Sequal of Friends are suppose to be Smarter

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Hi, In case any of you have missed the first part of Time Management newsletter from Dr. Donald, pls point your browser to "Friends are suppose to be Smarter". Dr. Donald being generous enough to allow me to send sequal. Pls. use the wisdom in your day to day practice.

The Product of Your Performance

By: Dr. Donald E. Wetmore

Your personal productivity cannot be measured simply by what you are doing. If what you are doing is not getting you to where you want to go your time is not being spent productively. Rather, personal productivity is measured by what is produced from that performance, the product of your performance.

For example, I work with a laptop. I write articles, develop spreadsheets and update my database about as fast and efficiently as anyone I know. During the first six months I owned the laptop I loaded it with an incredible amount of data, pounding away at the keyboard like it was a fine piano. On a scale of one to ten, I would initially rate my personal productivity with respect to this task, as a nine or a ten. I was a super achiever.

Well, except for one small detail. I did not back up my work. I don’t know why I neglected this task because I have always backed up my work. The hard drive on the laptop crashed, burned and died and I lost everything I had put into it for six months.

Now, what was my productivity on a scale of 1-10? Zero. Nothing. See my performance was a nine or a ten but neglecting to do a key step, backing up the work, resulted in the product of my performance being a zero, as if I had not done it at all.

If you are working at a job that is not fulfilling for you, you are doing it because of the paycheck only, then you are not operating at a high level of personal productivity. 80% of those who go to work on Monday morning would rather be somewhere else. You are a cog that makes money. You may be able do that dreaded job quicker, faster and better than anyone else but if it’s a job that doesn’t excite you and fulfill you, you’re not at a high level of personal productivity.

If you are on a path where your marriage may end in divorce, (and 50% of all marriages end up in divorce atleast in US as per survey and census), through which you may have to give up a significant percentage of everything you have ever worked for in your adult life, you are not being very productive. Making all that money over the years only to give much of it away to a person you have learned to hate is not an example of high personal productivity. The performance was making all that money in the first place. But the product of the performance was to create a property settlement fund in your divorce.

Examine everything you are doing.

• Is it getting you to where you want to go in your life?
• Is your performance creating the product you want to achieve?

If not, fix it. Change your performance to deliver the right product to you and truly operate at high productivity levels.

Want to get better focus and increase your productivity now? You can easily get more of the important things done, in less time, with less stress. Invite Don to conduct his dynamic Time Management Seminar at your location for groups of any size. For free details, email your request now for “in house” to: ctsem@msn.com

Dr. Donald E. Wetmore
Professional Speaker
Professional Member-National Speakers Association since 1989

Productivity Institute
Time Management Seminars
127 Jefferson St.
Stratford, CT 06615
(203) 386-8062 (800) 969-3773
Fax: (203) 386-8064
Copyright 2004 You may re-print the above information in its entirety in your publication or newsletter. For permission, please email your request for “reprint” to: ctsem@msn.com

Market in China smelling New ATM Technology

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Diebold, Incorporated (NYSE: DBD) announced it has received its largest order for Opteva advanced- function automated teller machines (ATMs) from China's largest state-owned commercial bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). The $25 million deal includes more than 1,100 Opteva(R) self-service terminals driven by Agilis Power(R), a tailored solution used to develop ATM software applications. The balance of the order includes more than 100 Bulk Cash Recycling Machines (BCRMs).

The deal is the largest order for Diebold's Opteva ATMs in China, solidifying Diebold as the leading provider of ATMs for ICBC. Opteva ATMs will help ICBC strategically accelerate the reconstruction of its retail delivery channel.

With its countrywide network of 27,000 branches, ICBC provides routine banking transactions, in addition to other customer-friendly services like pension plans and bill payments, to millions of customers in urban and rural areas of China. As a result, ICBC has developed a solid reputation among customers as a "neighborhood bank. In an effort to pursue additional profits in the high-end market, ICBC is improving efficiency and reducing the cost of its services to the majority of Chinese customers, a strategic move designed to free up resources to devote to high-end customers. (Similar to SBI in India ?? but, I never say the same for SBI :>))

To achieve its business goals, ICBC took aggressive steps to reform its service delivery channels. Over the past several years, ICBC actively sought to expand its ATM network to transfer more traditional banking services to the self-service environment. ICBC selected Opteva ATMs and Agilis software not only for their reliability, but also for Diebold's unparalleled, comprehensive service solutions.

Visit to know about 2005 outlook for Global Scenario of Core Banking Business

Developed in response to the changing needs of financial institutions and consumers, Opteva ATMs provide a complete range of exclusive benefits to the global financial industry. Agilis Power custom applications are unique, customer-specific solutions built by Diebold using a collection of robust, flexible software components. Diebold self-service experts use Agilis Power to build customized terminal software that meets customers' unique needs. The result is flexibility, unique functionality and upgradability.

"Our Opteva ATMs are a series of extraordinary products that coincide with an integrated series of services," said James L.M. Chen, corporate vice president of Asia Pacific for Diebold. "We have launched an entirely new service process for Opteva customers that will increase ATM availability and reduce the total cost of ownership while advancing the bank's brand image. China is an exciting market with excellent growth opportunity moving forward.

"20000" : Magic Number for Triton in 2004 and moe insight on Stage set for future of ATMs in India

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What is Innovation in Business?

I consider it as "It's like placing yourself in Thin wafer space between the cracks of market place and suddenly showing that, you have grown in Diameter which bigger enough to be considered but not occupied by the leaders."

I hope u will like this story of Triton - ATM manufacturer in US. Way back in 80's and 90's they were nowhere near biggies but now they are bigger in Retail space that even biggies are feeling envy.

Triton says it set a new sales record in 2004, shipping more than 20,000 ATMs, a 19 percent increase over its 2003 shipments of 17,050 units.

According to a news release, Triton has continued to experience growth in worldwide shipments since 1994. This past year yielded sales increases in numerous regions including the US,UK, Netherlands, Africa, Canada and Australia.

Strong sales of Triton's best-selling 9100 series, along with market acceptance of the new RL5000 and FT5000 models, fueled the sales growth.

"Two of Triton's newest products, the RL5000 and FT5000 models, released one year ago, have made significant contributions to the sales volume by opening new markets," said Triton President Brian Kett. "With the newly introduced RT2000, we expect to further increase our market presence by providing a low-cost through-the-wall ATM designed for high-volume retail locations."

Triton achieved another significant milestone in February of 2004, with the production of its 100,000th ATM since beginning production in 1994.

"We plan to continue this trend in 2005 as we launch our new line of ATMs featuring a Microsoft Windows XP platform and Prism software for multi-vendor platforms targeting the financial institution market," Kett said.

Local Indian Scenario:
Triton has entered in India through it's strategic alliance partnership with Global Cash Link - Company promoted by Indian Veterans in ATM business for last 20 years - HMA group. HMA has tie up with De La Ru ATMs (Every 6th ATM sold is a De La Ru Dispenser in the world).

With service network to come up in FEb 2004, first few wins are wining maintenance order for managing 300 ATMs of Bank of India, YES bank contract for AMT driving and supply are few wins. Global Cash link provides best product mix.

>> IST ATM Switch for ATM driving and Transaction processing
>> Triton and De La Ru ATMs as ATM product offering
>> Legacy of knowing ATM business's service delivery
>> State of the art Management Center

Specifically we need to understand the major cost component in Managed service busienss is the TCO for managing the ATM switch. Compared to other Mainframe based solution I can see software development and software maintenance cost coming down by 30% by using open system.

Let us have the overview on IST/Switch's few of the key features.

0. IST/Switch from eFunds is one of the true Open System:
IST/Switch works on all the commercial Unix (AIX,HP-UX, Solaris and Tru 64 with base build on AIX).This gives edge to IST over competive ATM switch products such as Mosaic/Positilion (Biggest issue is it works on Microsoft plateform). IT has another advantage of port available on open source OS LINUX (RedHat Build). All commerical known RDBMS such as ORACLE, SYBASE, INFORMIX and planning for porting on MySQL - an open source RDBMS.

Network protocol support for TCP/IP ver 4 as well as legacy protocol like BiSync, X.25 is sufficent to take on any kind of requirements.

1.ATM driving:
eFund alliance providing IST/Switch on ASP model. IST/Switch being open plateform based deployed and operated on cost effective manner.

2. Transaction processing and Switching:
IST/Switch provides cheapest interface development and efficient transaction processing and switching as it's based on UNIX IPC and Seamphore based. Transaction logging is based on Database with support for all commercial availalbe as well as open source DB.

3. Payment Gateway:
Off the shelf MC and VISA interface are easy to customise as it has customised product parameters, BIN table for changing transaction routing.

4. Security Interface:
Integration with commercially available hardware encryption devices like Thales(RACAL), Attalla and many more. Daisy Chaining, fault tolerance are developed for large transaction base.

5. Pin Encryption,Verification and Translation:
ePin encryption and verification can be managed with Pin verification recrod for each network as well as Terminal master Key both loaded as seperate record in database.

One unique thing is Database modifications are well protected as it can not be modified with backend SQL command prompt and requires seperate secured Oracle Character form based utility.

Pin Translation for Interchange are easy to manage as Terminal keys are indexed based on network ID.

I think as years to come, Managed services from such centers are going to offer better flexibility and cost effective options than the legacy players.

Get paid to Access Internet

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Indian Petro Payment Dream:Petrol Pump Outlet in 2008

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Indian petro chemincal business is on new trajectory of growth. Dis-investment from PSU Petro companies, private players moving ahead, global petro scenario, alternate petro sources coming up like Gas, new boom time in car due to ease of consumer credit (a Macro level marketplace change of banking).

Any of above leads to higher consumption of petro products (gas, oil might be electric city..) Petro companies are trying to go near to customer and sometime in their houses also (TV ads during mega events like Cricket or any sports events by petro and auto companies).

0% surcharge on credit card at petrol pump, petro points what not to lure consumers to fill it.. shut it... forget it.. No you can't forget that, next door petrol pump open till 12 mid night or delicious punjabi dish at dhaba @Gurgaon with Petrol pump. More to see, motel (run by Malyali mostly rather than Patel) with convenience store and cross of MC/Pizza/Barista resturant operating 24 hrs check in. What makes me boast so much about all this. ePaynews.com's survey provides you insight on the same.

According to ePaynews, Eighty-seven per cent of petrol forecourt stores in the UK are now true convenience stores due to selling 8 of 15 common product categories, according to the UK Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD). Since 2002, the number of forecourt convenience store outlets in the UK grew by 77 per cent as supermarket groups moved into the sector and the oil groups sought new revenue streams, according to Datamonitor. In Europe, Datamonitor also reports that 30 per cent of consumers visiting convenience stores buy food and drinks without purchasing petrol, which suggests that the c-store is more important than petrol.

Petrol service stations generate a fifth or more of all convenience sales in all European markets except in France and Italy and account for 83 per cent of convenience sales in Sweden, according to Datamonitor. Across Europe, food retailers are exploring the combined petrol forecourt and c-store sector, which is at a nascent stage outside the UK. This approach would not work in the Benelux, where most petrol stations are unmanned given the high volume of traffic passing to the rest of Europe. The UK’s forecourt retail market by contrast is Europe’s most advanced, and sales are typically higher than at standard convenience stores.

Between 2003 and 2007 actual sales at UK forecourt stores are predicted by Datamonitor to grow by 4.5 per cent per year, if fuel retailers make strategic investments. With 44 per cent of UK c-store customers in the latest Harris International Marketing (HIM) sector survey citing line times and slow services as a major shortcoming at c-stores, petrol retailers whose c-stores facilitate speedy payments will have an edge. As EMV payment systems are deployed across Europe similarly, the volume of automated and self-service payments will increase both on petrol forecourts and in their associated retail convenience stores.

Hero Honda on Right Track of Bill Payment

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Hero Honda started installing POS terminals and Bill pay kiosk in norht India's slected city (All Class A B and C cities) as well as Hero Honda Dealers. POS terminals are accepting only Bill payment is slowly working might be becuase Mr. Munjal has read this before all of us.

Statistics of last Four years Payment System data:
With about 30 per cent of the US population standing in line every week to pay bills at utility firms, retailers have an opportunity to profit from offering bill payment functionality over their POS network. As an example, a retailer selling mobile phones can offer a customer paying a bill, a plan that is better value than their current contract, and often a new phone. Evidence suggests that nine times out of ten, a bill-paying customer faced with this offer, will switch to the new plan on the spot, which in turn could generate up to USD 300 in commission for the retailer that sells the new phone plan.

If a convenience store offering bill payments at the POS processes 2,000 to 3,000 bills a month, this translates to USD 2,000 or USD 3,000 in extra revenues for minimal effort. Retailers wanting to accept bill payments at the POS can install a module that also delivers PIN-based products such as prepaid wireless. Kiosks, the next-generation of POS delivery, will grow by 20 per cent to 2008 in acceptance terms, according to the Prepaid Press, and can deliver up to USD 1,200 in gross revenues. Depending on whether a kiosk is owned by the store or by a distributor, retailers can take 10 to 20 per cent of these revenues.

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