Helen Fletcher discovers the cash handling sector has no choice but to push itself forward when it comes to the quality of the products produced
There can be no doubt that advances in technology have not only improved the efficiency of cash payment systems but the security of them also.
However, for some in the industry, changes in technology can present a double-edged sword as they provide developers with opportunities to explore different ways to validate and discriminate coins and notes but can also make fraud manufacture easier and more detailed.
The result is that technological advances both help and hinder currency handling suppliers - they have to produce ever more complex and advanced validation techniques just to stay ahead of the fraud game.
For MEI’s Mark Greenawalt cash payment systems enhance and improve revenue and profit generation. Bill validators and coin mechanisms can make an operation more successful.
"Today, more than ever, MEI’s value proposition of increased performance through better technology can influence operational decision making," he said. "As a technology driven company we must constantly assess ways of increasing the value our customers receive.
"We recently launched an RFID technology based product to help operators with tracking assets, managing cash boxes, assisting soft-count and improving operational efficiency. Customers are realising the benefits of solutions such as Cashflow SC and Easitrax because the combination of technology generates real value."
Technology has improved the reliability of cash handling systems in numerous ways over the years but for Astrosys International’s Robert Bird, with respect to product design, the greatest assistance that technology has afforded is computer aided design software.
Gone are the days of the drawing board and a pencil and ruler. Now, extremely powerful computers support CAD packages that can design a product from the ground up right to the point of delivering manufacturing instructions to the tooling floor.
"Lengthy design times are now very much reduced with faster review cycles and efficient collaboration between design teams, leading to an output which can undergo virtual prototyping for form and fit testing, leading to rapid SLA modelling and final product approval," said Bird. "The end result is a more efficient product-to-market solution.
"Technology plays a major part in how Astrosys International moves forward with its products. Our job is to provide currency-handling solutions that will efficiently and effectively discriminate coins and notes while at the same time act as a gatekeeper against fraudulent activity. Our R&D experts use electronic developments and modern design tools, as part of their arsenal, to stay ahead of the game.
"As a general observation on technology, the advent of the internet, USB technology, wireless communications, replaceable memory cards and so on, all of which are present in the cash handling sector, bring opportunities to make cash handling more manageable and accountable, since remote access and audit trails become much easier to implement," continued Bird.
"An interesting technological advance for currency hardware manufacturing is electronic miniaturisation, which has seen semi-conductors reducing in size to virtual pinheads and with memory devices, offering vastly increased capability. The combined effect of this is the ability to pack more features and capabilities into smaller devices and deliver very complex but compact solutions."
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It is important, however, that cash payment system providers keep the customer and player in mind when developing these highly complex validation products, while adding value to the product.
"Today, our products are expanding beyond a high-tech peripheral/component device," said Greenawalt. "These products are helping operations do more than increase profits and bill acceptance. For example, Cashflow Sphinx is a counter-top counterfeit detection device that helps the property cage address counterfeit issues at the time money is transferred. It is built on the same security technology found inside the game bill validator."
The responsibility to improve these products lies of course with the payment systems providers and for John McManus of Azkoyen it is essential that the high levels of security are maintained and improved on while at the same time ensuring fast accurate acceptance and payout of coins and notes.
"New technologies for gathering data from the coins and notes are constantly sought to increase and improve on previous methods.
New materials, new techniques of capturing parameters, improved processing power and increased memory capability have all had positive effects on the validation of cash.
"While improved and increased micro processing capability incorporated within the devices has significantly increased the ability to identify true coins and notes and reject the false ones."
Looking ahead, cash handling suppliers will continue the battle against fraud, making gaming machines more and more secure in the process, but for Greenawalt there is more to it than that.
"The future of all good businesses is going to be based on the organisation’s ability to listen to the needs of customers and react and respond to those needs.
"At the same time, we maintain the resolve to improve our knowledge and application of cash, cash handling and cashless systems to maximise the benefit to our customers. Our success will be achieved at the point when technology and customer needs come together."
