive a service notification, and every six seconds our technicians make a service call," said Wolfgang Kneilmann, Vice President Financial Services DACH, CEA and Russia at NCR. "In the project, we were able to demonstrate the full range of our experience and expertise as well as our customer orientation. Entrusting the entire operation lead in our hands is a huge vote of confidence that we are very proud of."