Industrywide, it’s estimated that between 95 and 99% of all cannabis-related transactions are carried out in cash. There isn’t one reason why this is the case, rather it’s a trifecta of causes – legal, financial, and social. Until all three of those are relaxed, cash volumes will continue to pour into the cannabis space. This session is designed to share insights into how the industry can benefit from the idea of “cash automation,” or leveraging technology to better manage, count, and store cash as well as improve security and compliance while reducing the risk associated with handling cash.
A cash automation strategy ensures cash is secure and accounted for providing insights for back-office operations reducing risk, losses due to human error or theft while verifying procedural compliance at every location. The goal is to eliminate manual processes to streamline cash operations. Leveraging technology reduces time counting and recounting by over 70%, while informing operational decisions like how much cash should be kept in a recycler on any given day and when armored transport is needed. A cash automation strategy enables owners, managers and financial resources to identify how much cash should be on-site in a store or dispensary.
Shawn Kruger, SVP Product and Strategy, Avivatech
Shawn Kruger is the Senior Vice President of product and strategy at Avivatech. With more than 35 years of experience in the real estate, payments and fintech industries, Kruger’s knowledge runs deep on topics related to: cash and check payments automation, financial services operations, business development of partner relationships, strategic management consulting, product management, product marketing, user experience design, corporate strategy, and sales for new and existing product lines. Today, Kruger leads product and market strategy, implementation and execution at Avivatech. Primarily, she is responsible for the overall product roadmaps with direct oversight of product management and ownership of all new solutions across banking and retail market segments as well as executing go-to-market strategies, growing strategic relationships across key suppliers, partners, and customers and overseeing market research. Prior to joining Avivatech, Kruger’s experience in cash automation solutions expands across the manufacturing, vault operations and logistics sectors, encompassing sales, marketing, as well as operations and product management. Kruger began her career at Bank One, where she was Operations Officer for more than a decade. She held the position of Strategic Management Consultant at Brink’s Inc. where she spearheaded the development lifecycle securing cash logistics, armored transportation and ATM services. Most recently, Kruger lead global business strategy initiatives and execution oversight at ARCA Worldwide where she was instrumental in the design and execution of cash management automation solutions as well as cash vault products and services including deposit verification, smart safe provisional credit, order prep, deposit and account reconciliation and check imaging.