For any bank, efficient monitoring and maintenance of the self-service channel is critical. Managing your self-service network effectively will help to ensure that a vital element of your business is not just performing adequately, but reaching its maximum potential.

Want to know more? Here are five specific reasons why device management is so important and should be at the heart of how you run your business.

Complete visibility and control
At a time when more and more customers are demanding maximum speed and convenience, the self-service channel is arguably more important than ever. So it follows that you will want to have the best possible visibility and control over your network. This puts you in a strong position to anticipate problems before they occur, or to respond to any unforeseen issues as quickly as possible.

Think of your self-service network as a vital part of a living organism. As any doctor will tell you, having regular health checks is a better way of staying fit and functional than simply taking action when something goes wrong.

Responding to demand
Self-service device management is particularly important during periods of high demand - the weeks leading up to Christmas, for example.

These are the times when your network will be under the most strain, and also when customer expectations will be highest

By studying past trends, you can predict which areas of your self-service network will see the highest demand at key times and prepare accordingly. Having a complete view of your devices will also improve your ability to respond to unpredictable spikes or drops in demand.

Delivering the best customer experience
As one of the most visible customer-facing elements of your business, your self-service network plays a big part in shaping the customer experience.

If people know they can rely on your ATMs to function at all times and deliver the specific service they need, when they need it, they will build up a positive association with your brand. Someone who has a bad experience at the ATM - a cash outage or an out-of-service machine, for example - is just as likely to remember it, especially on a busy shopping day.

Higher revenue and lower costs
The self-service channel provides many opportunities for revenue generation: using ATMs to deliver targeted marketing or provide additional services like bill payment, for example. It can also lower costs by moving transactions away from the counter, freeing up tellers to focus on customer service and sales.

But in order to reach these goals, your network must perform consistently and achieve certain standards. Customers who have been encouraged to use a device rather than go to the counter will expect the same quality and reliability of service, so tracking and managing performance is essential.

Increased efficiency
Good self-service device monitoring and management can be a key part of an enterprise-wide drive towards greater efficiency. It can be combined with cash management and transaction monitoring to provide invaluable performance awareness, reducing silo mentality and encouraging principles like transparency and collaboration across the organization.

Perhaps most importantly, it can help to ensure that your business is as informed and responsive as possible when it comes to giving customers what they want. This will help you to achieve the customer satisfaction and brand loyalty that so many financial institutions strive for.