Case study
Brink's Czech Republic
Modernising an operation that cannot be switched off.
Cash processing is an operation where downtime does not mean inconvenience — it stops the cash flow of retail partners. Modernisation therefore cannot be done in a single release.
Solution architect · Technical analysis · Integration design · Legacy migration
01
Context and operational criticality
The systems cover the path of cash from collection through processing to settlement, and connect to logistics, billing and reporting. Retail and banking partners depend on their availability daily, so the window for change is measured in minutes, not hours.
02
The legacy situation and its limits
The original solution tied operators, physical devices and internal systems into a whole that was hard to extend. Business rules were spread across layers, so even a small change had to be verified along the entire chain.
03
My role and responsibility
I lead analysis, solution architecture and technical direction across several connected systems. I define service boundaries, integration contracts and the order in which blocks get replaced, and I stay accountable for those decisions through to production.
04
Target and transition architecture
The key decision was not to replace the system at once. We designed a target architecture plus a transition state with shared services, in which the legacy and new applications run side by side. Each block can therefore be deployed — and pulled back — on its own.
05
Cash processing and physical integrations
The system connects operators, physical cash counters and logistics. Integrating with devices behaves differently from integrating with software: it cannot simply be retried or rolled back, which had to shape the design of error states and reconciliation.
06
Customer portal and authorisation model
The portal is a direct digital channel between clients and the operation. The architecture supports multi-tenancy, organisation hierarchies and complex role and permission rules — in practice the hardest part of the design, because it touches every feature.
07
Secure integration channels
Connections to retail and banking partners run over secure channels with clearly defined contracts. The goal was for adding another partner to be configuration, not another development project.
08
Billing, reporting and dispatch
Billing and reporting sit on top of the operation, along with the gradual replacement of dispatch and crew management applications. Those are replaced only once the core is stable, so that change never runs in two critical places at once.
09
Results and current state
The cash processing system has been in production for more than four years and keeps being extended with further processes and integrations. The engagement continues, modernising further blocks the same way.
This kind of work cannot be handed over as a diagram. The value is in deciding what gets replaced first, what has to keep running, and how the two talk to each other in the meantime.