Sales, Marketing & Operations Strategies - Brink's US

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BRINK’S, INCORPORATED tem notes the date and time that it was created, and prints out an 8.5- by-11-inch piece of paper which is essentially a bar-coded deposit slip. The retailer includes it with his normal deposit, and a Brink’s truck will collect it along with its regular pick up. The barcode is scanned back at the Brink’s facility, again noting the amount, date and time, and the money gets processed. “The interesting thing is that we have partner banks that are crediting customer accounts on a same-day basis,” says Purches. “The traditional methodology is that the retailer would get credit for that money the next day—the day after it was picked up.” This system allows them to get credit the same day cash is picked up, and lends a greater degree of transparency to deposits. “They can look at all their stores, see the date and time that a deposit was created, what time they got to the vault, what time they were processed, and if there were any discrepancies,” Purches says. “For example, if the store said there was Industry changes “are creating a lot of opportunities for retailers to save money in the way that they handle cash.” $1,000 but there was really only $500 when we counted it, they would be able to see that pretty quickly.” The procedure essentially gives a retailer a real-time view of his deposit process and immediate red flags in case of discrepancies. “It’s the best of both worlds,” says Purches. “It lends visibility to things, but it also gives them quicker credit.” Brink’s is also doing exciting things with its CompuSafe product, which was originally designed for the convenience store market. “That is an environment with high turnover and high theft rates,” says Purches. “The way they handle cash in the convenience store traditionally is: every time the register gets over ‘X amount,’ say $100, they will take the extra cash and put a paper clip around it with a piece of paper that says, ‘Fred dropped $60,’ and they will put it in a safe. At the end of the day, or the next day, the manager opens up the safe, takes out all of those envelopes, goes in the back room and counts them. The manager spends a lot of time doing that, and there can be complications such as — Fred Purches, svp, strategic solutions and product management
COVER STORY BRINK’S, INCORPORATED discrepancies that can take hours to resolve.” CompuSafe “is essentially a safe with two bill acceptors in it, just like you would find in a vending machine,” Purches explains. “Instead of the paper and the paper clip, the clerk can take the money and simply stick it into one of those bill acceptors.” The acceptors read, count and stack the bills in locked cassettes. Brink’s personnel pick up the money for processing and deposit it in their bank. The contents of the safe are guaranteed. “So essentially as soon as they put that money in their safe they don’t have to worry about it anymore.” A new version, called CompuSafe 4000, serves as a high-volume bill acceptor, taking as many as 150 notes at a time, which are fed in stacks. “It’s the same principle, it just works in a different environment,” says Purches. The unit is designed for supermarkets and other high-volume retailers. CompuSafe 4000 utilizes a heavy-duty safe with an easyto-use touch-screen interface to read and verify 16 bills per second. It interfaces seamlessly with POS and back-office systems to automate the cash-handling process and virtually eliminate exposure to theft and shrinkage. BANKING ON CHANGE Brink’s has also updated the way it works with banks. “Traditionally in a CompuSafe you pick up every other day and the credit for that money will follow the day after we picked up,” says Purches. Some of the banks that are now partnering with Brink’s will credit customer accounts based on the money in the safe at the end of a day. “If you think that through,” he explains, “what you have done is essentially moved the bank into the store. The retailer puts the money in the safe, and at the end of the day that money shows up on their bank statement. Then we come by and we will pick it up, take it back to our facilities and process it. That’s an exciting and interesting product for us.” Yet another new initiative from Brink’s involves a strategic alliance with “a major shipping company,” says Purches. The new service, which is scheduled to be officially launched later this year, will allow Brink’s to ship limited amounts of cash—less than $5,000—through the shipper’s network. Brink’s maintains an operation at the potential partner’s consolidation point. “One of the challenges…is for retailers to justify the cost of an armored transportation service,” says Purches. “This is kind of a middle-of-the-road solution: it is less expensive than an armored car but still allows the retailer the benefit of their store managers not having to travel to the bank and the time and risk associated with doing that.” Also, it allows them to consolidate their banking relationships. They can, Purches notes, “essentially have one bank account at the end of the day, and there is technology that is bundled around that, too: the same kind of concept we talked about with Brink’s iDeposit, where they can see it tracking through that process.” There is, Purches re-emphasizes, “a lot of change going on in the industry right now. We have historically taken the approach that we want to do everything ourselves. One of the things that changed is that we are now recognizing that we can’t do everything. We need to select the first-rate partners that have expertise in different places, and then develop products in conjunction with them. The banks and the shipping company are examples of that, as are the safes. We used to make those ourselves, but now we have manufacturing partners.” Such strategic alliances will almost certainly prove to be the key to addressing still larger changes on the road ahead. (#13958) Reprinted from the March 2007 issue of Retail Supplier. Copyright 2007 Ideal Media. For more information about reprints from Retail Supplier, contact PARS International Corp. at 212-221-9595.
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Sales, Marketing & Operations Strategies - Brink's US

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