The deployment of customer access information technology: A study in electronic banking

Information Technology can provide a link between an organization and its customers. These systems are referred to as customer access information technology (CAIT). Organizations invest in CAIT to reduce costs, increase revenue and market share, lock in existing customers and capture new ones. These benefits, however, are difficult to measure. Managers require guidance in evaluating their CAIT deployment strategy, and in planning new strategies that will maximize CAIT's business value.;This paper proposes a model drawn from the theory of retail outlet deployment from marketing science and adapted to the deployment of CAIT. The model focuses the impact of CAIT features and environmental features on transactions generated by the CAIT, and the resulting business value measures of reduced costs, increased revenue and increased market share. Propositions are drawn from the CAIT model regarding the likely impact of features on transactions and the resulting measures of business value.;The CAIT model is then applied to ATM deployment. General models for three measures of ATM success are developed. These models are then adopted to the deployment scenario faced by one bank. Hypotheses regarding the likely impact of ATM and environmental features on ATM transactions and business value are evaluated. The results indicate a number of key features influencing ATM performance. Two distinct ATM deployment scenarios, customer service and interchange emerge.;The concept of competitive efficiency, the ability of a CAIT deployment site to produce transactions given the constraints of its competitive environment is introduced and explored in the context of ATM deployment. The results of the analysis indicate immediate and long term strategies for improving ATM performance.;The CAIT model and competitive efficiency concept are then used to address the impact of the merger of the regional network to which the bank belongs and another regional network. Hypotheses drawn from the CAIT model propositions and the banking literature on mergers are evaluated. The results indicate suggest the likely impacts on the merger of regional ATM networks on the performance of a bank's ATMs and indicate strategies that managers can take to adjust their deployment strategies to the new realities of the post merger environment.