Upstate N.Y. Bank Expands Switching Capacity

When the largest independent community bank in Saratoga County, N.Y., considered changing ATM switches last September, it was critical that the solution provider possess the knowledge and experience to meet the bank's evolving needs.

Adirondack Trust Company, a seven-branch institution, needed to expand its ATM network in order to stay ahead of the innovation curve in a wired world. The new switch not only had to drive and monitor its ATMs, but also provide a migration path into Internet banking and wireless.

The bank chose ATM-IN-A-BOX from S2 Systems, Plano, Texas, after concluding that the product was flexible, reliable, could handle high volumes and support diverse applications. The decision was clinched by its superior Internet switching capabilities, which will allow the bank to support online bill payment, smart card transactions and other Web-based services. "Our next step with S2 will be to integrate Web transactions so we can handle credit card transactions on the Web for merchants," said Ned Wait, data processing manager at $400 million Adirondack Trust.

When it goes live in early summer, ATM-IN-A-BOX will allow the bank to manage, operate, and run all its ATMs, which are manufactured by NCR. "Our goal is to not have anyone monitoring the S2 switch since its functions work automatically," Wait said.

A full-featured electronic funds transfer engine, ATM-IN-A-BOX runs on a newly-purchased IBM server. "The software we're installing actually sits in one location in our main office," said Wait. "Whether we use it for our 16 ATMs or whether we had 1,400, all we'd need is this one piece of software to interface with the regular ATM networks."

Adirondack Trust is conducting several months of planned testing with a simulator to ensure that S2's transaction system routes transactions correctly, and that correct information is provided at all times. Wait explained, "Once we're satisfied everything is absolutely correct, we'll hook up to NYCE and run tests on a network that is strictly for the purpose of testing real transactions. When NYCE is satisfied that the message flow is correct, we'll be allowed to cut over and go online."