ITL’s Sales Director, Mustapha Hadj-Ahmed, celebrated an impressive 25 years at the company this month. Based at the company’s Spanish office in Barcelona, Mustapha has been an integral part of ITL’s success and expansion across Europe and South America.

Commenting on his 25-year milestone, Mustapha said, “I joined ITL in 1996 and created the Spanish office in Barcelona. At the time Innovative only had a UK office and were looking to expand their cash handling offering into Europe. It’s been a great privilege to lead the Spanish arm of ITL, setting up the office and building a great team to support our customers. One of my proudest achievements comes from our Spanish gaming customers, where we took a huge chunk of the market with our products in the early days, and we have maintained this market share for the past 2 decades.”

“More recently we switched our attention to new markets and developed products for the retail industry. This opportunity has allowed us to take on a new business development manager to work with retail customer across South America, an area I am still very much involved with and keen to continue to grow. Throughout the years I’ve travelled the world for work, including Brazil, Latin America, Europe and USA. I really enjoy meeting our customers and learning about their cultures. This is an exciting time for ITL, and I look forward to being part of the family for many more years to come.”

ITL Chairman, David Bellis MBE, concluded, “I would like to congratulate Mustapha and thank him for the outstanding level of commitment and service he has given to the organisation.  As well as being a key part of our international growth and establishing the Spanish office, under Mustapha’s guidance we have increased sales and our market share significantly. Based on his impressive sales record, Mustapha was invited to join the Board of Directors in 2001 where he remains an influential part of our Board to this day.”

Innovative Technology (ITL) have recently recruited Augusto de Andrade as Business Development Manager to assist with expanding its cash validation and facial recognition offerings throughout Brazil and other emerging regions within South America.  Augusto will be responsible exclusively for ITL’s retail, kiosk and banking (RKB) customers.

Welcoming Augusto to the organisation, Mustapha Hadj-Ahmed, ITL Sales Director said, “Augusto will be involved in a wide range of sales activities, from formulating and executing a sales and business strategy targeted at his dedicated territory, identifying sales opportunities, generating and following up leads, visiting existing and new customers to secure additional business, grow our customer base and increase market share in the region. He will also support and offer technical assistance to local trading partners and attend trade shows and exhibitions around South America. Augusto will be working closely with Fernando, our local General Manager in Brazil, who has been with ITL for a long time, and is therefore ideally placed to give him the best possible introduction.”

Commenting on his new role, Augusto said, “I am looking forward to helping the customer base in my region and expanding our market share, initially in Brazil and then the rest of South America. I have over 6 years’ experience, 4 of which was in a technical sales role in the engineering industry. Also, I have worked with the Brazilian, European, North and Latin American markets applying both technical and sales skills. I am excited to bring this experience to ITL to truly understand customers’ needs to ensure they achieve the best possible solution for their projects. I am eager to start interacting with the existing and new customer base to map their needs and fulfil their expectations.”

Concluding Mustapha said, “Using his established technical expertise and sales capabilities, I am looking forward to seeing Augusto focus his efforts on our retail clients to make their success our business. I am excited to see how our business in Brazil and South America will develop in this ever-changing and growing region.”

Despite many retailers urging customers to pay with cards instead of cash, the coronavirus pandemic has not decreased the number of coins in circulation worldwide, for example across the United States in 2019, there were 47.4 billion coins in circulation, and in 2021 there is 47.8 billion. (Source: Marketplace). This seems to be the trend in Europe too whereasof July 2021, there are approximately 139 billion coins in circulation around the eurozone compared to 136 billion in July 2020. (Source: ECB).

As the amount of cash in circulation continues to climb, as a global provider, giving our customers payment choice is more important than ever. Cash needs to co-exist alongside alternative forms of payment to ensure inclusivity, diversity and fairness, as well as giving protection of privacy.

A recent G4S World Cash Report highlights that wherever people are in the world, they value a range of payment options. There is no region where everyone chooses the same way to pay, and despite the rise of electronic and mobile payments, cash remains hugely important all over the world. (Source: G4S).

With over 70% of payments made in cash, Romania has been revealed as the country most reliant on physical cash. Nearly half (42%) of the Eastern European country population do not have a bank account showing that many of the citizens still use notes and coins. At the other end of the scale in terms of technology penetration, Japan also prefers cash, with 59 percent of POS payments using it, compared to just 30 percent using credit card and three percent debit card despite the long-term push encouraging people towards cashless options (Source: Merchant Machine). There is even one country – Panama – where the Panamanian Balboa, Panama's national currency, is only issued in coinform!(Source: Investopedia).

With cash on the rise and a cashless society a long way from reality, Operators and Retailersneed to ensure they have the right systems in place to manage the validation of cash payments (both notes and coins) within their organisation.  

Coin handling products are designed to help customers handle large volumes of loose coins in an efficient, secure, reliable and organised manner. We offer cost-effective hoppers and recyclers to automate the counting, sorting, transport and re-use of coins to save time, resources and capital for our customers.  Our coin solutions are utilised in a variety of sectors including gaming, amusement, vending, kiosks, retail, transport and parking throughout Europe, US, and Asia.

Historically, coin handling devices utilised a number of separate hoppers, only able to store a single denomination.  This was expensive and time consuming and a large physical space was needed to site numerous coin hoppers inside machines. We worked with our customers to design and develop the SMART Hopper, an affordable mixed coin hopper capable of recycling all coin denominations to therefore eliminate coin starvation and keep machines running.  The hopper boasts a market leading mixed coin capacity and removes the need for multiple hoppers, maximising cash efficiency. With the SMART Hopper there is no need to separate coins as it automatically discriminates and stores mixed coins which successfullyreduces the cost of handling coins internally, removing the need for multiple hoppers & sorters.

Speed is key for efficient coin handling hoppers and recyclers – the SMART Hopper operates at an industry leading 12 coins per second making this solution a true multi-coin payout unit capable of accepting all coins passing through the coin mechanism.

To further improve our coin handling offering, using the same technology, we developed the SMART Coin System (SCS) with the primary aim to enable bulk and single coin inserts for our customers. The SCS is a bulk coin validator, mixed coin hopper and recycler in one which validates, discriminates, and stores mixed coins, successfully handling different denominations from small to large.   With a large capacity of 1400 coins (based on €1 coins), customers have reported significant machine uptime improvements with less coins required for floats which in turn gives considerable float management cost savings. Fully audited in a closed loop system, efficient bulk, mixed coin refills and a 12 coins per second acceptance and payout speed dramatically reduces refill and collection costs to improve cashflow.  Where you have a typical 25-minute machine refill is down to just 5 minutes according to our customers! Using multi frequency sensing technology, the unit also guarantees a high level of security.

Another key adjustment we made to traditional coin handling when developing the SMART Coin System was to shorten the route that coins need to travel between coin entry and exit which frees up valuable space inside the machine.

Our next coin handling innovation, the Twin SMART Coin System, doubles both the coin capacity to a maximum of EUR 2800 and the speed (up to 24 coins per second) of the SMART Coin System.  It is designed specifically to meet the needs of high-volume markets including retail and change machines.  It combines a bulk coin feeder & validator with two mixed coin hoppers & recyclers in one single unit, eliminating the need for multiple coin payout devices.

Despite the rise in cashless payments, for many industries, cash is here to stay.  Many countries still rely heavily on cash and being a global provider of cash validation equipment, we need to ensure our products are relevant to the needs of each customer, wherever they are in the world.  

At ITL, we understand that not one product fits all, so we can offer further hardware variations across the entire coin product range. With different hardware variations available we can help our customers improve the accuracy of specific currency depending on coin dimensions. Coinhoppers and recyclers need to deliver industry-leading reliability, high capacity, flexible designs and fast pay in and out speeds. Take a look at our range to find out more: https://bit.ly/3gsIQZM

SOURCES:

https://www.marketplace.org/2020/07/22/where-did-all-the-coins-go/

https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/policy_and_exchange_rates/banknotes+coins/circulation/html/index.en.html

https://www.g4scashreport.com/

https://merchantmachine.co.uk/most-reliant-on-cash/

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/forex/p/pab-panama-balboa.asp

Check out this and our other blogs here

Innovative Technology have announced that one of their long-standing technical support personnel is celebrating 15 years’ service with the company this month.  Mirko Zwing is based in ITL’s German office in Pinneberg and has been given a series of promotions over the years.

Commenting on this long-standing achievement Mirko said, “I first joined ITL in 2006 as a Repairs Technician, just as the original NV10 was released. Soon after I started at ITL, the company began to release many new products and I was responsible for providing customer training for the BV range of validators. I gradually moved from my repairs role to being appointed the first, dedicated Customer Support Engineer in Germany in 2009. The German support team later merged with UK Support where I enjoyed being part of a bigger team and soon took the role of Lead Customer Support Engineer.  Then in March 2020 I was delighted to be given the opportunity to take on more of a management role as Customer Support Manager, heading up the UK & Europe Technical Support teams for gaming customers plus responsible for support in Spain, South America, Asia & Oceania for both gaming and retail clients.”

Speaking about Mirko’s commitment to ITL, VP for Customer Support Andy Bassam said “Mirko is a valued member of the support team who has had a number of successful promotions at ITL over the years. His product knowledge, technical skills and management abilities are exceptional, and he is a vital member of my team. He has been crucial in providing technical support and training to customers for our new Spectral products, ensuring they have access to the support they need to make sure they get the best from these latest technologies in order to add value to their businesses.”

Commenting on Mirko’s achievement, Marcus Tiedt, Sales & Marketing Director for ITL, also based at ITL Germany said, “I am proud to say that I have worked with Mirko throughout his career with us and he is a key part of the ITL family here at the German office. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Mirko on his impressive time at ITL, his commitment to the company and the excellent job he is doing managing a large team of first-line technical support advisors and technical engineers to ensure first class customer support is given to each of our customers.”

Concluding Mirko commented, “One of the favourite parts of my role is being able to travel to provide direct technical support and undertake installations for our customers all over the world. I have missed not being able to do this during the COVID pandemic and so I can’t wait to restart my customer visits, and to coach ITL support advisors and engineers in person. I have been fully committed to ensuring our customers receive first-class technical support for the past 15 years and I look forward to continuing this for many years to come.”

Innovative Technology are preparing to showcase their latest innovations at the 7th edition of Paris Retail Week on 28-30 September 2021 in the Pavilion 7.2 of the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles exhibition centre.

Paris Retail Week, Europe's biggest meeting for all the retailing ecosystem, is dedicated to sharing knowledge, experiences, and best practices. The event attracts 600+ exhibitors and 25,000+ decision-makers over 3 days. It is a welcome kick start to the events industry after a series of postponements due to COVID.

Newly appointed Business Development Manager for the region, Stephan Rosseneu said, “This is the first time ITL have exhibited at Paris Retail Week, and we are looking forward to the opportunities this will bring in this vibrant, expanding sector. I only joined ITL a few months back, so this event comes at an ideal time, giving me the opportunity to meet new and existing customers.”

Stephan continued, “We will be showing some exciting new products on booth number S041 including our biometric solutions, ICU Intelligent Identification. ICU Pro performs world leading accurate age verification & facial recognition-based functions to control access to entry points and premises. The more compact ICU Lite is used at machine level to ensure retailers prevent children accessing age restricted goods, with no internet connection necessaryand no reoccurring costs. We will also debut CashGenic our cash automation system in this region.  This affordable solution is available from strategic partners enabling customers wanting to pay by cash to do so safely and hygienically. The compact, all-in-one counter-top device gives easy customer access, with pay-in and pay-out managed by staff via a mobile tablet device. Customers across Europe have already reported valuable time and cost savings, and more importantly - an uptake in cash payments.”

Concluding, Thorsten Labusch, VP of Sales & Business Development said, “The NV200 Spectral range will also be on the stand for customers to demo. This highly secure and technologically advanced banknote validator ensures efficient cash processing, and its’ modular design feature allows retail customers to easily add additional functionality such as note recycling (Spectral Payout) or bunch note feeding (Spectral BNF).  We look forward to welcoming visitors to our stand S041 in Paris to illustrate how we can assist with cash handling needs tointelligently manage transactions and verify people to create endless opportunities for the retail industry.”