Benchmark Technology Group is pleased to announce that the CIMA AST9000 is now certified with Benchmark’s CashWare software. The AST9000 is the latest and most advanced cash recycler in the CIMA lineup of financial cash recyclers. The AST9000 will join the 7000 and 7016 cash recyclers certified for full functionality support with CashWare.
Benchmark would like to thank the CIMA team for their continued partnership and support for their efforts in collaboration with the certification of CashWare for CIMA’s AST9000.
 
About CIMA
CIMA Cash Handling America Inc. is the wholly owned US subsidiary of CIMA SpA. (Italy). CIMA is a global manufacturer of cash handling solutions that help businesses significantly reduce the cost of managing cash. We supply a broad range of smart safes, back office / front of store recycling systems and software to businesses across Banking / Financial Institutions, Retail, Hospitality and Gaming.
 
About Benchmark
For over 30 years, Benchmark has assisted banks in migrating to new technologies and business models to offer the consumer best-in-class service and convenience. Benchmark has expertise in branch cash handling solutions and is among the largest check scanner resellers in the United States. To learn more about Benchmark’s commitment to branch automation, please visit www.benchmarktechnologygroup.com. 

These are unprecedented times, and we want you to know that our thoughts are with all of you and your families.
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Benchmark Technology Group is actively monitoring the development of the Coranavirus, specifically COVID-19, and the guidance being provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO) and local governance. We are taking steps to ensure the health and well-being of our employees and their families while maintaining a pulse on the ongoing and evolving needs of our customers.
 
With that in mind, we’re providing you this update regarding the actions Benchmark has taken.

Working from Home:
To further protect our employees and their families from potentially spreading COVID-19, Benchmark has a “work from home” plan to be observed as needed. The plan has been developed to provide minimal disruption to day-to-day operations and maintain operations to service your needs. As part of this plan, we are managing a flexible work staff to support all our functions while accommodating our employees as best as possible. Our mission critical internal systems are cloud based providing access to authorized employees from anywhere at any time and our "Voice Over IP" phone systems give our employees local extension capabilities from anywhere in the world. This technology allows us to seamlessly offer working from home, a key objective in our Business Recovery Plan.
 
Product Availability:
In February, we published a notice indicating COVID-19 might have an impact on the supply chain. Benchmark has extensive relationships with a key vendors, and we continue to work closely with them purchasing additional inventory when available to fulfill forecasted demand. As the situation continues to evolve, we will maintain communications with our vendors to assess any potential impact on our customer orders. Based on known demand, today we have inventory on-hand for all key lines of business, new and refurbished equipment. However, vendors cannot guarantee availability in this global supply chain due to no previous precedent for social and consumer behavior in this kind of a pandemic. Benchmark will work with our customers to quickly secure product when authorized and when available. We will update you in the event we anticipate any disruptions.
 
Restricted Travel:
As a precaution, Benchmark has restricted all non-essential travel for all our employees. Our staff will continue supporting projects and providing remote support. Remote deposit software installations are not affected by travel restriction or our “working from home” program.
  
We want you to know that Benchmark is financially sound and operationally capable of supporting you during these challenging times, and we are confident in our ability to weather this storm. Thanks to our employees, Benchmark has a long standing reputation for being flexible, innovative and results oriented, and we will be responsive to this evolving situation and ask that we maintain communications between our organizations to be sure your needs can be fulfilled as expected.
 
Thank you for your loyalty and continued confidence and in Benchmark Technology Group!

Benchmark Technology Group was recently selected as a Top 10 Banking Tech Solution Provider of 2019 by MyTechMag. This honor earned Benchmark the cover feature for the March 2019 Banking Edition of the magazine. We are proud of the entire BTG team for helping contribute to this achievement!

MyTechMag's March 2019 Banking edition can be viewed here: 
https://www.mytechmag.com/magazine/2019/march/banking-edition/

Benchmark celebrated 33 years in business today, September 13, 2018! Thank you to all of our customers and employees for a wonderful 33 years of working together!

Benchmark was founded on September 13, 1985 by Don Barnes. Benchmark opened its doors in Roswell, GA to banks of all sizes. In the early years, Benchmark provided proprietary banking equipment systems to banks. Back then, Benchmark provided refurbished equipment only, such as Bunker Ramo, IBM and ISC banking systems.

In 1996, Benchmark branched into more product offerings that we still offer today, such as the project services and software development divisions, repair services and additional bank branch equipment. In the early 2000s, PCs became more prevalent in branches which changed the peripherals offered. Benchmark opened multiple depot centers in the northeast to accommodate repairs and specialized projects in the area.

In 2003, check scanner opportunities boomed after the Check 21 Act was passed in 2002. Benchmark worked with multiple banks and manufacturers to develop and release the first RDC check scanner fulfillment program in 2006. Within 3 years of the fulfillment program launching, Benchmark shipped over 30,000 scanners to fulfillment customers. At this time, Benchmark branched into the new equipment market - adding to the refurbished market we were already in.

After recognizing an increased demand for cash recycler technology in the new branch environments, Benchmark developed the middleware solution CashWare in 2009. CashWare was developed to meet the need for software that would allow financial institutions to install any cash recyclers without having to change their teller applications. Since then, CashWare has been recognized by the manufacturers as a leading middleware product, and cash recycler manufacturers send us their latest technology to be CashWare certified.
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Benchmark's products, services and software solutions are always changing to accommodate the changing technology landscape in financial institutions. Benchmark has expanded its facility four times throughout the years - always increasing in size and allowing for more employees. We have been growing since 1985 and can't wait to see what the next 33 years looks like. When asked about working with Benchmark since the beginning, SVP of Technical Services Tim Stobbe said, "Over the years, we've continually adapted to changes in technology and to the needs of our customers. Every day is different, and there's never been a dull moment."

Benchmark is moving to a new ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system early fall of 2017 (for more info please visit read our official announcement released last month here). With this new enhancement, we will be offering an eCommerce site for you and your customers to order things online at your convenience.

This new eCommerce site will allow for you to view your custom product catalogs, as well as review past orders, invoices and more. All products will be a button push away from being sent to your door!

For our TraxIt users, TraxIt will be replaced with this new site. We will offer training on this new system and make sure everything is running smoothly before the conversion. You will continue to have access to TraxIt after our conversion to view past order history. We are in the process right now of looking for a few beta users to test the new system before it goes live for everyone. If you are interested in helping us make this new product successful, please email your account representative. 

As we progress through this planning phase, we will be contacting our TraxIt customers to schedule training sessions that will likely occur in August/September.

​If you have any questions about this upcoming upgrade, please feel free to contact Benchmark for more information.

In order to provide you with better, faster and more convenient services, Benchmark is investing in a new ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system that is scheduled to be implemented by September 1, 2017. 

We’ve evaluated a number of the leading systems used in our industry and have selected a web-based solution that is hosted by the provider. This means you will have 24/7 access to the system to place orders, initiate repairs, check on status of orders, view your order history and even have a optional custom e-commerce site that only includes your approved items.

This new system will streamline many of our processes and will enable a paperless end-to-end environment. We hope that you find this transition beneficial, and we look forward to offering you continued customer satisfaction. If you have any questions or suggestions regarding this transition, please call us 470-865-6000 or email [email protected]. Be sure to check back  next month for additional details in our monthly ERP updates.