Sales, Marketing & Operations Strategies - Brink's US

More documents

Recommendations

Info

COVER STORY Keep On Armored Truckin’ Brink’s, Incorporated is bringing new services to retailers that bring the bank closer to the store. Top management at Brink’s, Incorporated is focusing not at the company’s last 150 years but its next 150, with ground-breaking initiatives that include cuttingedge technologies and precedent-shattering partnerships. A subsidiary of The Brink’s Company, Brink’s, Incorporated is a global leader in business and security services, delivering customized secure logistics solutions to help companies manage their cash supply chain. Brink’s offers transportation, secure currency and coin processing, inventory management, document destruction and cash management solutions. The firm, headquartered in the U.S. in Coppell, TX, also markets a full range of secure logistics solutions and technologies, including cash processing, ATM services, web information tools, cash in transit and the Brink’s CompuSafe ® Family of Services. Brink’s is the largest armored car company in the U.S., operating over 250 branches and 2,300 armored vehicles across the nation. It is also the largest provider of coin-processing services. Since Brink’s retail solutions combine secure transportation with cash management services, they can provide retailers with accelerated funds availability, streamlined operational processes, and visibility and control over cash handling. PAST AND FUTURE The company has a rich heritage of innovation: • It introduced its CompuSafe Service in 1998 as the industry’s first closed-loop cash management system for cashintensive retail businesses. CompuSafe is a cash-handling solution that takes cash out of retailers’ hands. Cashiers simply insert currency into one of the Brink’s CompuSafe intelligent safes, where it is securely stored until a Brink’s armed guard or armored truck picks it up and takes it to a Brink’s vault facility for processing and deposit. The service limits the amount of cash in registers, as well as on-site counting and recounting of cash. • In 2004, Brink’s pioneered The Brink’s iCash system, a
sophisticated cash vault processing system based on central database technology. • Brink’s iDeposit, a webbased deposit-creation and tracking tool, eliminates manual deposit preparation and paper tickets for improved productivity, efficiency, and accuracy. The system combines armored transportation with technology-based information tools to create a cash management solution that increases efficiencies, expedites funds availability and improves cash flow. Users simply input deposit amounts by denomination, print the automatically generated deposit ticket, and seal the ticket inside a tamper-evident bag along with the cash. The system can be accessed from any phone or Internet-enabled computer, with no software to install or buy. A TIME OF CHANGE The past year was a “very good” one for Brink’s, Incorporated, says Fred Purches, the company’s senior vice president for strategic solutions and product management. It was also a time of continued change. “There are a lot of changes going on in the industry, and I’m referring to the industry that typically handles retailers’ cash,” he notes. Those changes involve banks, armored car companies and checks. Together, says Purches, they “are creating a lot of opportunities for retailers to save money in the way that they handle cash.” “One of the things that is happening, and which retailers have begun taking good advantage of, is that banks are starting to expand their footprint through so-called virtual vaults,” says Purches. The term “virtual vault” is actually a bit of a misnomer. Banks traditionally operate their own cash vaults. With “virtual vaults” they establish relationships with armored carriers to run vaults for them outside of their normal footprint. This is important to retailers because it allows them to consolidate their banking relationships. Larger retailers operating across several regions may maintain as many as 250 or 300 banking relationships because they use whichever bank is located closest to their outlets. The growth of virtual vaults allows them to consolidate that number down to as few as five—or fewer—relationships. Another trend that continued to evolve throughout 2006, Purches says, involves the way checks are handled. Legislation passed in 2005 allows checks to be imaged. “Some of the benefits of that also started to make themselves available to retailers during 2006,” says Purches, “and that will continue in 2007.” TECHNOLOGY AND PARTNERSHIPS Brink’s strategy this year is to use technology—and to develop partnerships with other suppliers—that can help to make cash- and check-handling more efficient. For one thing, armored car carriers in general, and Brink’s in particular, are developing partnerships with banks. “In the past, you would have armored carrier selling you transportation and the bank selling you depository services or bank accounts,” Purches says. “Now you have armored carriers and banks coming together in selling better solutions.” One of them, unique to Brink’s, is the Brink’s iDeposit, which he describes as “essentially an online deposit ticket.” Store managers use it like this: a store logs into Brink’s computer system and fills out a deposit slip: how many singles, fives, tens, etc. When they submit that deposit slip, the sys-
Page 1: Sales, Marketing & Operations Strat
Page 5: COVER STORY BRINK’S, INCORPORATED

Sales, Marketing & Operations Strategies - Brink's US

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?