CLEVELAND, Ohio — Too much success? Not a bad problem for an ATM manufacturer to have.

Facing strong demand for the Genesis ATM it introduced last November, WRG Services found itself struggling to keep up in its 11,200-square-feet Willoughby, Ohio manufacturing facility.

According to Tammie Kuhn, WRG's director of sales and marketing, the company shipped 200 of the machines last month, for a total of 2,300 so far this year.

Toga! WRG's staff plays almost as hard as it works, as evidenced by this group shot at its recent Distributor Conference.

"I think we could hit 3,000 by the end of the year," said Mike Stevenson, WRG's president. Such a performance would likely make WRG the third-largest manufacturer of retail ATMs, behind Triton and Tranax Technologies, Kuhn told a group of 70 or so distributors gathered for WRG's annual conference.

In December, WRG will move into a new 25,000-square-foot facility where it will have the ability to manufacture more ATMs. The company will hire five or six additional employees, said Stevenson, who admitted that WRG wasn't able to service its customers as well as it would have liked in the limited space.

New service manager Jack Irvin will help WRG refine its manufacturing process, Stevenson said. "When we started, we were set up for 35 or 50 ATMs a month, not 300. But with the extra space, the process is going to get a lot better."

Even without the burgeoning demand for the Genesis, WRG has had a busy year.

Proactive on the PIN pad

After months of research and development, the company recently received certification from a Visa-approved laboratory for the PED (PIN entry device) used in the Genesis. Jason Kuhn, WRG's vice president of operations, said WRG plans to launch its next-generation PED, the Phoenix, in 2005's first quarter.

The new integrated CPU/display/card reader features a larger, backlit LCD, and the keypad is recessed to comply with proposed mandates to physically shield cardholders' PINs from harvesting. The Triple DES compliant keypad has an audio jack, and is thus ready to implement audio-assisted transactions. It has two megabytes of memory, far more than the 512 kilobytes in the current Genesis keypad.

Perhaps most important, said Jason Kuhn, WRG will be able to better control its own destiny. "We can stop relying on other people, and it will be easier for us to make changes -- whether they are to incorporate suggestions for improvements made by our distributors or comply with PIN security requirements."

The Phoenix, which has the same dimensions as the keypad used in the Genesis, will ultimately replace those keypads, Jason Kuhn said. The upgrade will cost $100.

WRG will include the Phoenix with all of its Triple DES upgrade kits, which it offers at no cost to distributors signing new five-year processing agreements. In addition to its kits for the Triton 9500 and for POS-based terminals such as the NCR 5301, WRG recently introduced an upgrade kit for Tidel's TD and SC series ATMs.

Little ATM that could

WRG also plans to fast track its introduction of what it bills as the smallest and least expensive ATM on the market, a 10-by-19-inch machine it called the Mini when it was introduced at last year's Distributor Conference. The project was put on the back burner so WRG could focus on certification efforts for its PED and on meeting demand for the Genesis.

Now dubbed the Apollo, the machine features several changes suggested by WRG distributors, including a dispenser with a 1,000-note capacity, the Fujitsu F50, and a full-size paper roll. In its original incarnation the Apollo used a smaller roll, which would have necessitated more frequent paper replenishments.

WRG plans to undertake a 50-machine pilot by year's end, and to begin mass production of the Apollo by the end of 2005's first quarter. The price of the machine will be under $2,500 for WRG's largest distributors.

Considering communications

Working with its transaction processor, Lynk Systems, WRG is also rolling out plug-and-play TCP/IP communications for all of its ATMs. The main advantage to TCP/IP, said Jason Kuhn, is it will allow WRG distributors to piggyback their communication costs at sites where merchants are already using TCP/IP for point-of-sale terminals and other devices.

The WRG solution is a modem that can be retrofitted on any ATM -- or on a POS terminal -- with no custom configuration required. A "straight" TCP/IP modem will cost $460 to $500 for WRG distributors. A version that provides dial back-up will cost $70 more. The modems are in the final stages of certification now.

Also working with Lynk, WRG will offer its distributors the ability to upload electronic journals. This feature will make it easier to resolve any customer transaction disputes without visiting ATMs to print and fax EJs and should reduce fees associated with chargebacks.

Lynk will roll out EJ uploading for other ATM manufacturers, said Lynk's Katie Lefebvre, but WRG will be the first to offer the new service.

Different strokes

WRG is also rolling out a credit card program for its distributors, through merchant processor Best Payment Systems. The company, a subsidiary of NPC, currently serves some 800,000 merchants nationwide.

Elbert Enrique, the company's national sales manager, told WRG distributors the Best Payments program offers them a chance to leverage their existing merchant locations. ATM companies generally enjoy an edge over straight credit card companies when it comes to service, he said. "A lot of credit card companies never see their customer after they make the initial sale. ATM guys understand service; they go out to see their customers all the time."

Enrique added, "It's about vertical integration. The more products and services you can offer a merchant, the less likely he's going to leave you."

Tammie Kuhn, who worked in the credit card business for 13 years before coming to WRG, helped Enrique create a turnkey program for WRG distributors designed to lessen the learning curve for credit card rookies.

Noting that credit card interchange can vary widely based on a number of variables, she said, "If you go out there talking trying to talk percentages, you're going to lose."

She advised distributors to ask merchants provide a copy of their current statements; WRG and Best Payments will then analyze the statement and help them design a competitive program.