Location:
Portugal

Benefits Summary:
Improved customer service, streamlined operations, and increased marketing of bank products

Montepio Geral is a very well known financial institution in Portugal due to its distinctive culture and image originating in its combination of activities as both a mutual association and a parallel banking business. These twin spheres of activity allow the bank to take a strategic position as a "universal operator" offering their individual customers a comprehensive package of financial and life management services.

The "CHAVE 24 +", Montepio Geral's private ATM network is an essential element of the bank's integrated multi-channel delivery process. Originally introduced back in the mid-1980s, "CHAVE 24 +" has recently been reengineered with an array of innovative Diebold technologies that improve customer service, streamline operations and promote Montepio Geral products. This reengineering project demanded leading-edge ATM technologies and similarly advanced base software. What Montepio Geral was asking for was the development of new applications for their ATM network from a solutions provider able to implement and manage their network, plus assume responsibility for ongoing maintenance and help-desk services. Besides requiring high security and resilience, the bank needed a true "new generation" of ATM equipment to be compatible with the WOSA/XFS (Windows Open System Architecture Extensions for Financial Services) standards and, at the same time, be user friendly so that consumers would not become disenchanted.

One popular feature-for bank and customers alike-is the touch screen on Diebold ATMs. "The touch screen is a really big innovation in Portugal," says Montepio Geral programmer Pedro Nunes. "No other ATM system at any other bank in the country has a touch screen."

Multimedia Capabilities
The Montepio Geral solution includes full multimedia capabilities on its Diebold ATMs. The application architecture developed is totally Web-based. Customers interact with the ATM using a Microsoft Internet Explorer interface with total transparency. The bank takes advantage of this to advertise products such as long-term deposits and home loans via full-motion color videos with sound. "When people pass by the machines and hear them speak, normally they look," says Nunes. "The idea is that maybe we can get the attention of a client-or a potential client-and cause him to listen and look." Information on the Montepio Geral mutual association is also available, giving the consumer the opportunity to learn about the association's plans and benefits outside of normal working hours.

As products and promotions change, Montepio Geral can even change the advertisements remotely, at will. The bank is continuing to explore further applications of the multimedia capabilities. In the meantime, it is also using its ATM screens to provide customers with useful information they might need about the local police department, fire department, hospitals and so on. Pedro Nunes explains, "If someone is in a hurry and doesn't have a phone book, they can rush to the machine and get a number very quickly."

Specialized Passbook Dispenser
Currently Diebold is in the midst of developing and testing a new feature for its existing specialized passbook dispenser. In Portugal, clients regularly rely on their passbooks to update their account information, such as statements, deposits, etc., and can even opt to have a passbook in lieu of an ATM card. With the new feature, if a customer's passbook gets full over the weekend, he or she doesn't have to wait until Monday to get another passbook. The Diebold machine automatically dispenses the new passbook, personalizes it by putting the customer's data both printed on paper and on a magnetic stripe, and enters all of the account activity inside. "I think it's a very useful application of technology," says Nunes, "and that it will make the clients even more confident in and attracted to using the machines."

Through value-added technological innovation and constant attention to the customer's individual requirements, Diebold has been able to ensure that "CHAVE 24 +" will help Montepio Geral bank continue to build on their already distinguished reputation.