ATM Testing - April 24, 2024
ATMs are certain to remain an important channel for financial institutions to interact and engage with consumers for many years.
Given this vital role that they play as part of a retail delivery strategy, ATM fleet owners and deployers must ensure that they have an effective and efficient ATM testing infrastructure in place to maximize efficiency, minimize costs and guarantee that every transaction is processed correctly.
Even as the payments landscape increases in complexity, the use of modern and efficient testing methods enables ATM deployers to continually invest in the channel and make improvements that enhance the customer experience, promote brand loyalty and increase competitiveness.
Here are 10 ways that ATM testing tools can help organizations optimize operational efficiency:
1. Virtualization
Virtualization enables organizations to move away from the constraints of testing on physical machines in a dedicated ATM lab. Virtualized ATMs are clones of physical machines that can be accessed remotely 24x7x365, are easily copied to scale testing capacity up or out, and can even be tested programmatically via an API.
2. Standardization
Testing consistency and accuracy are critical factors in delivering a superior customer experience on every transaction. Creating and using a standard library of tests that can be run and rerun the same way every time reduces the risk of human error, as well as the variability that comes with manual testing.
3. Automation
While automation cannot totally replace manual testing, automating every test that can be automated will provide a significant boost in productivity. Automating the 20 percent of transactions that drive 80 percent of your ATM volume will significantly improve the efficiency of your ATM testing operation, enabling your resources to expand test coverage, improve quality and focus on higher value activities.
4. Negative Testing
It is certainly important to focus time on tests that run correctly, but it is also imperative to ensure that all systems respond properly when transactions fail. Testing for various ATM fault conditions, network anomalies and other error scenarios are necessary, but can be difficult to execute on physical devices.
5. Security & Fraud Prevention
Criminals continue to target ATMs with ever more sophisticated attacks. Effective testing must be part of a multi-layered approach to ensure that all ATM ecosystem components, including the hardware, the software, the network, authorization systems, and internal processes, all work together to make the channel as secure as possible.
6. Collaboration
Centralized management and control of the ATM testing environment provides customizable roles and permissions so that each user’s experience can be unique and optimized. Anytime, anywhere remote access to virtual ATMs, as well as shared access to test scripts, media, results and reports all help to keep testing operations running at peak efficiency.
7. Reporting
Detailed reports must provide results for each test, as well as connection information, media/card used, preconditions, side-by-side comparisons of expected vs. actual screens and receipt images. This data is needed to facilitate problem resolution by quickly identifying issues, pinpointing their cause and aiding in their resolution.
8. Integration
Many organizations struggle to deliver the true omnichannel banking experience needed to capture and retain consumers who want anytime, anywhere access to financial products and services. Success here requires that the ATM channel be fully integrated across the enterprise, something that is difficult to accomplish without modern test tools and technology.
9. Performance Testing
Regularly testing the performance characteristics and capabilities of all payment processing systems and applications - including the ATM channel - helps ensure that consumer transactions are executed properly every time, no matter the time, the date or the place.
10. Deployment Flexibility
It is critically important for ATM fleet owners to minimize operational costs – while still delivering an exceptional customer experience. By expanding the use of modern technologies, such as cloud computing, virtualization, automation, continuous delivery and APIs, organizations can optimize their payment testing operations
Are you interested in learning more about how your organization can improve its ATM testing capabilities? Request a consultation with Paragon application Systems today.
Our team of ATM testing experts would love to discuss how our unique technologies can help you build a more efficient, accurate and cost-effective ATM testing operation.
