Install ATMs in severe frost, heat, metro and on all-terrain vehicles

[Tomcat]

ATM on an all-terrain vehicle for a shift camp in Yakutia

We service ATMs all over the country. In practice, there have been detective stories with dust in the metro, frosts beyond the Arctic Circle, power surges on the railway, and so on. Somewhere it is dry, somewhere it is damp, somewhere there are midges, somewhere there is a dispute about whether a “loaf” can pull an ATM out of the wall.

By the way, it can from a thin wall of a temporary building, but not from a thick capital wall, please do not check anymore!

At the same time, an ATM is iron, rubber, various rollers, and it is clear that these devices sometimes do not withstand. For example, in Russia, due to the climate, ATMs are almost never installed outside. Instead, between-wall (“street”) ATMs are installed, where the device itself is actually hidden in the building, and only the front part, with which the client interacts, sticks out. But most often, ATMs are installed inside buildings.

ATMs are very temperature-dependent, so additional protection is needed in cold regions. For example, the first machines were without the "Russian winter" option, and they froze. Then our colleagues began installing simple heaters without electronic control. In the first release of these heaters, plastic and rubber parts melted inside the ATM.

Monitoring​

We solve many problems with the help of sensors: heaters are installed in the safe part of the ATM, which are switched on only when interacting with the device. That is, temperature sensors automatically turn the heating on and off.

However, problems arise not only in difficult climatic conditions. For example, for a long time we could not understand the reason for the breakdown of ATMs in the Moscow metro. And when we conducted a study, it turned out that the material used for the brake pads of trains creates a small red dust.

This dust is not visible, but accumulates in ATMs: the air circulation and cooling system is configured to suck in air. The device was covered with dust from the inside, and the units failed. To solve the problem, we installed filtration systems and changed the ventilation scheme - now the device does not suck in air, but blows it out. Problem solved!

The most curious thing is that there are no such problems with our ATMs in the St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg metro. We do not have a clear answer, perhaps they use different braking systems there. Or it is related to the depth: in St. Petersburg, the stations are mostly deep, and ATMs are usually located upstairs in the vestibule, and not on the platform itself.

Technical difficulties can be tied to the state of the electrics, for example, we worked with a network of ATMs at railway stations, and when a train left the station, there was a serious voltage surge. If you do not use various voltage stabilizers (and sometimes these are literally huge cabinets the size of an ATM), then the electrics burn out at the start of each freight train.

Remote railway stations, closed cities – logistics of a huge country​

Geography affects not only the climate, but also logistics. Servicing an ATM in a city with a population of over a million or a remote village in Yakutia will differ significantly. For example, there are ATMs that have no full connection for half a year: they can only be reached by plane, water, or winter road.

ATMs are often located at remote railway stations. Let's say a train passes there once a week, there may be a village nearby, or even none. In fact, there is only a platform, very similar to an electric train platform.

On such a platform there is a booth or guardhouse of the stationmaster. From the platform, some irregular buses go to populated areas. And you need to fix an ATM in this godforsaken place.

The engineer buys a ticket and goes. Then you need to spend a week in the field - in winter, summer, in the rain, snow, waiting for the return train. Usually the engineer agrees with the stationmasters to live with them this week. The human factor saves, plus the railway workers are also interested: everyone wants to withdraw their salary from a working ATM.

Sometimes ATM servicing is generally coordinated with the movement of the train. For example, the train runs very rarely, and the trains are specially delayed at the station for repairs.

The specialist is as prepared as possible, equipped with all the spare parts - he does not have time for diagnostics, because the whole train is standing and waiting for one person.

Usually this is a major replacement. Cash collectors arrive on the train with the engineer. He repairs the ATM as quickly as possible, they load the money.

Then everyone jumps on the train, which with some delay (or without it, if they fixed it quickly) goes on.

Sometimes logistics difficulties are associated with restricted access facilities, passes. In our country, there are closed administrative-territorial regions (ZATO): for example, closed-type enterprises. There, we also organize service: we transport ATMs, service them and coordinate access.

Why an ATM is an element of infrastructure, and how we coped with difficulties during COVID-19​

In general, an ATM is an important element of infrastructure, especially in remote regions. It often becomes the only way to get money in a certain area. For example, we have ATMs in Talakan, Neryungri and many other remote locations where there is no regular transport accessibility.

An engineer or some spare parts can only be delivered there by plane, ship or along a winter road when it has settled. But people need ATMs to live a full life, so no matter how difficult and expensive such a connection is, we look for options for delivering people and spare parts for subsequent repairs.

In such remote locations, it is very important that ATMs work constantly and are idle for a minimum amount of time. For example, we have an ATM in a small village next to a hydroelectric power station, there are ATMs in shift camps in Yakutia - even if people are only busy with work there, they need the ability to withdraw money and spend it in local stores.

Sometimes life throws up completely unexpected challenges, as was the case with the coronavirus in 2020. The government wanted to protect the population from the disease, including by disinfecting everything that people interact with. Naturally, ATMs fall into this group.

An ATM is a complex, expensive device that cannot be simply wiped with a damp cloth. A regular damp cloth alone will not disinfect it, and you cannot use toxic chemicals: it is dangerous for customers and can damage expensive equipment.

We then developed a disinfection plan, according to which about 20 thousand ATMs were treated. The most difficult were ATMs in the metro, because they have the maximum load due to high traffic.

We collected statistics in the Moscow metro - there we disinfected each device at least 17 times a day. Every two hours we wiped all side surfaces, and the keyboard and screen - once an hour. Every hour a special person would come, disinfect everything and leave.

And so on - at every ATM at all stations.

Unfortunately, many often do not think about all this behind-the-scenes work. ATMs are sometimes broken. Sometimes even deliberately. This is one of the reasons why ATMs are usually placed in more visible places.

Saving the forest​

We have already gotten used to ATMs — faceless boxes-functions, and no one thinks about how everything is arranged and what path each of them has taken. In fact, there is enough of its own bureaucracy and routine: an ATM cannot appear in a convenient place by itself. Behind each device there are people who create this comfort for all of us, and the very presence of such devices makes everyday life easier.

Previously, the installation of ATMs was accompanied by a bunch of paper documents, but environmental issues are also not alien to us, and over the past couple of years we have almost completely transferred this to electronic document flow, preserving if not a forest, then a small grove for sure.

Turnkey ATM​

This is exactly what Multikarta does. All the documents, logistics, transportation, fastening, transportation of cassettes — we organize everything. It is much more convenient for a bank when there is one person responsible for the entire life cycle of an ATM — from the moment it appears at the bank until disposal. This reduces the number of participants in the processes, management resources, and area of responsibility.

The most difficult thing in the Turnkey ATM service was to set everything up in a single system. Usually, the bank ordered services from different services, which made it difficult to delineate areas of responsibility between the performers.

We managed to set up the system. To do this, we analyzed the business processes, removed duplicate stages, and got rid of unnecessary ones. Some of them were automated through electronic document management: before, a person manually checked the completed documents, now the program does all this.

Sensors in the ATMs themselves help: they track the presence of banknotes, calculate the average consumption and predict the balances. Based on this data, a collection schedule is drawn up.

We have included a preliminary preparation stage, which has not been carried out before: we go to the warehouses of the device suppliers and configure the ATMs, check the relevance of the software, communication equipment. We also transport the devices ourselves, so as not to damage them during transportation. And the transportation itself to a new location, rigging and installation are carried out in compliance with the mandatory requirements of the bank. We do everything to ensure that a ready-made ATM is sent to a specific location, so that all that remains is to plug it into an outlet and be sure that it can perform its functions.

And there are also cassettes in the ATM, and money is stored in these cassettes. They are loaded in the bank's cash center and transferred to the collection service, and often all this moves from different places. That is, the ATM is conditionally removed from the point where it is located (in some shopping center), and the cassettes are taken by the collection service. In order for this service to work well, we collect this parcel from different places, wrap it in one pallet, pack it well so that the ATM is not damaged in any way. And when it arrives at a new place, this parcel also splits into two parts again: the ATM goes to where it will be located, and the cassettes go to the bank's cash center.

Later, we added another interesting function - selecting the optimal location for installing an ATM. The bank says: "I want an ATM in this shopping center." An engineer from us comes, evaluates the customer flow according to a specially compiled algorithm, calculates the attractiveness of a specific installation location, where there will be maximum traffic, ease of use, and all that stuff. And if initially the bank said where to put the device, now it already says: "Go and evaluate which specific ATM and where exactly in this place to put it."

Now in our logistics, when ATMs change their location, there are about 350 moves monthly. Among the interesting and memorable ones, for example, we organized the delivery of an ATM to Formula 1 in Sochi. There, in addition to the ATM itself, an installation in the form of a racing helmet was installed, and the ATM was inside it. Logistics, assembly and maintenance were on us.

By the way, the helmet continues to please visitors to Sochi to this day.

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