Article

'The year of digital media' for NCR

NCR touted 2008 as the year of change for self-service.

April 28, 2008 by Tracy Kitten — Editor, AMC

This year marks a turning point for the integration of more technology into retail environments. In fact, one industry source has pegged 2008 "the year of digital media."

NCR Corp.'s Dick Arnold, who showed off his company's newest retail solutions during the third-annual Self-Service Universe Executive Conference for the Americas, held in Orlando April 2 - 4, says retailers' adoption of new technology is increasing - and NCR expects to be at the crest.

From its next-generation FastLane self-checkout system to its FastLane Self-Return, the MediKiosk Patient Check-in and advances in the use of mobile commerce, which brings retailers closer to their customers, the Dayton, Ohio-based company says 2008 will be somewhat of a landmark year.

story continues below...

Retail Customer Experience
magazine & online

Connect more effectively with your customers. Discover the latest strategies, trends and solutions for delivering great customer experiences at retail.

Dusty Lutz, who demonstrated the FastLane self-checkout during the April event, says self-service in retail is a concept that's growing legs throughout the world.

Take NCR's FastLane line as an example. The line's self-checkout system is now deployed in 20 countries. And in March, NCR announced a pilot with Lithuania's second-largest retail grocer, IKI. IKI is the first grocer in Lithuania to test self-checkout.

"We see a lot of interest in the Central and Eastern Europe market," Lutz said. "We're talking to Hungary, too, and expect to see continued and significant growth in the CEE region throughout 2008."

Asia-Pacific also is a growing region, he said, with 12 retailers in Japan and 11 in Korea already using the FastLane.

"China is growing, too, and we expect to see more and more there, even over the coming year. All of our markets are growing, using the FastLane, even the U.S. We're simply seeing more and more self-checkout everywhere."

It's a trend NCR says it sees across the self-service board.

"The self-service revolution is driven by the desire for something better," said Bill Nuti, NCR's president and chief executive. "Every generation is a self-service generation, and speed, convenience and ease-of-use are the primary drivers of self-service across numerous industries."

Retail is just one of them.

Although the majority of NCR's business remains in the banking sector, the company says it sees continual interest from other sectors, such as retail and healthcare. During the conference, about 25 percent of the event's 300 attendees represented the retail industry. Another 18 percent represented travel, and 9 percent represented healthcare.

About 40 percent of attendees were bankers.

Despite the relatively low percentage of travel and healthcare representation, show organizers say this year's event marked an increase in hospital and airline representation.

Steve Batson, who demonstrated NCR's MediKiosk WayFinder, said hospitals and doctors' offices, like retailers, are learning to improve user experience by incorporating self-service.

Up until recently, most of NCR's medical clients were only interested in the WayFinder, a digital directions application that helps patients navigate their way through hospitals. Today, however, more hospitals and doctors' offices are using self-check-in to streamline patient services.

Florida's Adventist Health System uses the NCR MediKiosk Patient Self Check-in. Bill Tyler, the hospital network's director of applications, said for every $1 saved on printing costs, the hospital ended up saving $7 in related fees. Taking paper out of the equation also cut the amount of time patients spent with registration clerks.

And as more hospitals use self-check-in options, NCR is working to expand the reach of its WayFinder applications - taking them from hospitals to retailers and beyond, NCR's Arnold said.

"Other applications for the WayFinder haven't been successful, but we think that is changing," he said. "We think that WayFinder will be met with success in the retail environment, since retail provides the context to make it work. That's something we expect to push in 2008."

Building on the MediKiosk WayFinder, which NCR released in 2003, is the Mall WayFinder, which combines interactive media options to help shoppers locate stores, restrooms, etc.

'Enabling the Mobile Consumer'

Tying into this "self-service revolution" is the mobile channel, which NCR is pushing heavily on the banking side and beginning to make strides with on the retail side.

It's a push that makes sense, says Stephen Read, NCR's vice president of engineering for global e-commerce and mobile products.

Seventy-two percent of North American adults have mobile phones, he said.

"They want things fast, and there is a direct correlation between the speed of checkout and satisfaction," Reade said. "If we can tie the two to increase the speed and improve the experience," then the company has done its job.

And Reade doesn't take a narrow view of mobile payments. In fact, he expands the vision of mobile to include not only the mobile phone/device, but also contactless cards, key fobs and smart stickers, which link barcodes to RFID.

"We are looking to other markets, such as Japan," Reade said. "In Japan, contactless payment is widespread, with over 300,000 participating merchants and more than 7 million consumers with contactless payment options, such as cards, fobs and phones."

It's only a matter of time, Reade said, before those types of payment options, which retailers in Japan are using with great success, hit North America.

"We believe all verticals, including banking and retail, will adopt NFC (near-field communications) technology," he said. "And NCR is investing in it across the board."

Technology from the floor

NCR's FastLane systems accounted for much of the technology displays. Solutions included the self-checkout, the Order and Pay and the Self-Return, which was deployed during the fall with a major retailer in the United Kingdom.

Touted for its ability to save a clerk's time during the return of retail items, NCR's Kathy Dawidowicz said the Self-Return gives shoppers the ability to "pre-stage" the merchandise return, so all the clerk has to do is focus on the end of the transaction.

The FastLane Order and Pay allows delis, bakeries and convenience stores, to name just a few, to reap similar time-savings benefits, Dawidowicz said.

"Not only does it have the same interface as the FastLane checkout system for the retailer, so they are familiar with it, but it also has the ability to upsell, which is big in food-ordering," she said.

Order and Pay accepts cash and charge.

Then there was the FastLane self-checkout, of which NCR expects to officially release its newest generation next month in North America, with a global release in late summer.

With a smaller footprint and more-rounded design, the next-generation FastLane self-checkout comes equipped with built-in ability for note- and coin-recycling. It also includes dual-sided thermal printing for receipts, allowing retailers to cut receipt lengths in half or print promotions and advertisements on the backs of receipts.

Other floor highlights included the FastLane self-service postal application, which NCR displayed with Pitney-Bowes, and the MediKiosk line.

The postal/shipping application allows users to weigh and schedule shipment of their own items. NCR and Pitney-Bowes say the first installations of the postal application were made in the United States last year.

Tracy Kitten is editor of ATM Marketplace.