| These
three words describe what Diebold is all about
in the global marketplace, as we work to forge
closer, more strategic and more productive relationships
with our customers around the globe. A case in point:
Last year we rolled out a new Internet banking
solution for our customers, an offering developed
through a strategic alliance we formed with
a technology firm specializing in financial
industry software. The formation of the alliance
reflects a continuing shift in our business
approach: from "go it alone" in-house development
to working with others if it means we can more
quickly integrate, commercialize and market
offerings that our customers need.
Web-based
self-service solutions are, of course, not new
to Diebold. A new e-service launched last year
demonstrates our ongoing commitment in this
area. DECALWeb further enhances the proprietary
electronic customer access link we developed
several years ago; the new version enables customers
to monitor and track service issues not only
from their offices, but from wherever they have
access to a Web-enabled PC.
While
we have long recognized the powerful potential
that e-commerce offers our customers, we are
also capitalizing on the opportunities it affords
us to build closer relationships with those
customers. During 2001, we continued with the
global rollout of DOMS -- the Diebold Order
Management System -- which cuts lead time and
improves customer satisfaction. Our internal
corporate-wide intranet -- the Diebold Online
Community (DOC) -- continues to gain in usage
and functionality, making it an increasingly
important tool for sharing information about,
and responding to, market trends and customer
needs.
In
addition to these e-commerce initiatives, we're
working in a number of other ways to improve
our internal processes, quicken decision making,
increase quality, and better coordinate our
resources around the globe -- all of which strengthen
our ability to build partnerships with our customer
base.
Last
year, we implemented a major reorganization
of our operations, creating global teams for
product development and engineering, manufacturing
and quality, and purchasing. These moves help
us to more effectively leverage our size and
scale and improve our financial performance;
for customers, they mean that we have a leaner,
faster and simpler infrastructure that enables
us to enhance the degree of customization and
level of service we offer in each market where
we do business.
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