We don’t believe in “That’s The Way It’s Always Been Done” – Cash management innovation is necessary.
This mentality permeates many industries. People and companies ignore alternative ideas because we always do things a certain way…the status quo. Nothing stifles innovation faster than a mindset that discourages creativity and stops the quest for constant improvement. The situation is no different in the cash handling industry. Why dedicate engineering and resources to reimagine a machine that has been around for more than half a century?
A Bit Of History
The first ATM was introduced in the U.S on September 2, 1969, at the Chemical Bank in Rockville Centre, New York. These money dispensing machines became widely popular and handled many functions previously performed by human tellers. In the late 80s, ATM manufacturers began designing cash recyclers. Machines that deposit AND dispense cash. They used most of the same components, including cash cassettes. Eventually, cassettes became the industry standard for storing, recycling, and transporting bills in cash machines. A need was created for cash management innovation.
A Fresh Eye for New Solutions
Despite their outward similarities, cash recyclers have a very different purpose than ATMs. They were initially, and still, today, used for internal business use to automate cash handling processes and allow staff to deposit and dispense cash.
CIMA approached the industry with a fresh eye and questioned everything about the process. Our engineers wondered if cash recycling machines even needed cassettes. Cassettes are prone to damage and require time to “de cash” (remove notes, bundle, pack into plastic bags). Cassettes are expensive to replace and can be damaged easily.
CIMA engineers solved this array of problems by eliminating the need for cassettes. Instead of bulky, breakable, and unwieldy cassettes, CIMA engineered several lines of machines to recycle notes on drums or roll storage modules and deposit notes directly into a plastic bag. There are no cassettes to damage and no keys to manage. Bags are also much lighter and easier to handle than cassettes. Roll-based recycling also eliminates the problem of wasted capacity when a business uses only a tiny percentage of a cassette’s total capacity.
Innovate, Don’t Imitate
CIMA’s self-sealing stacking bag technology packs notes in a tight stack. Before removal, the machine heat-seals each bag to prevent tampering. The retailer removes sealed bags and stores them for CIT pickup. When the CIT arrives, they scan the bags, grab them and leave. The notes are never exposed or handled, as with the cassette system. This touch-free system adds a layer of protection against theft and loss. Every bag has a unique barcode so it can be tracked and traced as needed.
CIMA’s stacked bags are also much faster to process. A recent study at a CIT depot compared the processing time of 3,000 notes from CIMA bags versus standard cassettes. The CIMA bag took less than half the time to process.
The unique stacking bag technology is available across a range of smart safes and cash recyclers with capacities ranging from 1,200 to 4,000 notes per bag.
Innovation Across Industries
CIMA’s experience across various industries has shown us many of these “we have always done it that way” situations. Questioning everything drives new ideas, new products, and innovation. CIMA’s customer-centric approach focuses on solving problems whether they are industry-specific or situation-specific:
- Retail
- Banking
- Gaming / Hospitality
Don’t settle for what your cash management provider offers. Ask questions and challenge the status quo.
