Single Cash Handling

Printer-friendly version

Cash handling costs European companies more than €50 billion a year. In Germany’s retail sector, cash processes generate annual costs of around €7.4 billion, and in the banking sector, €3.9 billion. In Europe, eight out of ten transactions are paid in cash, most of which comes from ATMs.
 
At Wincor World 2010, Wincor Nixdorf showed their new portfolio for cash cycle management, which encompasses innovative hardware, software and services to provide cost-optimised, transparent and secure cash handling processes. As a company with a strong position in both the banking and retail industries, Wincor Nixdorf also presented their concept for cross-industry management of cash streams to connect cash processes between banks and retailers.
 
The company announced the next generation of its Cineo hardware system, with components that can be used interchangeably by banks and retailers. This new product line-up includes ATMs, cash recycling systems, automatic teller safes (ATS) and self-service terminals. Whether the device is in a banking or a retail environment, the same banknote processing technology is used: the systems are equipped with new storage media based on a uniform standard. An intelligent memory chip in the banknote storage unit stores information about the amount of cash inside, and where and when the unit has been used or opened. This information can be passed onto back office logistics management.
In retail, a large proportion of cash management costs occur at the front end. Using the Cineo system, cash replenishment and removal can be automated which eliminates the labour-intensive process of counting banknotes, as well as improving security.
 
In banking, the new banknote storage concept with the intelligent E2E-cassettes means that cash can be exchanged between individual cashpoints throughout a branch’s own cash cycle. Cash deposited into automatic teller safes can be used immediately to replenish ATMs in the bank’s self-service area.
 
One of Credit Suisse’s branches piloted a cash recycling system with interchangeable cassettes from Wincor Nixdorf. Jürgen Maier, Product Management Debit & Cash Services at Credit Suisse commented: “Credit Suisse is convinced that the solution will allow branch processes to be designed more effectively and ATM operating costs to be reduced significantly.”
 
Bringing the Bank and Retail Cash Cycle Together
 
An Inter-Business Cycle between banks and retailers helps lower costs for both and means that cash does not need to be transported to cash centres and to the central bank. Instead, in the future, Wincor Nixdorf envisions that banks will replenish their cash points directly with E2E banknote storage cassettes from retail stores.
 
Their vision is to use cash office systems to fill ATMs by using the same module for banking and retail. As ATMs cannot contain counterfeit notes, this means the modules have to have an article 6 sensor to ensure that only the fit banknotes are passed onto the ATM; any unfit ones are stored separately and are not reissued.
 
The software solution includes the ability for system monitoring, cash inventory forecasting and optimisation, order management, track and trace and management reporting. The control of cash processes and IT management can be handed over to Wincor Nixdorf’s service organisation.
 
A Retail Case Study
Discount furniture retailer Poco-Domäne is the first to pilot Wincor Nixdorf’s automated cash handling in its store in Hannover, Germany, to establish a closed cash cycle between the front and back office.
 
Since September 2009, cashiers only register products and the customer manages the payment themselves. Cash is placed in a secure safe which is integrated into the POS system. The cash can only be removed by authorised personnel with a code and a special key. This improves security dramatically – some of the company’s stores had previously been the target of robberies.
 
The POS points have been equipped with self-service technology for the recycling of coins and notes. As store employees no longer have access to the cash, there are no discrepancies in register receipts, and staff also have more time to provide customer support during transactions. Time is also saved as the cashier does not have to count up their till at the beginning and end of every shift.
 
The cash takings are transferred from the storage module at the POS to a mobile drum which is docked in the cash office. Here, the sorting and storing of the banknotes in the intelligent cassettes is automated. Cash is automatically recorded and reported to the management system.
 
Friedhelm Rudolph, Executive Director and Director of IT and Controlling at the furniture company, explained: “Cash handling is completely eliminated in the cash office. The double-checking principle is no longer necessary, as counting mistakes are not possible. The whole process significantly lightens the workload of employees and offers huge time and cost savings, as well as higher security in sales accounting.”
 
In the future, retailers will be able to take their intelligent cash cassettes to a cooperating neighbourhood bank, who will then be able to use this to replenish their ATMs, rather than having to go via a branch of Germany’s Central Bank. For stores with more than 6 lanes, ROI is typically achieved within one year.