New Delhi: NCR Corporation has announced the launch of NCR EasyPoint 57i (ASAN), the first-ever automated teller machine (ATM) conceived and designed specifically for the Indian market. ASAN (Automated Suvidha Anywhere), as the word connotes in Hindi, is an effort to take convenience banking to the masses.

ASAN will enable banks in India to give many more account holders access to ATMs without incurring huge capital or operational costs. The potential savings for the bank in the optimum scenario can be up to 40 per cent, as compared to the traditional in-lobby placement model.

Based on technology designed to meet Indian infrastructural challenges, ASAN''s small-size and low-running costs offer banks a low total cost of ownership, safeguarding their investment even in locations with relatively low transaction volumes.

ASAN is thus the ideal vehicle to offer cost-effective ATM convenience to the largely untapped non-urban areas, as well as to open up opportunities in newer urban locations such as corporate offices and factories, newly-emerging multiplexes and malls and branch extensions.

ASAN combines NCR''s global expertise and insights into the Indian ATM market with consumer research-based design inputs from the Industrial Design Centre at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay. This enables the right ''look and feel'' in ASAN''s physical appearance and user interface. Extensive live pilots of ASAN have been carried out with some of the leading Indian banks to test its working in the Indian environment.

Easy to deploy and user-friendly, ASAN''s unique NCR Intelligent Power Management (NIPM) system, with an integrated UPS, ensures that in case of power failure the ATM completes the ongoing transaction before shutting down, a useful application for areas with frequent and sudden power outages. NIPM can also help the ATM to be automatically switched off or on at pre-decided times every night and morning if located at sites that do not require 24-hour availability.

ASAN provides wireless connectivity through GPRS and CDMA communication technologies for areas with poor conventional telecommunications connectivity. Its balanced pressure system and enhanced dust filtration mechanism facilitates deployment in non-air-conditioned environments.

Says Keith Taylor, the senior vice-president of NCR''s financial solutions division: "We are delighted to announce the launch of ASAN — conceived specifically for India and designed with valuable inputs from IIT-B. For us, it is yet another manifestation of our ongoing commitment to India in line with our investments in the manufacturing facility and the ATM Management Centre."

Says Deepak Chandnani, the managing director of NCR''s financial solutions division in India: "ASAN enables banks to extend self-service banking to the mass populace without incurring huge capital or operational costs. It helps balance the opportunities for the banks in newer areas with the cost of leveraging them, allowing them to reach new customers and better service existing ones, wherever they are."