Why We Developed Boobsta®️: Mandrake.ATM | Boobsta ATM Business Management Software

Why We Developed Boobsta®️: Mandrake.ATM's Case Study

The spark was a $4 ATM fee in a swanky New York nightclub.

Mandrake.ATM's founders, Mark Walbank and Dr Alexander Lambevski, had walked away from highly pressured public sector careers, seeking relief from burnout and drawn by the promise of something new. They didn't know what the professional horizon held — until a trip to the United States changed everything. The club owners were charging $4 per cash withdrawal. To two Australians accustomed to fee-free withdrawals from their own banks, the charge was simultaneously outrageous and intriguing.

That moment sparked thorough research into the private US ATM deployment industry. A few years later, the Reserve Bank of Australia followed America's lead, liberalising ATM deployment to encourage competition with Australian banks by allowing private companies to deploy ATMs and charge direct fees nationwide (RBA, Reform of the ATM System — One Year On, 2009).

That regulatory shift became a strategic turning point for Mandrake.ATM.

Growth exposed the cracks

Since launching in 2004, the company has driven rapid growth and profitability. Until 2009, we followed the prevailing ATM business model in Australia: as deployers, we owned and supplied machines to merchants at no cost, while merchants or cash-carrying companies handled cash replenishment. An inefficient interchange fee system dominated the payments landscape. Most ATM withdrawal fees flowed to banks and transaction service providers — despite their minimal investment in new ATM deployment. Deployers, operators, and cash-carrying partners bore the real costs yet received the smallest share. Margins suffered accordingly.

In 2010, Mandrake.ATM introduced two new business models: the lease-your-ATM model, where businesses pay an ongoing fee and ultimately own the machine at the end of the agreement; and the buy-your-own-ATM model, where businesses purchase the ATM outright and take full responsibility for its operation and maintenance. Both models aimed to empower Australian businesses to be masters of their payment environments — receiving the largest share of collected ATM fees, which was only fair given their significant capital expenditure and cashing costs. The market embraced both models enthusiastically, and we remain the leader in the buy-your-own model in Australia today.

But rapid growth brought significant administrative hurdles. Like most ATM deployers at the time, we relied on a combination of paper-based processes, rudimentary off-the-shelf CRM software, and spreadsheets to manage customer relations, ATM technical repairs, and back-of-house operations.

Calculating complex rebate structures at month-end was a dreaded ritual. Most customers sat on different rebate structures and various ATM business models. Even with a relatively small fleet, it took one employee many days to accurately calculate rebates and manually issue invoices generated by word processors. Then came the painstaking task of depositing each customer's rebate into their bank account — one by one, across multiple banks.

The cost of antiquated tools

When businesses rely on inefficient tools and processes, back-of-house ATM management becomes time-consuming, complex, labour-intensive, and error-prone. Multiple disparate information silos create tremendous inefficiencies: stressed and frustrated employees, lost data, data corruption, and the absence of a single, reliable view of each customer's complete record.

Paper-based processes lack overall visibility and become time-intensive to audit retrospectively. Spreadsheet-based processes are not easily replicable or scalable, and they lack data integrity — cells can be altered without a trace. Even in the best-organised paper-based office, retrieving a specific invoice, purchase order, contract, or email for a customer is often inefficient at best.

Generic CRM and invoicing tools don't solve the problem either. In the early 2010s, very few CRM packages existed for small businesses. Even today, sophisticated platforms like Salesforce or invoicing tools bundled with e-commerce website builders fall short of what ATM deployment businesses require. There is far more to manage than prospecting, sales, and invoicing. ATM deployers have highly specific needs: site management, disputed transaction handling, repair scheduling, coordination of ATM technicians, and much more.

Boobsta ATM Business Management Software coordinates ATM repair jobs and matches them with th correct ATM technician based on skills and location.

A potential young savvy user of Boobsta ATM Business Management Software

A screenshot of one of the interface pace on Boobsta®️ATM Business Management Software

What is Boobsta®️?

Boobsta® is a cloud-based, cross-platform relational database and automated data aggregation system designed to improve the operational efficiency of ATM deployment businesses. It combines enterprise resource planning, document storage, accounting, invoicing, bulk payment, and distribution functionalities in a single platform. Boobsta® integrates internal CRM and ATM management databases, streamlines sales and prospecting processes, and automates rebates, invoicing, and customer bulk payments. Its unified data engine connects various automated tools and integrates with third-party systems and accounting software — such as MYOB and Xero — significantly simplifying business workflows and reducing workload at tax time.

Authorised employees can access the application on any desktop, tablet, or laptop, from any operating system, from anywhere at any time. The chief administrator assigns role-based access on a need-to-know basis, while business owners and managers gain a comprehensive, real-time view of the entire ATM operation — including performance and profitability.

Boobsta® allowed us to redirect our energy toward more productive work, particularly in sales and marketing, helping us grow the business without being consumed by its administration. It can do the same for yours.

Some large ATM deployers use four or five different software packages to manage various aspects of their business — one person per package, with poor communication between them. The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. With Boobsta®, one person can manage all administrative tasks for a fleet of hundreds of ATMs — delivering annual savings of nearly $250,000 by eliminating unnecessary wages for four to five people.

From frustration to focus

For a brief period, we hired administrative staff to cope with the growing burden. The result was more stress, not less. Office skills from retail or other industries do not transfer to an ATM business hamstrung by antiquated tools, multiple information silos, and paper-based processes. New hires had their own ideas about how to run a business they knew nothing about.

That experience crystallised our mantra: "Stay small, grow your business."

To realise it, we focused on building proprietary ATM business management software — prioritising automation of every possible administrative task and optimising for efficiency, accuracy, speed, profitability, and reliability. The goal was not just operational improvement; it was reclaiming sanity and achieving a healthier work-life balance.

Building Boobsta®️

After evaluating software development options, we chose FileMaker (now Claris FileMaker). It allowed us to rapidly create a customised ATM business management app, integrate with external platforms such as Xero and our business internet banking via API, and deploy across Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, iPadOS, and the web. That cross-platform flexibility meant we could commercialise the app in the future and serve other ATM businesses regardless of their operating system or devices.

Partnering with Team Digital Fusion, an Australian–New Zealand FileMaker development company, and under Mark's leadership and vision, Boobsta® evolved into a highly sophisticated, bespoke application.

The results speak for themselves: previously facing eighty-hour workweeks, our weekly administrative workload has dropped to an average of four to six hours — and many weeks it falls well below that.

Meet Our Experts

Dedicated professionals with expertise.

Mark

Walbank

Founder and business development director of Mandrake.ATM, creator and continious evovlver of Boobsta®️. He uses the ATM business management app he created to run his ATM deployment business on a daily basis.

Taylor

Drew

Founder of Mandrake.ATM, business development director of Mandrake.ATM, creator and continious evovlver of Boobsta®️. He uses the ATM business management he created to run his ATM deployment business on a dailky basis.