What ATM and ITM Implementation Looks Like With NextBranch

The hardest part of replacing an aging ATM fleet is rarely the decision to do it. It is the fear of everything that comes after: the installation, the downtime, the retraining, the possibility that a core conversion goes sideways in front of your customers and members. That fear is what keeps a lot of financial institutions running end-of-life machines long past the point where the math stopped making sense. 

It is also mostly unfounded, provided the process is managed by people who have done it before. The credit unions and banks that have moved to NextBranch describe the transition in almost identical terms. One credit union called a two-phase conversion that ran just under two years very seamless. Another rolled out ATM and ITM technology at the same time, a genuinely complex project, and still described the implementation as smooth. A third went from signing a lease to bringing up full core integration and testing live machines in six months. 

What follows is what that process actually involves, phase by phase, so you can see where the work sits and who owns it. 

The Site Survey and Fleet Assessment 

Before any equipment is ordered, a NextBranch team member visits your branches to assess the existing fleet and the physical space. This person typically comes from an ATM operations background, which means they understand the pain points you are already living with and can speak to what your current machines can and cannot do. One credit union singled this out: the person who came on site had worked in the ATM industry, understood their existing technology, and could map specific problems to specific solutions rather than pushing a generic package. 

The survey covers installation type for each location (drive-up, lobby, through-the-wall, or freestanding), power and network requirements, and whether a given branch is a candidate for a standard ATM or an interactive teller machine. The output is a plan built around your branches, not a one-size quote. 

Selecting the Right Equipment for Each Location 

Not every machine needs to do everything, and that is the point of doing this per site. A high-traffic branch replacing its teller line has different requirements than a remote drive-up. NextBranch lets you customize the functions and services for each machine, so a lobby ITM built for video teller and core-connected transactions can sit alongside a simpler drive-up ATM without forcing you to standardize on the most expensive option everywhere. 

This is also the stage where the ownership model is decided. Under the fully outsourced subscription model, NextBranch purchases and owns the equipment, which removes the upfront capital outlay of buying machines outright (roughly $40,000 each, before installation and compliance). If you recently bought your current fleet, NextBranch can purchase that existing equipment at book value, which matters for institutions that are not ready to write off a recent investment. Some choose the leasing route deliberately, having learned from experience that owned machines become outdated quickly as the technology moves. 

Core Integration: Connecting ITMs to Your Core 

For institutions upgrading to ITMs, core integration is what separates a fancier ATM from a machine that can genuinely offload teller work. A “core” is the system that runs your entire institution: accounts, balances, online and mobile banking. When an ITM connects to it, customers and members can access loan accounts, make loan payments, cash checks, choose denominations, pull mini statements, and withdraw well beyond a standard ATM limit, all without a teller. 

Core integration is the part that sounds most intimidating, and it is worth being straightforward about it. It is a defined, one-time project rather than an open-ended risk, and NextBranch manages it end to end in coordination with your core processor. In one recent rollout, the integration ran across three teams, NextBranch, Hyosung, and the institution’s core provider, and lease-to-live testing was completed in six months without hiccups. It does not have to happen all at once, either. Another institution used a two-phase approach: they replaced their entire fleet with ITMs and enabled video teller functionality first, then connected the machines to their core after completing a separate core conversion. Sequencing the work this way kept each phase manageable. 

NextBranch integrates across all the major core platforms, Fiserv (Premier and DNA), Jack Henry (SilverLake and Symitar), and FIS among them, along with others. The platform you run shapes the details of the build, not whether integration is possible. 

Project Management, Removal, and Installation 

Once equipment and scope are set, the physical work is coordinated as a managed project rather than a series of tasks you have to chase. That includes project management, removal and disposal of the old machines, rigging and installation of the new ones, and bringing each unit live. One credit union installed ATM and ITM technology simultaneously across a new tellerless branch with three drive-up lanes, and credited NextBranch with handling both the customization and the troubleshooting that a project of that complexity inevitably surfaces. 

For institutions moving to a tellerless or reduced-teller model, this is also where the branch layout comes together: lobby ITMs replacing the teller line, drive-up ITMs extending service hours, and often a single traditional station with a teller cash recycler for the transactions a machine cannot handle, such as opening accounts or issuing cashier’s checks. 

Staff Training and Go-Live 

The technology rarely creates problems at go-live. The transition for your people and your account holders is where the real attention goes, and it is the phase most vendors underinvest in. NextBranch includes on-site training, and the operational payoff shows up quickly. One credit union cut new-employee training from two weeks to four days after simplifying onboarding around the new machines. 

The customer- and member-facing side deserves equal planning. One credit union found that the hardest part of its rollout was not the equipment but educating members who saw what looked like an ordinary ATM and did not realize they could reach a live teller at the push of a button. They staffed the rollout with a team member dedicated to walking people through the machines, and paired it with website content and videos. The lesson is consistent across NextBranch customers: budget for education, and adoption follows. Multiple institutions have moved roughly 90 percent of teller transactions to self-service, and in one member survey, 96 percent said they would use the ITMs again. 

The Service Relationship After Go-Live 

Implementation does not end at go-live; it becomes an ongoing service relationship, which for most institutions is the entire reason to outsource in the first place. NextBranch monitors the health of each machine and resolves many issues before the branch is even aware of them. Customers describe this directly: NextBranch will catch something behind the scenes and flag it before they have noticed anything themselves. In 2025, AutoResolve, the AI-based monitoring layer, resolved 54 percent of service events without dispatching a technician, and the fleet held 99 percent uptime across the year. 

That is the difference between owning a problem and outsourcing an outcome. Your staff stop managing vendors, chasing compliance deadlines, and troubleshooting hardware, and get that time back for lending, advice, and growing relationships. 

Implementation Timeline 

Timelines vary with fleet size, whether ITMs and core integration are involved, and how you choose to phase the work. As a general guide: