CENTER> Diebold Introduces Microsoft-Supported ATM Internet Software with Keybank
(PR Newswire; 12/03/97)

NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 3 /PRNewswire/ Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT), KeyBank and Diebold, Incorporated (NYSE: DBD) today demonstrated a new automated teller machine (ATM) architecture that will enable banks to deliver new products and services via Internet technologies. The announcement came during Bill Gates' keynote address at the Retail Delivery '97 Conference in New Orleans.

As it brings a new ATM software architecture to the marketplace, Diebold (NYSE: DBD) is working closely with leading software systems and financial services providers to develop specific applications with the potential to change the way deployers think of using an ATM. The ambitious project with Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) and KeyBank (NYSE: KEY) is expected to eventually allow customers to use the bank's ATMs to access its web site to pay bills and conduct other financial transactions.

From outward appearances, Diebold's OPTimum(TM) architecture ATM looks familiar to the user, with its touch-screen technology and easy-to-use card reader and cash dispenser. But what's inside the software platform optimizes possibilities and flexibility for both consumers and financial institutions.

"Essentially, what we have done is reinvent ATM software architecture," said Thomas J. McBride, director of worldwide product marketing, Diebold. "As new technologies and capabilities emerge, this approach will better enable ATM deployers to leverage applications and components across multiple delivery channels."

This demonstration of the OPTimum architecture is built on the Microsoft(R) Windows NT(R)(TM) Server operating system and supports Microsoft Windows Distributed iNternet Architecture for Financial Services, allowing it to seamlessly interact with thousands of other Windows-based applications and the Internet.

"Banks today are demanding the ability to build a transaction once and drive it through multiple delivery channels," said Mike Dusche, Microsoft's worldwide financial services industry manager. "OPTimum architecture allows ATMs to take advantage of that ability because it's based on the Component Object Model and supports the Windows Distributed iNternet Architecture for Financial Services framework announced today."

Diebold's McBride said software applications will become less dependent on the delivery channel as well as the operating system, thus allowing their quick introduction into numerous environments.

"Institutions will be able to offer the same products and services by way of ATMs that they may already have in their information kiosks, telephone banking, personal computer banking, web sites and much more," he added. "This opens up an array of sales and marketing possibilities. And the flexibility of the OPTimum architecture will enable us to help our customers accommodate future technological changes in the industry."

KeyBank is already studying potential applications at the retail banking level.

"This new OPTimum solution will significantly take the capability of the ATM to an exciting new level for our customers," said Patrick J. Swanick, vice chairman of distribution management for KeyBank. "Relying on the technological expertise of Diebold and Microsoft, this will give our customers a new, powerful twist in using Key's ATMs to manage their personal finances anywhere, anytime."

Historically, most of the ATM control and content has been contained within the ATM itself, according to Diebold's McBride. With its open architecture, however, the OPTimum ATM offers the possibility that some software applications such as screen information and advertising messages could reside elsewhere and be accessed through networked servers, he said.

The OPTimum architecture will be demonstrated through Thursday, December 4 in both Microsoft's (.1238) and Diebold's (.2200) displays at BAI's Retail Delivery '97 Conference.