The clearest example of how we implement convergent base technologies and provide holistic solutions lies in the Cash Cycle Management (Glossary) products and services that we offer across all our segments. Options range from the automated acceptance of cash at checkouts to account entry and cash recycling. With the aim of combining cash processes from the retail and retail banking industries at the point of sale, we made specific developments in our Retail (Glossary) Cash Management (Glossary) portfolio in order to meet the needs of the gas station business. Another key area was the integration of hardware and software components into our own Managed Services (Glossary) processes. This relates to functions such as remote monitoring and controlling and the provision of data for downstream processes including cash logistics.
Our intelligent deposit (Glossary) and recycling systems are another example of the use of convergent technologies. Designed to accept reverse vending items or cash/checks, we adapted these systems to the needs of new, strategically important markets. The CCDM (Glossary) intelligent deposit module can now accept and process combinations of notes and checks in unsorted form, as a result of which we have been able to extend our competitive lead especially in the U.S. market. With regard to reverse vending, our focus lay on developing hardware and software upgrades to enhance the processing speed and user-friendliness of existing systems.
Turning to self-service checkout systems (Glossary) , we expanded our modular portfolio to include cash recycling know-how for coins and notes from our banking portfolio. Piloting in the retail industry has demonstrated the advantages of cash recycling, even in self-service checkout environments, with the very first installations giving an improved return on investment through a reduction in staffing costs, optimized cash use and a higher level of system availability. In collaboration with European retailers, we developed an automated scanning system that can scan product barcodes from all four sides around twice as fast as checkout staff. The presentation of a development study was met with considerable interest. In addition, we are working on a mobile self-scanning system that will allow users to scan goods themselves before placing them in their shopping trolley.
Over the last fiscal year we adapted both our hardware and software portfolios to meet the requirements of postal operators in relation to self-service processes and branch operations. The family of software products we have developed for this target group incorporates elements of our branch software for retailers and others from the net-centric software (Glossary) used by our retail banking customers.
We were able to supply suitably adapted systems rapidly for a large number of markets. By way of example, we added specific functions to our ATM portfolio for use in the casino market and expanded our portfolio in the area of coin processing.
