Udah lama nggak nulis. Yah, yang ini juga nulis kok namanya. Hihihiii…

The Money Machine
By Ulisari Eslita

Dreams have come true for Andrie Trisaksono.
From early days at college his heart was set on becoming an inventor and entrepreneur.
At 37, he is the only automated teller machine (ATM) producer in Indonesia.

In 2002, Andrie
Trisaksono felt his career had stagnated. “I had no challenges at that time,”
he told GlobeAsia at his office in South Jakarta.

Born in
Lhokseumawe, Aceh, Andrie decided to become an entrepreneur while still at
university. “Become an entrepreneur – I kept repeating to myself.” With a
strong desire but far less capital, Andrie decided to pursue his dream.

Graduating from the
Art and Design School of the Bandung Institute of
Technology (ITB) in 1996, Andrie started an IT-based company with nothing more
than a computer and a lot of creativity, operating from his parent’s house.

He multi-tasked,
doing anything to gain experience: graphic design, web sites, product design
and photography. “Some of my web customers live in Berlin and Houston,”
says Andrie, a father of three.

Although he was
busy Andrie never lost sight of his ambition of trying to invent new touch
screens and interactive computer programs. “I faced many challenges,” he
recalls. “But with the support of my family, wife and close friends I could not
give up easily.”

Non-cash ATM Machine

Andrie became
interested in producing a non-cash ATM machine when the internet and multimedia
business began to boom in 2000.

He took it upon
himself to learn as much as possible about IT systems and embarked on his goal to
create a self-service terminal (SST). The SST machine provides information through
a touch screen.

His creation
received a good reception. Local governments - including Banten, South Sulawesi and East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) - ordered the
SST machines. Andrie was still
unsatisfied. His product was not being embraced by the private sector. His costs
were high and his invention was not making much money.

“At that time,
local governments were bustling with the e-Gov
concept to inform people on the use of provincial budgets. My machine was only accepted
at local government level, a sector that it was easy to penetrate. But it was
hard for me to enter the private market,” he recalls.

Then, he had a
thought. “If I combined my machine with the ability to transfer money for things
such as shopping and payments, it became acceptable to the finance, banking and
retail industries,” he explains. Andrie’s non-cash ATM machine was born.

The machine created
immediate interest. At Indocomtech, an IT products exhibition in Jakarta , Andrie met staff from Sigma Cipta Caraka, one of Indonesia ’s
biggest banking solution providers. They became his first customer.

More orders
followed for PT Tricahya Inti Cipta (Tritek) flag, the company Andrie
established in 2005. Bank Niaga and Bank
Perkreditan Rakyat Karya Jatmika Sadaya came on-line and Andrie is now negotiating
with two state-owned banks.

“I cannot tell you
which banks because the deal’s not final,” he says. “My machines are being
tested by them right now.” If he gets the orders, he will vastly outstrip his
current sales record of 550 SST and non-cash ATM machines.

A senior member of
the banking software business, Djarot Subiantor, the president director of
Sigma Cipta Caraka, says Andrie’s work is important. “I respect him as
an Indonesian entrepreneur, especially one who is involved in this type hardware,
which we know is dominated by foreign companies,” says Djarot, who is also
chairman of Indonesia’s
Software Entrepreneurs Association (ASPILUKI).

“From the design
stages to product testing our cooperation has always felt very flexible,”
Djarot adds.

As chairman of the
association, Djarot hopes inventors like Andrie receive the trust and support
of the government and multinational business to allow continued development and
the exchange of ideas.

For Andrie, customer
satisfaction is everything. “We make these machines by ourselves. The color,
height, width, design - we can adapt it all to customer needs. We want to make
our customers happy.”

Potential Market

In March last year
Andrie received good news. Bank Indonesia released technical standard information on ATM and debit cards, with details
relating to combination of magnetic strip and chip technology.

The information on
standards was propelled by security reasons, as computer banking crime targeted Indonesia.
In February this year the importance of such standards was underlined by the
police exposure of a Malaysian-led syndicate forging credit cards. Losses are
believed to be as high as $3 billion.

For Andrie, being
able to meet security standards opens the door to a market of 22,000 ATM
machines in Indonesia. “These figure will
help explain how big our market could be in the future,” Andrie says
optimistically.

He also continues
to invent, diversify and expand his product range. Besides producing SST and
non-cash ATM machine, he is trying to come up with variations on vending
machines, automatic pass book printers and the latest generation of
cash-payment ATM machines.

In terms of quality
and price, Andrie’s products cannot be beaten. Imported non-cash ATM machines
from the US (made by NCR,
NDC and Diebold) and Germany
(Wincor Nixdorf) cost about $7,000.

Andrie refuses to say
how much his machines sell for but GlobeAsia
understands it is about $4,000, pointing to strong potential for the young man
who combined a great idea with hard work