Sage Capital Bank has turned over management of its entire ATM fleet to Dolphin Debit, the full-service ATM management company, avoiding a huge expense in upgrading its machines to Windows 10.

The central Texas bank, with seven full-service branches and seven ATMs, had its first experience with Dolphin Debit more than two years ago, when it bought a branch from an existing Dolphin Debit client and maintained the ongoing ATM contract. That gave Sage Capital Bank the chance to see the advantages of outsourcing management of its machines.

“We had been looking at outsourcing, and this turned out to be a good test run for our other branches,” explained Danny Burton, Senior Vice President and CIO of Sage Capital Bank.

“We had an aging fleet of ATMs and all of them needed Windows 10 upgrades,” Burton noted. “We did explore other vendors, but with Dolphin Debit’s pricing and contract terms, and our familiarity with their services, it was an easy decision to move the rest of our fleet to them.”

The bank now has brand-new machines instead of ATMs that were 10 to 15 years old, and which would have cost as much as $12,000 each for a Windows 10 upgrade.

Sage Capital Bank had been driving its ATMs with in-house staff, which led to a lot of issues, Burton said. “If the machines went down, we had people at each location partially trained, but if they couldn’t fix them I’d have to come up with a solution. We just wanted to get rid of the headaches of ATMs and let someone else do it.”

Compliance was a major consideration in Sage Capital Bank’s decision, and with Dolphin Debit, the bank will no longer have to dread operating system upgrades or regulatory changes. All the staff has been freed to focus on customer service instead of ATM issues. Burton added that the conversion was easy and trouble-free.

“Sage Capital Bank took advantage of a great chance to see outsourced ATM management in action,” said Gary Walston, CEO of Dolphin Debit. “They were able to compare in-house and outside management side-by-side and get a real preview of the benefits of freeing themselves from the burdens of fleet operation.”