Server: Netscape-Enterprise/2.01 Date: Fri, 21 Nov 1997 04:23:32 GMT Last-modified: Fri, 16 May 1997 14:56:46 GMT Content-length: 11349 Content-type: text/html Diebold's Story Diebold Logo 

Diebold - Continuing a tradition of quality and leadership



Quality, innovation and customer satisfaction are the foundation of Diebold, Incorporated. From the strength and security of the safes and vaults first manufactured by Charles Diebold in 1859, to the technology-based integrated systems, software and service that the Company provides today, Diebold's commitment has always been to develop practical solutions for customer needs.  

Diebold Timeline  



OVER THE DECADES, 
DIEBOLD has provided some intriguing products and services in the effort to satisfy those needs. For example, during the 1880s and 1890s, the Company also made jails, jail corridor doors, hangman trap doors and padded cells for asylums. Diebold worked with the Lake Erie Chemical Company in the 1930s to develop a system to discharge tear gas in bank lobbies to assist in deterring the notorious John Dillinger and his gang. In the 1960s, its product line included checks and check printing. 

 The Company's move into automated teller machines (ATMs) in the late 1960s was one of a series of logical progressions in Diebold's evolution. Another was its expansion into electronic security products earlier in the century. The ATM was a natural extension for Diebold, a long-time leader in delivery systems such as drive-up banking and teller counters, which enabled financial institutions to serve their own customers better. 
Diebold'sHome Office in Canton, Ohio 
Diebold went on to record countless firsts in ATM technology in the decades of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Diebold's progress has taken many turns from 1859 to the present, but the Company has never swayed from its dedication toward technology leadership and customer satisfaction. Diebold has been especially successful at understanding market needs and harnessing technology to serve those needs. 
  

The early years: Quality and strength

Charles Diebold Charles Diebold, a German immigrant, founded the Company in 1859. The business soon established a national reputation for high-quality safes and vaults. The Company held the patents on at least 67 different safes by 1870. 


 

 When disaster struck one of the nation's major cities in 1871, it turned into opportunity for Diebold. Following the Great Chicago Fire, 878 Diebold safes were discovered with their contents unharmed. 


The middle years:

Growth and innovation

By the turn of the century, Diebold Safe & Lock Company's commitment to customer needs was well-established. To further its goal of providing the highest-quality products and services to its customers, Diebold founded the industry's first nationwide service division in 1915.  

Diebold's service organization remains the largest and best in the financial industry today, with 2,300 professionals in 400 locations maintaining products and systems for 50,000 customers nationwide. 

  Technology leadership has been a common Diebold trait throughout the years. Eighty-two patents were issued to Diebold between 1921 and 1957 for such products as vault doors and frames, safes, money chests, locks, lockers, delayed time locks and various protective devices. In 1954, for example, Diebold introduced a radical new design for bank vault doors. The new rectangular door embraced the clean, uncluttered look that was the trend in bank architecture after World War II, replacing the elaborate locking mechanisms, operating wheels and levers that were visible on the previous generations of doors. 

 Diebold's progression in the development of bank protection equipment was largely driven by the need to find materials that would withstand the inventiveness of the modern-day bank robber. Diebold developed metal combinations and equipment designs to stave off the criminals' use of increasingly sophisticated materials, tools and techniques over the years.  


Following World War II, the American lifestyle became faster-paced, with the automobile playing an ever-increasing role of importance. Diebold responded with the purchase of O.B. McClintock Company, an early leader in drive-up banking systems and electronic burglar alarms. In the years following that purchase, Diebold developed a host of sophisticated electronic security solutions. These ranged from systems capable of monitoring thousands of financial and commercial locations, to the alarms, video surveillance and access control systems used within these monitoring systems. 



The modern era: Solutions for a changing world

In the late 1960s, Diebold President Raymond Koontz made a bold move that would further strengthen Diebold's leadership in customer delivery systems for the financial industry. 

 

 By entering the new ATM market, Koontz realized, Diebold could combine its security expertise and delivery system leadership with its metal construction and electromechanical device skills. 

 Through its innovations in features and technology applications, Diebold has continued to be a pioneer in the growing ATM market, which today totals almost $3 billion in annual sales worldwide. 

 In 1967, Diebold showed a prototype of the first multi-function ATM at the American Bankers Association Automation Conference. Diebold was a distributor of automatic banking systems from 1970 until 1973, when it introduced its own TABS 500 Total Automatic Banking System. 

  


Throughout the 1970s and the 1980s, Diebold remained a leader in applying new technology to meet customer needs. 
In 1990, Diebold and International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) formed InterBold, a joint venture which combines Diebold's ATM expertise with IBM's global marketing and technical resources. A year later, InterBold introduced the i Series, a fourth-generation line of ATMs with improved flexibility and user availability. 

The i Series achieved unparalleled success during its first year. InterBold's share of the domestic market rose dramatically, from 45 percent in 1991 to 54 percent in 1992. The i Series ATMs currently rank at the top in market share in the United States and in many other countries around the world. 



Another wave of the future is the Integrated Campus Access Management (ICAM) system, which links electronic security with self-service transaction systems at college campuses and other campus-like settings. Diebold's MedSelect products apply ATM technology to help the healthcare industry improve efficiency and maintain quality of service, and Diebold is progressing into the growing field of electronic payment systems. 




Diebold's service staff is increasingly becoming the one source for all customer service needs. Self-directed teams of employee associates are empowered to do their jobs the best way they know how in Diebold's state-of-the-art focus factories. 

Beyond today and into the future, Diebold's strategic vision is to partner with customers and employ its unique combination of capabilities (in self-service, security, software, systems integration, advanced card systems and customer service) to develop total solutions that are both innovative and practical. Diebold believes this vision will enable the Company to prosper and maximize shareholder value well into the next century. 


  
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Last Modified: May 16, 1997