Intelligent Cash Handling
16 January 2019
Cash as a payment instrument is the blood that keeps a business alive—the cheapest and fastest mode of transaction. In a busy retail environment and the hype around omnichannel consumers and electronic payments, the use of cash might appear as a thing of the past. Debunking the myth of a cashless society, the fact remains consumers are still using cash for payments in retail environments, and the volume of cash in circulation continues to rise. Though most brick-and-mortar retailers grasp the magnitude of the security and accuracy of cash transactions, far fewer have processes in place designed to mitigate their risk and exposure to costly cash-handling errors. At this juncture, what forward-looking retailers need is a smart way to eliminate manual and labor-intensive processes by automating cash handling and management to reduce costs and improve profitability, while not letting security and accuracy slip through the cracks.
Enter Volumatic. With over 40 years of heritage in cash handling technology, Volumatic has evolved over the decades as one of the world’s leading suppliers of intelligent cash handling equipment. From too many touch points, labor-intensive process, associated risk, poor counterfeit detection to lack of accountability and control and overcomplicated procedures, Volumatic seamlessly overcomes diverse challenges and assists in handling cash intelligently. “Volumatic is set out to help organizations improve their cash handling efficiency with a blend of technology and innovation to reduce the too many touch points,” says James Harris, Commercial Director at Volumatic.
“A dollar bill may pass through 10-15 touch points between taking it from a customer and sending it to the bank. We aim to reduce this down to one. When you take away all those touch points, you reduce risk and make the whole process much more efficient.” Apart from retail, the company is a pioneer in designing, manufacturing, and implementation of intelligent cash handling solutions across banking and leisure industries to enhance security, reduce shrinkage and deliver process efficiencies.
Volumatic’s offerings include innovative software, deposit devices, and support services that empower retailers with faster and more efficient cash counting, secure cash movement, and cost-effective cash storage while seamlessly detecting counterfeit bills. The company’s flagship cash management solution CounterCache intelligent (CCi) streamlines the cash handling processes to provide substantial operational and accounting efficiencies. “We bring the cash handling technology to the point of transaction. In comparison with traditional smart safe solutions, our solution offers 90 percent of the benefits at less than 20 percent of the cost. Moreover, our intelligent deposit device can be seamlessly accommodated at the POS,” notes Harris.
Volumatic’s CashView device management software allows users to manage, monitor and maintain CCi units centrally, either from a cash office or head office, offering complete visibility and control of cash transactions. The solution’s seamless integration capability with any ePOS system or cash reconciliation software platform makes it unique in the industry. Volumatic also works with middleware partners, offering a range of integration, and reconciliation options. Volumatic’s onboarding process begins by auditing the customer’s cash handling and counting processes to identify challenges and required best practices, and technology gaps to formulate them to be more efficient and accurate.
Currently, Volumatic has about 25,000 devices deployed across the globe, processing over $17bn a year. In one instance, the company assisted Morrisons, top 4 grocery retailer in the UK, in simplifying their cash handling processes. Volumatic deployed a pilot project, which later rolled out into Morrisons’ entire estate of stores. Today Morrisons uses around 10,000 devices from Volumatic, which saves them millions of dollars, while also reducing their counterfeit cost to zero.
In addition to the expansion plans, collecting constant customer feedbacks, Volumatic envisions tailoring the solution to fit the client needs and to bring their technology as close as possible to the point of transaction for better cash flow and efficiency.