The turbulent times in today's economy have affected banks more than any other industry.
Interest rates during the last few years have gone up and down and the industry is holding its breath during each Fed meeting to see where the rate goes next. The ever rising cost of fuel, causing an ever rising cost of cash delivery, is an additional hurdle that banks are now facing. Such fluctuations make it impossible, without proper automation and mathematics, to successfully run the cash supply at any bank.
Transoft's latest release of its cash management application, OptiCash, has been expanded to account for these variations in cost optimization and resulting cash distribution. "Unless you supply your network based first on availability and second on total cost, your bank will have a hard time competing in today's environment. The bottom-line is more important than ever to banks and we are seeing a surge in inquiries around our new systems," says Bo H. Holmgreen, President & CEO of Transoft International, Inc.
Operating on six continents, Transoft has seen many different business environments and OptiCash is designed to handle all. As labor costs and fuel prices skyrocket, and interest rates fluctuate, every day there are huge decisions to be made that directly impact competitiveness. No bank should leave this to coincidence, but should use the latest mathematical technologies to optimize costs whilst addressing the niche-specific issues such as interchangeability of denominations, carrier schedules, exception handling and other complications arising from a challenging supply chain. "Banks still focusing on just forecasting and cash reduction miss out on huge savings each month. By constantly balancing all cost components, OptiCash can - as the only system in the world - reduce overall cost by drastic measures, far outpacing the low-hanging fruits captured by simpler approaches", adds Edgar Rojas, Vice President of Products at Transoft.
"When Bernanke decides to raise or lower the Fed rates, the banks must adjust their cash supplies according to the new cost structure, but most don't. If carriers add gas surcharges, the balance may tip the other way. When Mother's Day or a local event comes around, the new structure may require a different approach. All of this should be automatic and optimized by software, especially with the size of networks most banks now run. The savings runs in millions for many banks and cannot be ignored in today's volatile environment," adds Bo Holmgreen. "With the recent changes in cross- shipping and Custodial Inventories, US banks have been offered a great opportunity for further savings, whether or not their vaults are outsourced. A major implementation at Wachovia Bank last year put the bank at the forefront of these opportunities. Similarly, results at Banamex, AVVillas and Produbanco have shown great results across Latin America. This new wave of cash management is different and we are happy to see it in the US, as Transoft has been helping banks internationally with this for sixteen years."
Edgar Rojas continues: "While IT investment budgets are being scrutinized now, the cost of establishing good cash cost-optimization can easily be justified. Most of our customers have seen Return on Investment within a few months and after that it is all big savings every year. We even work with some banks on a 'pay out of achieved savings' scheme as we are very confident we can reduce their overall cost, no matter what they are using today. We have been doing this for 16 years and new technologies are incorporated all the time into our applications, allowing us to do even better than we did a few years ago. This is definitely an exciting time in currency management around the world."