Fifteen years of inspiration and innovation have brought planfocus significant success and the role as the global leader in software innovation for cash cycle optimization. This crystal anniversary deserves celebration; celebration by both the planfocus team and our customers and partners. There are now over 50,000 cash points live with planfocus leading-edge replenishment optimization, keeping the public happy with their ready access to cash, and keeping the banks delighted with the highly cost-efficient operation of those ATMs, Cash Recyclers, bank and retail branches. This is all using planfocus’ highly effective Cash Cycle Optimizer solution CCO® now in over 15 countries, growing globally with prevailing success and increasing speed.
Planfocus CCO® specialises in the smooth and cost-efficient management of cash, one of life’s essentials. Whilst we now have vast choice in the ways we make our payments, cash is still used and respected around the world. Despite all of the competition to be the star performer in our purses and wallets, it is cash that still accounts for around 85% of global consumer transactions[1]. Furthermore, 76% of the central banks surveyed as part of the 2018 Global Cash Survey[2] expected cash to be an important payment method until 2038 and beyond.
Cash is real, private, immediate, trusted and easy to use for all. In addition, it acts as an important backup in cases of automated system failures, and is vital in the provision of financial inclusion around the world.
Over time, technology has stepped in to make access to cash fast and geographically widespread. ATMs have been a popular tool in our daily lives for fifty years now, and changes have made them speedier, safer and more environmentally friendly, with the cash we deposit often being verified and recycled by the machines themselves. We can obtain our cash from the machines using bank cards, of course, and now also by using phones, one-off codes and even fingerprints and facial recognition.
All of these welcome developments require the banks and other ATM operators to be ever smarter in their management of the cash cycle – from ordering and storing, through counting, checking and distribution, to monitoring, collecting and recycling. Without intelligent software, the costs of this complex cycle run high for the banks, and the public’s need for cash is all too often foiled by empty machines.
With over 50,000 cashpoints live and hundreds of billions Euros in physical cash shipments controlled by CCO® every year, the cash cycle around the world has become faster, more efficient and lower cost. Planfocus will continue to work with its partners and customers to calculate the forthcoming Return on Investment of implementing CCO®. A reduced number of cash replenishment visits, reduced cash inventories, use of cash recycling, and an increase in cash availability and therefore transaction volumes, all add up to a significantly increased profit margin.
Fifteen-year anniversary or not, there is no crystal ball required to predict the continued growth of planfocus and its customers, as well as the associated improvement of cash accessibility for the public and small businesses.  Â
References:
- Measuring progress toward a cashless society / Hugh Thomas, Mastercard Advisors.  https://newsroom.mastercard.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/MasterCardAdvisors-CashlessSociety-July-20146.pdf
- Global cash survey 2018 / Vaultex  https://vaultexuk.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Vaultex-Global-Cash-Survey-2018.pdf
