When people visit the secure transaction processing centers at Garda Cash Logistics, some see the sheer volume of currency that fills the room. Others are awed by the massive high-speed cash processing equipment capable of processing 64,000 banknotes per hour.

 

Jeralyn (Jeri) Kendall, the new Director of Operations for Garda’s Secure Transaction Processing Services, sees something different and deeper. Amid the stacks of currency and the powerful hum of the equipment, she sees a workflow process, an orderly and methodical process that, when fine-tuned, ensures that Garda’s Secure Transaction Processing  Centers operate at peak performance.

 

Just weeks in her new position, Jeri is focused on completing an in-depth review of Garda’s nation-wide network of 165 Secure Transaction Processing Centers, making note of operational changes that can be implemented quickly to bring immediate results, while a more comprehensive operational plan is completed. A veteran of the Walt Disney Company, she possesses the imagination to see, not only where they are today but where they need to be in the future.

 

“Currency is a dirty business,” she states matter-of-factly, “there is a lot of it and it takes a lot of effort to process it efficiently.  Success requires our Secure Transaction Processing Centers to be clean, neat and orderly at all times – like a hospital. The workflow in and out of the vaults needs to be controlled and efficient. How the teller stations are organized and managed is important. You touch something once to complete a task. Consistency, along with strong security and cleanliness, are the keys to success.”

 

Jeri is focused on the Garda secure transaction processing centers in the Northeast as a starting point. As U.S. financial institutions gradually outsource their cash management functions, Garda has kept pace with the demand, achieving 70% market share in the metropolitan New York area.

 

Garda’s three largest cash vault facilities in the Northeast house six high-speed bank note processing systems that rival those of the Federal Reserve and handle a sizable chunk of the more than $200 billion that Garda processes each year.  They also provide a “coin only” processing center, two Federal Reserve Bank custodial inventory vaults and three Fed coin terminals.  All told, Garda has six times the capacity of its competitors to process cash and coin.

 

A key part of Jeri’s mission is to replicate the success of the Northeast region throughout the country.  With a rapidly expanding roster of national clients in both the financial and retail sectors, it is imperative that Garda deliver standardized secure transaction processing services. While not every center will require the state-of-the-art technology of the largest facilities, all will share uniform and consistent workflow, standards and reporting capabilities.

 

“That consistency is the hallmark of a professional organization,” Jeri explains. “Our clients want to have a level of comfort when they walk into our facilities that they are witnessing a thoroughly professional operation. They want to see a clean, orderly facility staffed by people who are professionals at processing cash and who are held to a higher standard. That requires training our people and establishing best practices and rigorous quality standards.”

 

“We need to build partnerships with our customers and take the time to learn their business so we can help them do it better, faster and more economically,” she says. “Doing our job well allows our clients to focus on their customers.  And by building strong relationships, based on mutual trust and open communication, we will be better able to resolve the issues that invariably come up. I came to Garda from Walt Disney Parks & Resorts, a premier, guest-focused company. Everything you do at Disney driven by that focus. My clients were the folks who operated the parks and we delivered very sophisticated cash processing solutions with complete operational consistency.

 

“I spent ten years operating cash vaults for Disney and managing the  armored services throughout the United States, Jeri notes. “I am passionate about working with cash, building in efficiencies and the internal controls required to do it right.  I came to Garda after working with the company for six or seven years while at Disney, during which I got to know the Garda team very well and recognized the quality of the people.  Steve Collins, who recently won the Texas Roadhouse Vendor Star Award, introduced Garda to Disney and built a strong partnership with me and my team. We relied on Garda to learn our business so they could help us do it better.”

 

“This is an exciting time to be at Garda,” Jeri concludes. “Chris Jamroz has a real vision for the company and what we can achieve for our clients and I’m delighted to be part of the team that will bring that vision to life.”