Stamping Out a Sticky Wait at the Post Office : Convenience: Automated teller machines made by Fujitsu can spit out postage stamps and are now being tested by a Seattle bank.
Few things in life are more annoying than waiting in line at the state Department of Motor Vehicles for a license or frittering away time in Post Office lines to buy stamps, says Kevin Murphy, a senior vice president with Fujitsu Systems of America.
No one has yet figured out a shortcut at the DMV, but Murphy’s company has developed a faster way of getting postage: an automated teller machine that dispenses stamps. Fujitsu Systems handles U.S. marketing for the new ATMs that are manufactured in Japan by its parent, Fujitsu Ltd. of Tokyo.
“If you think about it, the way we get stamps today--you have to go to the Post Office and stand in this incredibly long line. It’s so archaic,” said Murphy, who unveiled the new feature Monday at the National Operations and Automation Conference at the San Diego Convention Center.
“This is just another example of how ATMs can make our life easier,” Murphy said.
The development of the stamp-dispensing capacity is another first for Fujitsu, which also pioneered color-screen ATMs.
So far, Fujitsu has made only one sale of the new system, to a Seattle-area bank that is using its new ATMs on a test basis. Although several San Diego-area banks have expressed interest, the stamp-dispensing Fujitsu ATMs are as yet unavailable locally.
Nevertheless, Murphy expects the new feature to help parent Fujitsu, a manufacturer of computer and telecommunications equipment that posted revenues of $18 billion in 1989, capture a greater share of the $200-million U.S. ATM market.
Fujitsu is now running a distant third with its share of the U.S. automated teller machine market, according to the Nilson Report, a Santa Monica-based industry newsletter covering the banking, credit card and ATM industries. With a 10% share, Fujitsu trails market leader Diebold, which controls 39%, and NCR, with 38%.
But Fujitsu has a 14% share of the $1.2-billion worldwide ATM market, second only to NCR with 27%. Diebold is third worldwide with an estimated 12% share, said Spencer Nilson, the newsletter’s publisher.
To receive stamps, a Fujitsu ATM user simply inserts a card into the machine and hits the “stamps” button. Then the user pushes a button to select the total of 25-cent stamps needed, in increments of $3. The ATM automatically deducts the cost of the stamps from the individual’s checking or savings account.
When the transaction is completed, 12 pressure-sensitive, self-adhesive stamps affixed to a backing sheet the size of a dollar bill are released.
Existing Fujitsu ATMs have the ability to dispense stamps, Murphy said, but must be upgraded with new software that costs $10,000 to $20,000 for an ATM network. Fujitsu ATMs now cost $20,000 to $25,000 each.
For the last two years, Fujitsu Systems has been working with Seattle First National Bank and the U.S. Postal Service to develop stamp-dispensing capacity. The new feature has been installed at 22 of Seafirst’s 320 ATMs for a six-month trial period, said John Kresge, the bank’s vice president of delivery systems.
Expansion of the service is contingent on approval of the concept by the U.S. Postal Service, which is monitoring Seafirst Bank’s use of the machines. If Seafirst customers take to the service, and the Post Office approves, Fujitsu plans to aggressively market the new feature.
Fujitsu, the Post Office and Seafirst all say they believe the new feature will be a big hit.
“Line management has always been our customers’ biggest complaint,” said Annie Bright, a U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman. “We’ve been trying to move simple transactions, such as stamp purchases, out of the Post Office.”
According to Bright, the U.S. Postal Service already sells stamps by mail, by phone and at certain retailers. The stamp-dispensing ATM “is another good way of distributing our product,” Bright said.
Although the ATM hardware is manufactured in Japan, the software was developed at Fijitsu’s San Diego offices, which has more than 300 employees.
