Wincor World 2011 Opens

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New solution for the automation of the cash cycles of banks and retail companies are the focus of Wincor World 2011.
 
Wincor Nixdorf and 40 of its partners are presenting some 600 exhibits across 10,000 square meters of exhibition space. There are demonstrations on how cashless payments can be processed, how branches and stores can be redesigned for greater security and customer-friendliness, and how POS processes in retail stores can be automated.
 
Wincor Nixdorf introduced its concept for re-orienting cash processes one year ago. The company now reports decisive steps forward in the introduction of the new technology. At Wincor World, Eckard Heidloff, President and CEO of Wincor Nixdorf, explained that with 9 out of 10 transactions still taking place in cash, the cost of handling it totals some 50 billion Euros in Europe alone. This gave Wincor the idea to try and simplify and automate these handling processes in a drive to not only reduce costs and improve efficiency, but also to render the system more secure in the process.
 
Heidloff went on to present the latest project. In the Netherlands, a cash-in-transit (CiT) company, a bank and a retail company are testing the cross-sector networking of their cash cycles. The “intelligent” cash cassettes, which are automatically filled with the day's takings at the retail store’s checkouts, are transported by the CiT company to a bank and inserted directly into the bank's ATMs to replenish their supply of cash. The retailer no longer has to count this cash manually, and neither the retailer’s nor the bank's staff ever have direct contact with the banknotes.
 
“The great level of interest in our Cash Cycle Management Solutions and our new CINEO hardware system generation with its software-platform have confirmed for us that we’re on the right path with this concept,” said Heidloff at the start of Wincor World 2011.
 
Cooperation in Automating Cash Cycles around the World
 
“We’ll be realising other important steps in our vision through our cooperation with Giesecke & Devrient,” Heidloff went on. Giesecke & Devrient specialises in banknotes and banknote processing in central banks and cash centers. Wincor Nixdorf and its new partner intend to bundle their expertise in automating cash cycles, from consumers to banks, retail companies and CiT companies and all the way to the central bank. In the future, they intend to work more closely together on the standardisation of systems and processes, with the goal of more efficient cash processing. As part of this cooperation, the two companies will be founding the joint venture “CI Tech Components AG” for the ongoing development and marketing of security technology for testing and processing banknotes.
 
Designing Processes for Transparency and Cost-Effectiveness
 
In addition to the extended Cash Cycle Management Portfolio, Wincor World 2011 is also focusing on software that supports the multichannel orientation of retail banks, on solutions for processing cashless payment transactions and on security solutions that protect banks and retailers from attacks across all sales channels and processes. A new generation of CINEO systems for the automation of processes in self-service banking environments and bank branches will also be on display. For retail businesses, Wincor Nixdorf will present a scalable portfolio of POS solutions and flexible self-service solutions for the checkout zone.
Foe example, Wincor's newest self-service checkout solution featuring automatic scanning is on show. Products are placed on a conveyor belt by the customer and are automatically and very rapidly scanned. This is made possible by improved scanner technology with a scan rate of around 98 percent. A processing speed of some 60 articles a minute means that even discount stores benefit from the solution. The payment process can either be integrated in the system or a separate terminal can be used.
 
Transparent Systems and Cash Processes
 
The company is also presenting new ideas for the efficient operation and maintenance of its solutions. IT monitoring and business monitoring of bank branch and retail store processes enjoys increasing significance among customers. For this reason, the company has developed a management dashboard solution that provides banks and retail companies with a graphical view of system, service and cash processes using dashboards. The data needed for these dashboards is provided from the information collected by the Wincor Nixdorf eServices Platform.
 
The Outlook for Business
 
On the occasion of the opening of the event, Heidloff noted that his company’s innovations have underscored its position as a leading end-to-end provider to businesses in the retail and banking sectors. During the first quarter of the current fiscal year (2010/2011), the company increased its revenue and its operating result (EBITA) by 4 percent each in comparison with the same period last year. With an eye toward the company’s course for the remainder of the fiscal year, Heidloff pointed to the continuing uncertainty regarding the speed and sustainability of the global economy’s recovery from the effects of the economic crisis. For fiscal year 2010/2011 as a whole, the company is continuing to strive for revenue growth of 6 percent and an increase in the operating result of 8 percent. In Heidloff’s opinion, the speed of the market’s recovery will play a decisive role in whether the company can achieve these goals.