Miles Busby: evolving technology.

• Position: Q & A - Source Technologies - Interview

Miles Busby is the founder and president of Source Technologies, Charlotte, N.C. The company provides integrated solutions for managing financial transactions, such as self-service kiosks, secure disbursement software and magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) printing.

Q: Tell us about some of the new technologies that are making their way into the bank branch.

A: Next-generation kiosks for in-person bill payments and check cashing are popping up in every retail environment except bank branches, but we see this changing in 2005. This is especially the case among ... community banks that are more open to partnering rather than owning kiosk platforms for these applications. True automated teller kiosks are still in their infancy, but major players are positioning themselves now for this major shift in retail banking.

Q: Is there a more toward more widespread implementation of CRM technology inside of the branch?

A: CRM technology is now finding its way onto the sales platform, but the way to transform the retail experience is to embed CRM on the teller side. Banks must do three things to make this happen: 1) Eliminate "heads-down" teller tasks by deploying behind-the-counter technology such as cash recyclers and MICR printers for checks and deposit slips. 2) Move some of the "heads-down" tasks to file other side of the counter with self-service technology. 3) Integrate CRM data into the teller transaction set to provide smart and timely sales recommendations to the teller in real-time.

Q: What kinds of technologies behind the relier line are enabling tellers to spend more time marketing services to customers and engaging in better customer relationship management?

A: Tellers spend too much time handling cash...