ATM Solutions Group's vision of providing off-premise ATMs to shops has created a payment revolution in South Africa - between 18% and 25% of the money drawn finds its way back into the retailer's till. Previously, this was only open to the domain of banks, now even the smallest outlet can have an ATM, placed in or out the store, with all transactions flowing through the group's fault-tolerant Stratus Server backbone.

Over the past few years, the company has rounded out its services portfolio to include card issuing, independent debit and credit card services, as well as electronic funds transfers at point of sale and payroll services, with the support of the latest Stratus ftServer technology to sustain its business growth.

Gavin Reubenson, Business Development and Product Director for ATM Solutions Group, says: “The company today runs the fourth generation of Stratus Technologies' ftServer to harness the improvements in the technology to support its high-volume transactions. Currently, the group maintains 43% of all ATMs in the country, and just less than 50% of all off-premise ATMs, and handles millions of payments per day.”

No time for downtime

“ATM Solutions Group is the service provider of choice of nine major banks in South Africa, as well as a cross-section of retailers and petroleum companies. Downtime is simply not anoption for us, because it translates into direct loss of revenue, particularly during peak periods such as Easter and Christmas seasons. Stratus Technologies and our implementation partner, ATIO IT-services division, are therefore strategic partners for us. By selecting a fault-tolerant Stratus ftServer as the platform of choice from the start has had a direct financial benefit to the company. We have made our return on investment tenfold and to date have had zero downtime,” continues Reubenson.

According to Dick Sharod, Country Manager for Stratus Technologies: “Exceptional reliability and continuous uptime of Stratus servers have enabled ATM Solutions Group to conduct its day-to-day business with absolute confidence.

“Stratus Technologies fits its business demands for flexible and reliable systems that handle large amounts of enterprise payments per second, with an overall reduced cost of ownership. This reliability and continuous service to its customers have earned ATM Solutions the recognition as one of the top payment solutions companies in the country,” Sharod says.

Craig Munitz, Managing Director at ATIO IT-services division, says ATM Solutions has a requirement to constantly improve operational excellence and reduce overall risk across the organisation.

“ATIO IT-services division has been the company's implementation partner since its inception and understands their business needs. We also have years of experience of implementing and supporting Stratus Technology solutions and want to maintain our leadership in the market using cutting-edge technology,” concludes Munitz.