Economically speaking, the merger of the two companies seems to make sense, because the connection brings APG new capacity for production and sales in Europe while Cash Bases gains new sales potential for their products on the North American market. Both companies were previously more concentrated on their traditional markets and took a similar market position there. Through the merger both now get the opportunity to work together to act globally.
Intelligent Cash Management for North America
But perhaps the most important aspect of the merger between APG and Cash Bases is the cash handling solution SMARTtill, which was developed by Cash Bases. The intelligent system is based on a cash drawer and was designed to enable retailers to constantly monitor the cash transactions at all so-equipped POS, thus ensuring change availability and providing the market management with timely information when cash holdings reach certain minimum or maximum amounts. Up till now, APG did not have a similarly comprehensive solution in their portfolio while Cash Bases in turn was not able to distribute SMARTtill in North America on a broad level.
As with any automated cash management solution SMARTtill is intended to realize possible efficiency gains as employees are relieved from manual cash handling. According to the company, the main advantage of the solution, however, lies with the potential savings from the constant monitoring, which should be only 20% compared with similar solutions. Additionally, due to the continuous cash management, the ideal cash holdings are identified, allowing the back office to improve the timing and frequency of top ups.
Joint development of new products
In addition to worldwide sales of existing products, the merger also aims at working together to create new cash handling solutions. Cash Bases CEO Philip Stone therefore sees the merger of the companies primarily as a strategic opportunity for the worldwide distribution and as a way to open up new product development potentials. "The technologies of the two companies complement each other perfectly", says APG CEO Mark Olson, who will lead the merged firm and is convinced of the mutual benefits.
Responding to changes in dealing with cash
The merger therefore seems to be a step in the right direction, which in any case will bring benefits for both the parties as well as their clients from the retail industry. But it still remains to be seen to what extent the intended potential can actually be realized.
Author: Daniel Stöter, iXtenso.com
