Much technological innovation is not about doing new things, rather it's about doing the same things better. I don't know about you, but I can't resist a second hand book shop (no this isn't about the rise of the kindle and its implications for the industry, we'll save that for another day). On a recent trawl around some Edinburgh shops I came across a 1950s volume, 'The Olympic Games Book’ by Harold Abrahams, that listed results from each Olympic Games, starting with the 1896 event in Athens. What was fascinating for an avid sports fan was not just the unusual events that featured in the early formats of the games (standing jump, tug of war), but also how performance standards have changed radically in athletics events. I looked back at my school sports results and briefly considered the possibility that I was born at the wrong time as I would have been quite competitive in 1896!
The truth is, of course that long before the general adoption of professionalism, athletics and thereby performance was evolving in a number of ways, including equipment (running shoes, fibre glass poles), training methods, track design (no more cinders) and, of course, diet. That's what makes comparisons so difficult. My Olympics book is more a record of how sport has evolved rather a ranking of individual athletes' abilities.
The same can be true in industry. In some instances, the things we must do to run a profitable business remain the same, but developments in technology enable us to do them better. In payments, as in sport new methods (or individual events) have evolved but some more traditional events remain a key element of the 'games'. Your ability to engage with and process new payment methods is important. But you must not do this at the expense of more traditional cash payments if your overall goal is to maximise profitability.
Cash remains in robust health and cannot be ignored. In the UK, for example, in 2017 there were 13.1 billion payments and there will still be over 6 billion payments in 2027.
If we look back, the processing of cash payments has been a labour intensive, time consuming and costly process. New technologies mean there are now quicker and more cost-effective ways of doing things. The standard has been raised. It is now possible to keep cash moving through your business. To gain maximum benefit from the use of cash retailers must be able to move cash from the customer's pocket to their own bank accounts as quickly, efficiently and securely as possible.
Smart cash management with GLORY can help optimise your retail cash chain. You can optimise the way you handle and manage cash to reduce risks and costs and increase profit - and the time to act is now.
To return to our analogy, in what era would you be competitive? Are you up there with the best or are you a 'champion' from a different era?
As a footnote, at the first modern Olympics in 1896 the 100 metres was won by T E Burke of the US in 12.0 seconds. The Pole Vault was won by another US athlete, W W Hoyt, with a leap of 3.30 metres.
