The Inter-Business Cycle: optimization across industries

Retail companies in many countries traditionally transport their cash to cash centers using cash-in-transit (CiT) compa­nies. Retailers such as service station operators or small-business franchisees often bring their cash takings directly to a local bank. Banks, for their part, also rely on CiT companies to bring and pick up their cash supplies. This process is logistically complex and it is often unclear exactly how much cash is being transported.

Shortcut in the cash cycle.

A clear contrast is offered by Wincor Nixdorf’s Inter-Business Cycle. Here, the worlds of banking and retail come together and a cycle is created be­tween retail stores, where cash is collected, and automated teller machines and safes at banks, which largely dispense cash. Again, the basis is the banknote storage concept that is compatible across these two sectors. Cassettes that are filled with a retailer‘s cash takings can be used to replenish the ATMs of a nearby bank. The advantages of this ap­proach, which networks retailers with banks, are a shortened cash cycle and significantly reduced handling and logistics expenses.

Business models that go beyond the scenarios described here are also conceivable and have, in some cases, already been put into practice. They include, for example, the possibility of a customer’s “withdrawing” cash from his or her bank ac­count at the POS of a retail store. This idea has the genius of ensuring the provisioning of cash to consumers right where they need it.

Our goal for the future is to optimize the cash cycle across sectors and to involve cash centers and central banks in these new processes. Our mission is to implement closed cash cycles between banks, retailers, cash centers and cen­tral banks. With these measures, we’ll support our customers in achieving maximum transparency throughout the process chain, maximum security in cash handling, and improved productivity.

We believe that customers should be able to get all the cash handling services they need from a single end-to-end provider. And to make sure they can, we’re continually expanding our Cash Cycle Management Solutions portfolio of hardware, software and services.