Value preservation with subtopics: cost-effectiveness, value creation, and efficiency
Efficiency and value creation in cash logistics – often underestimated
Cash processes cause not only logistical but also economic friction losses. Too much money sits idle in ATMs instead of being in the bank account. Credits are delayed, resulting in a lack of liquidity. ATMs are too often out of service—empty, full, or malfunctioning. At the same time, staff are tied up servicing ATMs instead of focusing on sales. Cost-effectiveness, value preservation, and efficient operations quickly fall out of balance. The result: tied-up capital, lost revenue, and unnecessary effort.
Value preservation, cost-effectiveness & efficiency
ATMs: small devices, big impact. They enable deposits and withdrawals around the clock and often serve as the only physical source of cash in many branch networks. However, when an ATM is empty, full, or out of order, it suddenly becomes worthless to customers. Sales and brand reputation suffer simultaneously. Hidden costs add up as well: ATMs occupy valuable retail space, consume electricity, require video surveillance, and must be secured in vault rooms. Additionally, malfunctions can occur.
A key factor in ensuring cost-effectiveness and value preservation is avoiding outages or incorrect stocking – this is where the first major challenge begins.
Challenges for efficiency and value preservation
Even with optimally planned cash processes, factors can arise that significantly impact cost-effectiveness and value preservation. They lead to unnecessary costs, tie up valuable resources, and increase security risks.
Three key problem areas repeatedly emerge and can be specifically mitigated with the right measures.
1. Idle time due to faulty refills or malfunctions
- Empty: Customers receive no cash and turn to other locations – resulting in lost sales and dissatisfied customers.
- Full: Deposits are no longer possible. Cash must be stored internally—often exceeding the insurable limit. The tied-up funds cannot be credited promptly and create additional workload in the back office.
- Out of order: technical failures cause reputational damage, require urgent technician interventions, and significantly disrupt daily operations.
Solution: An automated cash management system monitors fill levels, sends real-time alerts, and proactively controls refills. Service trips are data-driven rather than following fixed routes. A specialised cash handling team takes care of cash management, first-line technical interventions, and secure value transports. This keeps ATMs maximally available while bank staff can focus on customer advisory instead of cash logistics.
Faulty refills or outages are not the only factors impacting efficiency and cost-effectiveness; the internal handling of cash holdings can also lead to significant costs.
2. Tied-up capital and time-consuming counting processes
- High cash balances tie up liquidity that could otherwise be used for purchasing or marketing.
- Manual counting prolongs the daily closing process, and corrections require extra shifts.
- Manual counting prolongs the daily closing process, and corrections require extra shifts.
Solution: Validating smart safes accept deposits immediately, verify authenticity, and post the amount in real time to the merchant’s account. These devices also serve as deposit safes with access control and a four-eyes protocol. Collection cycles can be extended without compromising supply security, as inventory is continuously monitored remotely.
Even when inventories are optimally secured and recorded, the question remains whether existing personnel are truly deployed where they create the greatest added value.
3. Inefficient staff deployment
- Branch managers or supervisors transport cash themselves — resulting in lost time in core business activities.
- Double staffing for cash register closing increases personnel costs.
- Technical malfunctions at ATMs tie up internal IT and security resources.
Solution: An end-to-end service bundles replenishment, emptying, maintenance, and insurance into a single process. Trained professionals handle transport and first-line troubleshooting, while a central monitoring center fully documents all cash movements. This provides companies with a single point of contact for deposits, collections, and service calls – including guaranteed response times.
When ATMs are operated optimally, inventories managed efficiently, and personnel deployed strategically, a double benefit arises: lower costs and ensured value preservation.
Cost-effectiveness meets value preservation
Data-driven cash management ensures that cash inventories are precisely aligned with demand – enough to maximise payment capability, but not so much that capital lies idle or risks increase. Fewer, but targeted, service trips reduce costs, conserve resources, and extend the lifespan of ATMs. In combination with validating systems, cash transforms from a cost factor into a reliable component of an efficient value chain.
Not only is the collection of cash holdings reliably carried out at the agreed time, but secure storage and immediate deposit into the business account are also ensured through modern on-site tools. In cooperation with market-leading partners, validating systems are used that combine security, transparency, and speed. This transforms cash from a cost factor into a controlled component of an efficient value chain.
