Yesterday Paderborn, Germany-based Wincor Nixdorf announced lower-than-projected first-quarter net sales and profit — financial results, the company says, that mirror the state of the global economy. In yesterday's announcement, Wincor Nixdorf said it continues to see "no signs of market recovery."
Wincor Nixdorf AG closed the first quarter of fiscal year 2009/2010 with respective drops in net sales and operating profit of 6 percent and 13 percent.
"In the short term at least, we expect the worldwide environment to remain challenging. Developments in the market and in our business are still difficult to predict," Wincor Nixdorf president and CEO Eckard Heidloff said in a release about the company's earnings.
But banks and retail companies continue to invest in technology and process optimization, Heidloff says, adding that regardless of the challenging economic environment, Wincor Nixdorf continues to see interest in technology that improves cost efficiency in bank branches and retail stores.
With that interest in mind, Wincor Nixdorf has put a strong focus on cash-cycle management at this year's Wincor World — the company's annual trade fair which attracts bankers and retailers from all corners of the globe.
A bit different this year is Wincor Nixdorf's decision to display banking and retail technology together, rather than dividing the show floor into two sections. With the focus this year being on cash management and branch/retail optimization, the company is showing how the same underlying cash-management technology can be used in both arenas.
Around 600 exhibits of IT solutions and services from Wincor Nixdorf and Wincor Nixdorf's 30 partner exhibitors will fill the show floor.
The new CINEO system family
For financial institutions, the company's Cash Cycle Management Solutions portfolio includes cash recycling systems, ATMs, automated teller safes and transaction terminals within the new CINEO generation. At the core of Wincor Nixdorf's cash-cycle solutions this year is a new banknote storage concept that allows cash to be exchanged between different cash points within the branch. So cash that has been deposited in automated teller safes at the counter can be used to replenish ATMs or cash-recycling systems in the self-service area of the branch.
Replenishment and removal processes between systems in the self-service zone, the front office and the back office are optimized through closed cash handling. Banks then benefit from maximum transparency and security as well as optimized costs, Wincor Nixdorf says. FIs also have the ability to exchange cassettes between different branches.
And the solution benefits retailers in the same way, allowing retailers to dispense cash at ATMs within their stores that has been collected at the POS or checkout counter. A memory chip in the cash-storage unit or cassette records information about both the level of cash inside the unit and where and when the unit or cassette was used and/or opened; that information may be accessed by the bank or retailer at any time.
In the future, Wincor Nixdorf says cash centers, bank branches and retail stores will be able to integrate their cash cycles, thus allowing automated filling and emptying of cash cassettes in the cash center's sorting systems so that cash can be used across sectors — from bank branches to retail stores.
"The new generation of terminals within our CINEO system family also boasts a new design," Wincor Nixdorf stated in a release about the CINEO line. "The latest printing technology, easy operation via 15-inch or 17-inch monitors, the integration of a wide range of peripherals, such as barcode readers and check scanners for automated document processing, and improved serviceability are just some examples of the benefits provided by our new transaction terminals."
Software applications for the control of cash processes in branch networks also can manage the entire cash chain. These applications provide cash-inventory forecasting and optimization across branches, order management, tracking and tracing, and management reporting.
Managing the cash cycle
"Nine of 10 payment transactions worldwide are made with cash. Our estimates show that this creates more than (U.S.) $300 billion in costs, primarily for banks and retail businesses," Heidloff said at the opening of Wincor World 2010.
According to the European Central Bank, the number of euro banknotes is growing at the rate of 9 percent annually. Cash handling in Europe costs approximately 50 billion euros every year — a reality, Heidloff says, that is creating common cash-handling needs for banks and retailers.
During Wincor World, Wincor Nixdorf says it will show how its "Cash Cycle Management Solutions" can automate manual cash-handling processes, resulting in greater transparency, better processes and cost reductions that exceed 20 percent.
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