Following the company's restructure announced recently, the new product strategy is reflected in a rationalisation and re-focus of the company's product portfolio.

Going forward, Level Four's ATM Channel Development Suite will incorporate two key products: ATM TrueTest and ATM Developer. ATM TrueTest will provide a fully automated testing solution for any Windows (XFS compliant) ATM and self-service software image, while ATM Developer will support the maintenance and conversion of ATM applications running on legacy OS/2 systems, and Windows versions of those legacy applications.

Both products assist in developing new functionality at the ATM, irrespective of software platform, and automate and comprehensively document every stage of the testing process end-to-end.

"Automated testing reduces time to market for new functionality and improves confidence in new ATM and self-service applications, enabling banks and financial institutions to revitalise their ATM channel, which in turn creates an opportunity to build customer loyalty and increase customer retention," said Jim Tomaney, product director at Level Four Software. "By focussing on the ATM channel, Level Four's product strategy addresses today's ROI conscious world and is aligned with banks' future aspirations for their self-service channels. Our goal is to deliver a strong ATM testing and development software suite that delivers results in line with both end-user and customer demand."

Level Four's product strategy supports the increasing adoption by financial institutions of open-standards based ATM software. Open-standard based solutions are currently transforming the ATM market, historically controlled by a few large proprietary vendors. Leveraging this new open market, many ATM network providers are now taking the opportunity to review their software strategy, and are looking for opportunities to unlock the profit potential of the ATM channel.

ATM TrueTest provides an independent and flexible desktop-based testing environment for MS Windows open standards-compatible ATM applications. Given the industry’s historic dependence on intensive manual testing, the ROI is rapid. ATM TrueTest supports comprehensive automation for end-to-end development and regression testing of ATM software in conjunction with a central host system.

ATM TrueTest simulates ATM hardware peripherals and their interface to the ATM application via the XFS interface layer, enabling customers to dramatically shorten development and deployment timescales of Windows-based ATM and self-service applications.

ATM Developer provides a comprehensive configuration management solution for NDC/912 based ATM networks. Typically, ATM screen presentation and transaction flows have remained static due to the complexities of updating content, but due to increasing business demands as well as regulatory technical issues this situation is changing.

ATM Developer provides a graphical user interface to manage ATM configurations, both screen content and logical transaction flow, using a simple drag and drop interface. Configuration files may be tested online as ATM Developer provides a connection to the host system, effectively representing a virtual online ATM on a desktop.

Supporting ATM Developer and ATM TrueTest, Level Four will also offer two plug-ins: Bunch Note Acceptor and Cheque Processing Module. Both plug-ins simulate hardware peripherals to the ATM, enabling full testing of any fault scenario.