One of the largest regional telecommunication and information technology exhibition and conference BakuTel 2011 took place in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku on November 23-26 of the current year. For the seventeenth time this exhibition presented to its visitors the most relevant and most prominent innovation in IT and telecommunication sectors.

This year, the BakuTel exhibition was twice as big as the last year, which is indicative of a rapid expansion of the telecommunication and IT technology and growth of demand for it. In addition, in his speeches, the exhibition patron Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev several times mentioned an ambitious goal of making this country a regional IT leader in the future.

This year (the same as many years) Lithuania was represented by the group of companies Penki kontinentai. In Azerbaijan the banking technology company BS/2, that is part of the Group, introduced a new CINEO ATM line and advanced BS/2 software solutions designed for self-service facilities:  Payment^.iQ, ATMeye^.iQ, Service Desk^.iQ, SmartSafe^.iQ, developed by Wincor Nixdorf, the leading company in the development of banking and retail IT solutions. By the way, BS/2 is a Golden Partner of the Wincor Nixdorf Group.

According to the BS/2 Technical Director Tomas Bublys, both banks and other financial institutions, and individuals were mostly interested in CINEO facilities supporting the Cash Recycling technology, i.e. facilities receiving and dispensing cash.

The Cash Recycling technology is a client (individual or company representative, and not only client) oriented convenient way to pay to withdraw cash via ATM. “It is also useful as it reduces the number of collection operations thus allowing companies to save time and money, banks to gain more legal clients, and collecting companies to abandon particularly expensive cash recount centres, which chew up approximately 80 percent of all collection costs”, says T. Bublys.

The information terminal ProInfo 1000, presented together with the built-in solution Payment^.iQ and substantially extending capabilities of a standard terminal, also kindled the BakuTel 2011 visitors’ interest.

The Payment^.iQ solution allows one to extend functionality of self-service facilities (such as ATMs and information terminals) as well as make payments (i.e. top-up accounts, pay various bills, etc.) both in cash and using credit card. The solution is easily installed into the banks’ information systems and remains the ‘loose’ rather than ‘tied’ to specific card transaction processing solutions and equipment used,” said the BS/2 Sales Department Director Paulius Bučelis.

All equipment and facilities presented at the BS/2 stand were connected to the monitoring and analysis software solution ProView developed by the company Wincor Nixdorf. As a result, the stand visitors were offered the opportunity to see how to remotely disable or reload ATM, and monitor and manage its work without leaving the office.

The exhibition visitors could familiarize themselves with IPTV solutions developed by Penki kontinentai. Azerbaijan intensively prepares for the transition to digital television, which is to happed at the end of 2012, thus the innovative TV products in this country. However, according to the Head of the Penki kontinentai Strategic Planning and Programming Department Saulius Paukštis, the IPTV.IQ product presented by the Lithuanian company, which is to be used to provide the IP television services, attracted considerable attention from the exhibition visitors.

“Azerbaijan is actively preparing for the coming Eurovision musical contest – new hotels are springing up like mushrooms after the summer rain and many of the country’s sectors put high hopes on the tourism. IPTV.IQ product for IP-TV is a solution that can find its niche in hotels, treatment and educational institutions. It is a unique opportunity to offer our customers a huge package of high-quality IP-TV solutions from one source,” said S. Paukštys.

The Google Maps program, allowing to create and offer hotel guests exciting routes, was presented by Penki kontinentai on the TV screen and attracted significant attention as well. The business centre managers were interested in the solution Central Video Management^.iQ designed for self-service facilities. This solution allows controlling the entire video stream sent to the device screen (including advertising).

The BakuTel 2011 visitors were also presented the unparalleled payment and loyalty system PayLo developed by the Penki kontinentai company ASHBURN International.

“Nowadays, the consumer habit and consumer behaviour analysis as well as the loyalty management are impossible without the latest information technology. The PayLo platform is easily installed into any system. It is a unique communicative module and marketing tool, and no other company is able to offer anything similar; therefore, is not surprising that at this show we were able to establish useful contacts, find potential partners and plan development not only in Azerbaijan but in other countries as well,” said the ASHBURN International Sales Manager Lina Ramanauskienė. 

250 companies from 32 countries from around the world participated in the exhibition this year. Next year BakuTel will be waiting for its visitors on November 21-24.

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