能“对话”的自动取款机

    沿海联邦信用合作社市场营销部门经理乔•麦加表示，该信用合作社还把出纳员培训时间从三周缩减到了一周，而且出纳员的流动率也明显下降了。银行工作更容易了，因为出纳员不再需要数现金抽屉里的钱，不再需要长时间站立，不再需要因为有可能面临抢劫而担心人身安全。此外，由于客户等待服务的队伍缩短，服务更加快速，而且据说出纳员更加专注，客户满意度也明显攀升。麦加说：“这使得银行出纳工作变得更加容易了。”

    类似这样的成功案例帮助uGenius提高了销售收入，目前有31家金融机构在使用uGenius的机器。这家成立已四年的初创公司去年营业收入增长了40％，今年1月份，该公司吸引到ATM供应商NCR公司（NCR）的投资资金，使后者成为其战略投资者。NCR公司年营业收入达52亿美元，在150个国家和地区设有ATM。去年春季，NCR公司利用uGenius的视频银行软件推出了自己的交互式出纳ATM（NCR APTRA® Interactive Teller）。一些银行目前在办公楼及大学校园内设置了NCR的交互式出纳ATM，从而将一台ATM变成各大银行的“微型分行”。NCR公司银行分行转型部门总经理布莱恩•贝利说：“通过这款设备，人们可以每天24小时进行多达90％的出纳交易。”

    ATM制造商Diebold及思科系统目前也在对视频银行模式进行测试，这两家公司在国民银行（Citizens Bank）及第一宪章银行（Charter One）位于伊利诺伊州、马萨诸塞州、纽约州及宾夕法尼亚州的分行安装视频系统。

    然而，并不是所有人都可以欣然接受这个虚拟银行出纳员的趋势。一些客户表达了自己对视频银行不屑的态度，而据米拉说，一些金融机构声称他们不会很快增设这些机器。米拉在赛讯咨询公司今年夏季的那次调查期间对一些大型及小型银行进行了采访。“在采访交谈中，有几家银行坚决表示：‘如果顾客走进我们的某家分行，倘若恭候他们的是一台机器的话，那我就完蛋了，”米拉说。“有些银行不会改变主意——至少，在很长一段时间内不会改变主意。”

    翻译：iDo98

    The credit union also reduced the training time to one week from three for those employees, and teller turnover also dropped. The job is easier since there's no more cash drawers to count, no long hours on your feet and no safety worries about a potential robbery, says Joe Mecca, Coastal marketing manager. Customer satisfaction has also climbed since lines are shorter, service is faster and tellers are reportedly more focused. "It has made it easier," says Mecca.

    Those kinds of success stories have helped drive sales at uGenius, which now has 31 financial institutions using its machines. The four-year-old startup watched its revenues grow 40% last year, and in January, it attracted ATM-provider NCR Corp. (NCR) as an investor. The $5.2 billion NCR, which has ATMs in 150 countries, rolled out its own interactive teller ATMs using uGenius' software last spring. Some banks are installing NCR's interactive machines inside office buildings and university campuses, turning an ATM machine into a "micro-branches" for banks. "People can do up to 90% of their teller transactions 24 hours a day," says Brian Bailey, NCR's general manager of branch transformation.

    Video banking is also being tested by ATM competitor Diebold (DBD) and Cisco Systems (CSCO), which installed video systems at branches for Citizens Bank and Charter One in Illinois, Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania.

    Still, not everyone is embracing the virtual teller trend. A number of consumers vent about their disdain for video banking, and some financial institutions claim they will not add them any time soon, says Meara, who interviewed both large and small banks for the Celent survey. "In conversations, several banks were adamant: 'If a customer enters one of my branches, I'll be darned if they are greeted by a machine,'" Meara says. "Some banks won't budge -- at least, not for a long while."