buyers guide to treasury management systems

Treasury Management Systems

2010

BUYER’S GUIDE

a buyer’s guide to TREASURY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

CONTENTS

Replacing Your TMS - a Major Operation

13 TMS Functionality: Risk, SWIFT and SaaS As treasurers lean harder on their treasury management systems (TMS) to provide an accurate, global view of their business, what new functionality is available?

17 Making the Business Case for a New TMS ‘Expense management’ and ‘corporate streamlining’ are two phrases that have stalked the corridors of treasury departments since the credit crisis hit. How can treasurers make the business case for a new TMS?

11 Choosing the Right TMS With the vast array of TMS on the market, how should treasurers go about choosing one? What are the most important considerations and how they can be weighed against the all-important bottom line?

14 Expert Opinion Six corporate treasurers offer their know-how in choosing a TMS, describing the process that they went through, including any hiccups, and also give some advice to others embarking on the same journey.

16 To Build or to Buy? Why are some corporate treasuries turning their backs on off-the-shelf treasury TMS and looking to build their own in-house?

18 Directory of Service Plus a functionality matrix of 26 treasury management systems.

Given that a treas-ury management system (TMS) is considered to be the heart of a corporate treasury, replacing it is akin to the busi-ness undergoing

open heart surgery. The risks involved are huge, added to the fact that many treasurers do not have much experi-ence conducting such a major opera-tion.

This buyer’s guide is an attempt to help treasurers pinpoint what they need to know, examining what new functionality is available, outlining how

to make the business case for a new system and how to choose the right TMS for your company, and follow-ing the debate as to whether to build in-house or buy off-the-shelf. Last, the guide includes a functionality matrix, which describes the systems on offer from TMS vendors.

As with any major surgical operation, going into the procedure well-pre-pared, well-informed and confident in the outcome means that you have a much better chance to coming out the other side a stronger, faster and more efficient treasury organisation.

Joy Macknight, editor, a buyer’s guide to TMS

Editor: Ben Poole [email protected]

Deputy editor: Joy Macknight [email protected]

Section editor: Anne Petrie [email protected]

Publishing manager: Mia Leaning [email protected]

Chief executive: Mike Hewitt [email protected]

Art and design: Tim Parker [email protected]

Client relationship director:Adela Buglass [email protected]

Business development manager:Katharine Christian [email protected]

gtnews, an Association for Financial Professionals®’ company headquartered in London, is the leading global knowledge resource for over 55,000 treasury, finance, payments and cash management professionals. Online, gtnews is updated weekly and provides subscribers access to an archive of almost 3,000 global treasury articles in addition to special reports, commentaries, surveys, polls, news, ratings updates and whitepapers. Access to gtnews.com is free of charge to those who register, and we never sell names or e-mail addresses, so our readers’ privacy is assured.

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TMS Functionality: Risk, SWIFT and SaaSToday, treasurers are leaning harder on their treasury

management systems (TMS) to provide an accurate, global view

of their business. Joy Macknight explores the new functionality

on offer, in a quest for the all-singing, all-dancing TMS.

The uncertainty in the global financial markets has caused corporate treasurers many headaches, particularly regarding credit availability,

monitoring and managing counterparty risk, and incoming regulations that might affect banking, tax and accounting.

Corporate treasurers are increasingly kept awake at night worrying about a lack of cash visibility and accurate cash flow forecasting. Limited control and transparency makes it difficult for treasurers to view their global cash position and optimise working capital across all their banking relationships. They need to get meaningful and timely information across a multitude of systems.

Kevin Grant, chief executive officer (CEO) at IT2, says that recent treasury trends can be broken down into pre- and post-global financial crisis. “Before the crisis, the focus

was quite diverse and included straight-through processing (STP) and process management, different aspects of risk management, such as scenario analysis and VaR [value-at-risk], SOX [Sarbanes-Oxley] compliance, and new accounting regulations such as FAS 133, FAS 157 and IAS 39. The reaction to the crisis provoked quite a dramatic change, with the emphasis shifting to functionality supporting the new priorities of enterprise-wide cash and counterparty exposure visibility, which are, arguably, a shift back to basics.

“This new focus has encouraged higher levels of treasury connectivity with banks and internal remote business units, for example via SWIFT and corporate intranets, to ensure that complete and up-to-date information is collected from around and beyond the corporate enterprise,” he adds. �

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In addition, the treasurer’s role is expanding to include oversight in areas not hitherto under a treasurer’s remit. Paul Bramwell, senior vice president of treasury solutions for SunGard’s AvantGard, says that while the workload is increasing, the number of people to do the job remains the same or diminishes. He believes that there is a desperate need for automation tools to manage the redundant manual processes.

This is where treasury management systems (TMS) step into the picture. As Justin Meadows, CEO of MyTreasury, an electronic trading platform, says: “The TMS should be the golden system - the driving centre for treasurers and everything that they do. It needs to be fully integrated and be able to provide an overview of all data that the treasurer would want, down to the most detailed level and up to dashboard level, with warning alerts, etc.”

And many TMS vendors are responding to the challenge. Over the past two or three years, according to Paul Wheeler, managing director for Wallstreet Treasury at Wall Street Systems, the level of functionality has become functionally rich and more stable, even down to the lower end of the mid-tier in terms of products.

IMPROVED FUNCTIONALITYThree areas of new functionality that has made an impact in the past few years include:

Business intelligence, risk and reporting capabilitiesAlongside a general back-to-basics approach, there is a re-emergence of concerns about risk management and the ability to identify and control those risks. As a direct result of the economic climate, greater pressure has been put on corporates to embrace the treasury’s role in risk at a business level. Up-to-date information is now required on demand.

Bramwell says: “There is a more consolidated focus on being able to identify where risks lie and treasury is using technology to automate the process of highlighting and identifying the risk. The platforms are there to identify exposures, whether that’s cash, FX [foreign exchange], interest rate risk or credit risk.”

Wheeler believes that the industry is beginning to find ways to get closer to the overall risk cycle of a business: “TMS vendors are beginning to embrace

the fact that the treasury function is needing to holistically manage exposure across the broader business than just treasury. We see treasury’s remit expanding and it comes down to having very solid information around the total business, not just what historically might have passed through treasury.”

SWIFT connectivityThe crisis brought counterparty risk, in terms of banking partners, to the fore and therefore the opening up of SWIFT to corporates has to some extent relieved the reliance on bank proprietary connectivity. Corporates can now join SWIFT directly through a Member Administered Closed User Group (MA-CUG), Standardised Corporate Environment (SCORE) or Alliance Lite, or outsource their connectivity to a SWIFT service bureau. Corporates want to become more bank independent/agnostic and gain the ability to switch banks more easily.

According to Joergen Jensen, director

at Nasarius, a cash and treasury management consultancy in the Nordic region, SWIFT is now becoming a standard way of integrating to banks not just for corporate TMS but all payment systems. This point hits on the second reason why corporates are changing their bank connectivity - to improve the visibility of their cash across all their banks.

That enhanced level of connectivity allows treasury to be able to provide an ‘as real-time as possible’ view on exactly where its cash lies within the business. “I suffered through that in my previous life in corporate treasury,” says SunGard’s Bramwell, “where I just didn’t have access to those kind of balances, despite having subsidiaries reporting cash balances and local debt. The moment you find out that that level of reporting is inaccurate is when there’s a disaster.” He believes that SWIFT has been part of an improvement in visibility and accuracy.

SunGard is exploring the idea of

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a bank aggregation portal, where it uses SWIFT connections to provide a global view of a firm’s cash, beyond just what sits inside the treasury application. “Many companies want their subsidiaries to be to able to remotely check their balances, search for outstanding transactions, etc, but wouldn’t necessarily want to give them access to a treasury application,” says Bramwell. “Therefore an aggregation portal is something that can be useful. It’s outside the core treasury application and can be deployed as a service in the cloud that’s hosted and managed by SunGard, for example, and used by corporates as and when they need it.”

Delivering via SaaS or cloud Bramwell touched on the latest trend in terms of technology: software-as-a-service (SaaS) or cloud technology, where the TMS is hosted by the vendor, effectively outsourcing the technology and maintenance.

Wallstreet’s Wheeler explains: “Because there’s been significant retraction of investments around internal IT focus in treasury, treasurers have been left a lot more to their own devices to manage IT - some have even become IT specialists, certainly in the mid-tier. Therefore, many are keen to lean on the vendors to begin to take that burden away from them.”

Wheeler believes that the SaaS offering has matured so much in the crisis period that it is no longer a fad - it has become the norm. “Treasury won’t subside back to installed solutions,” he says. “Clients are saying that they are going to adopt this approach even more now that their budgets are opening out. They are beginning to look to the future.”

Many look to SaaS solutions as a quick way to deploy solutions to gain greater control. Martin Bellin, general manager of BELLIN, a web-based integrated treasury management platform used by Virgin Atlantic and

Semikron, says that BELLIN’s fastest roll out was four weeks, but usually

it takes about two to three months. “The idea is a web-based TMS, which can be deployed quickly and doesn’t require expertise to use,” says Bellin. “One

of our partners calls it ‘glocal’ because it’s global and local at the same time.”

ON THE CUSP -EMERGING FUNCTIONALITY

eBAM and personal digital signaturesSWIFT has been developing electronic bank account management (eBAM) and, hand in hand, personal digital signatures or SWIFT Secure Signature Key (3SKey), which enables eBAM. eBAM is a way for corporates to take control of their bank accounts and know who their signatories are, where they are, etc, effectively having all the mandates under central control. SWIFT has been working with banks and corporates in pilot programmes and launched eBAM in April, while it plans to launch 3SKey in October.

Commodity hedgingCommodities are something that an increasing number of corporates want to hedge and are therefore asking their TMS supplier to deliver this

functionality. Nasarius’ Jensen says: “This is something where maybe five years ago treasurers were content - either they did not do commodity hedging or they were trying to manage it in Excel or with workarounds in their treasury system using FX instruments. But this was not a good solution because of its limited functionality, particularly with regards to reporting.”

Due to new environmental legislation, many corporate now want to trade CO

2 emissions. “More companies suddenly want to be able to trade emissions and are asking for support within the system, particularly if they want to do hedge accounting,” says Jensen. “I think the systems providers are now adding more functionality to commodities on the instrument side and also in terms of handling the hedge accounting functionality, which is quite complex.”

AREAS OF IMPROVEMENTCash flow forecastingOne area where treasurers are calling out for help is the whole world of cash forecasting. Zanders consultant, Mark Taylor, explains that it is so difficult to do because it is still heavily dependent

There is a desperate need for automation tools to manage the redundant manual processes

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on human input: “Forecasting is not a specific science, is it? It’s an art which uses statistical techniques and models, but different industry sectors, companies and people use different inputs and techniques.”

Speaking from experience, SunGard’s Bramwell says: “In my day in corporate treasury, one of the things that we were insistent upon was that we needed useful information in terms of forecasts, so that we knew what we were hedging. Because without forecast information, you are just guessing what you’re hedging, and you may actually end up creating exposures instead of reducing them.”

IT2’s Grant believes that the role of a TMS in supporting easier cash flow forecasting is to offer a user friendly, web-based solution, ideally reflecting local style and terminology so that the forecast process is easy to use - and is therefore more likely to be used more effectively.

“Forecasting entities should certainly receive analytical feedback on their performance, and perhaps receive some kind of pricing benefit from the in-house bank for good forecasting performance,” he says. With today’s web-based technology and connectivity, barriers are more likely to be behavioural as opposed to technical, so treasurers need to communicate sensitively and interactively when rolling out a forecasting solution.”

Integration/interoperabilityAlthough previously treasurers might have had a transaction management package and then export data into a risk management system for valuations, for example, Jensen says that today treasurers expect everything in one package with integration across the whole group worldwide, as well as integration with the enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.

But there is still work to be done in this area. Andrea Klein, vice president global financial services, Oracle, says: “TMS have been integrated with ERP applications, but this has been done through proprietary, custom integration. Thus, if a treasurer wants to change either the TMS or ERP on their side, or the bank wants to change payment applications or cash management systems on its side, the process is long and costly.”

Klein believes that building integration and ensuring data consistency across various systems has a worthwhile payback and return on investment (ROI) in terms of automation, controls, security, and

better decision-making.

TradingMyTreasury’s Meadows highlights that trading is a key part of what treasurers do – yet most TMS do not do multi-supplier trading. “They are more focused on the cash management side, trade booking, processing and confirmation matching, position reporting, etc. It is surprising that you can’t actually generate and execute a trade from a TMS, either through its own internal capability or by interfacing with a platform such as ours,” he says.

Today corporates set up trades within their TMS on the basis of the information there, and then simply export those to a trading platform where they are executed automatically. Once executed, they are inputted back into the TMS.

Some TMS vendors have integrated trading functionality. SunGard has its own SGN money market portal, for example, where a corporate can trade online for money market fund (MMF) investments.

“As soon as you enter the trade, the transaction is brought into the system automatically; it’s confirmed, and settled automatically. And, of course, any balances are held within the TMS, as well as the trading portal,” says Bramwell.

THE ALL SINGING, ALLDANCING TMS

Zanders’ Taylor comments that vendors have long been racing towards an ‘all singing, all dancing’ TMS, which did everything that everybody wanted. This has been helped in some ways by consolidation in the marketplace; this year alone, Wall Street Systems bought both City Financials and Speranza Systems.

But the question remains, is a treasury better served by a vendor whose support team is covering multiple products, or is fully focused on one product? MyTreasury’s Meadows thinks that it is better to have specialist platforms and integrate them with TMS providers at the outset.

“If it is built in-house, then it will end up being the lowest common denominator and won’t address all the specialist needs. However, I can envisage a situation where the trading part is viewed as an integrated element of the whole treasury management function, and therefore is embedded within TMS. But I think it will have to be through the acquisition of a specialist supplier, and integration of that product into the overall product suite,” he says.

Should TMS providers look to be ‘all singing, all dancing’ or should they look more to interoperability and partnering? IT2’s Grant believes that the answer is both. “It is clearly desirable to have all necessary treasury management functionality available in a single system, and it is also necessary to integrate with complementary external systems,” he says. “Technically, the ideal may be pictured as a functionally complete TMS solution, based on a single central database that is updated in real time, robustly integrated with essential external systems. This approach minimises synchronisation and other technical, timing issues, and helps to assure that reporting is instantaneous, up-to-date and accurate, by eliminating unnecessary islands of technology.”

Oracle’s Klein reminds us that ERP vendors are expanding deeper into TMS territory: “ERP systems continue to take market share from legacy TMS providers as customers recognise that the ERP functionality improvements over the last 10 years now address most - if not all - of their core treasury requirements. In addition, they are starting to see that embedded integration offers tangible business benefits to both the treasury department and to IT. It makes sense to evaluate them as part of the TMS decision-making process.” �

The TMS should be the golden system - the driving centre for treasurers

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Making the Business Case for a New TMS

‘Expense management’ and ‘corporate streamlining’ are two phrases that have stalked the corridors

of treasury departments around the world since the credit crisis hit. Against this backdrop,

Ben Poole examines how treasurers can make the business case for a new TMS.

While the recent financial crisis did much to elevate the role of the treasurer, it also resulted

in widespread cost cutting and expense control in the corporate world. The new financial environment has seen treasurers taking on greater responsibility and a larger work portfolio, while finding that their resources - in terms of budget and staff - have been frozen or reduced.

Against this environment, all spending will be thoroughly scrutinised and treasurers may find themselves in for a challenging time when trying to justify new purchases, particularly for something as comprehensive and

expensive as a treasury management system (TMS). How can treasurers address this challenge, and what are the main business points that can support a treasurer when pitching to senior management and IT purchasing managers?

WHERE IS THE CASH? Cash flow is the main cause of financial risk within a business, so it is vital that treasury has an accurate, timely and transparent view of the company’s cash position. This needs to cover areas such as accounts payable (A/P) and accounts receivable (A/R), between treasury centres in different countries and

the various foreign exchange (FX) exposures that these generate, as well as across banking relationships, covering account fees, interest rates, etc. As TMS can seamlessly integrate a variety of areas of treasury activity, from electronic dealing (e-dealing) to reporting, confirmation matching to cash forecasting, they can provide an accurate view of enterprise-wide cash flows to help effectively manage the liquidity and improve investment returns. In addition, the transparency allows treasurers to compare lending rates between different banks and move away from expensive borrowing.

But getting control over cash visibility is not simply a case of �

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plugging in a TMS and finding that all your treasury worries are over. Quite often, the implementation of a new TMS goes hand-in-hand with a restructuring of the treasury function along more centralised lines as treasurers follow an ongoing quest for efficiency. If you want to streamline the way that you process your A/P and A/R, the chances are that a centralised approach to treasury management is the best way to achieve this and then gain the benefits of cash visibility already mentioned. A centralised approach, together with a TMS, helps strip out the ‘dead wood’ from many processes, and instead puts the focus on a treasury management structure that receives automated updates from the various business units and banking relationships, rather than trying to collect disparate data on myriad spreadsheets. In turn, the enhanced quality of data will benefit overall cash and liquidity management, while merger and acquisition (M&A)-related integration will be simplified against this backdrop.

Senior management, including those as high as board level, have been particularly keen on timely and accurate cash and liquidity information since the credit crisis first struck. These parts of the business have since been educating themselves on every nuance of liquidity management, corporate financial compliance issues and banking relationships, and require real-time information on these topics at a moment’s notice. Companies that were operating largely decentralised organisational structures, especially if the majority of treasury work was being conducted manually on spreadsheets, will have been particularly hard-pressed to provide the relevant information quickly and accurately. By contrast, a centrally-managed treasury with a TMS is ideally positioned to provide this information.

RISE OF RISK MANAGEMENTThe variety and depth of risks that treasurers have to manage today is far in excess of that which existed before the credit crisis. Large corporates can find that they don’t have an overall view of risk, which can lead to risks being missed or mismanaged. A good TMS will provide a wide range of functionality to help treasures measure and manage financial risk. In addition to providing monitoring capabilities for limits, TMS can also provide scenarios analysis and modelling capabilities to

model the effects of cash flows and guide risk management decisions. A treasury that relies on spreadsheets will have no way of finding out its real-time cash positions, and indeed this is also not always an option with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.

Take counterparty risk as an example. Before the credit crisis, it is fair to say that, for many companies, the scope of their counterparty risk measurement began and ended with the ups and downs of their derivative portfolio against counterparties. Today, corporates are looking to add their balance position, credit facilities and bank exposure to this mix, highlighting how just one risk has escalated post-credit crisis. In this area, a TMS can assist the treasurer by allowing them easily to set the risk parameters in line with their counterparty risk policy, as well as producing customised reports to that effect.

As is clear from the first two topics in this article, visibility over a corporate’s cash position and the management of financial risk are intrinsically linked. The constantly shifting sands of a corporate’s cash position across the organisation need to tracked accurately and in real time in order for a treasury department to maximise the company’s liquidity and ensure best practice in risk mitigation. Today, TMS offer enhanced functionality in areas such as bank account administration and treasury reporting, in addition to corporate connectivity to SWIFT, as a way successfully managing these two large challenges. This is not something that a treasury operating largely on spreadsheets will be able to get a handle on. While spreadsheets can be a cheap and available short-term solution, these corporates will be potentially missing crucial risk exposures and losing money through poor cash management. The business case for a TMS here is clear.

MAXIMISING BANKINGRELATIONSHIPS

TMS can help corporates to integrate with financial services providers’ systems, enabling them to have real-time access to data from banks. For example, banks have invested in up-to-the-minute balance reporting capabilities that a TMS can give you access to. In the payment hub space, payments and cash movements can be tracked through the TMS, just as

you’d track a package on a courier’s website. It can also help in better managing the fees and aggressively managing compensation.

The possibility of integrating electronic bank account management (eBAM) with a TMS is intriguing at this point. This is surely the next logical step for both of these two products, enabling a treasurer to centrally manage cash flows and risk across

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therefore removes the prospect of human error that exists here. In addition, this frees up treasury staff from having to deal with time-consuming and repetitive data entry, and they can instead focus on the role of treasury analyst and become more productive this way.

CONCLUSIONTMS offer clear business benefits over the use of spreadsheets and some ERP modules in a number of areas. They allow visibility over a company’s cash position, leading to more accurate cash forecasting and the liquidity and working capital advantages this permits. In addition, the variety and depth of financial risks that corporates face in the post-credit crisis world are far easier to make sense of and manage through the use of a TMS than other options. When it comes to interacting with banking partners, a TMS can enable corporates to get real-time account information at the click of a button. They are also able to provide a wide array of reporting information when called upon.

And last, but not least, the efficiency that a TMS can bring to a treasury department cuts across several areas - by removing manual input, the system reduces the potential for human error, allows a small treasury team to achieve an exponentially large amount of accurate work, and provides for a security of data that can help treasurers sleep at night. In terms of making the business case to senior management or IT purchasers, these points should help to make a positive impact.

In addition to these points, the treasurer has additional resources available that they can draw on when putting together the business case for a TMS. Get close to the business, understand why business units operate in the way they do, and have a two-way, open conversation about how a TMS can improve financial management across the organisation. Not only will this help build the business case, but it will also be invaluable when it comes to choosing the best fit TMS for your company.

Advice on how to put together the business case can also be sought from your main relationship banks. After all many of the main banks have TMS offerings of their own in some shape or form. By speaking to your main bank, you can hopefully get valuable advice to help in building a solid business case. �

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the organisation, while simultaneously having the ability to open, move and close bank accounts, for example. TMS vendors will have to keep up to speed with the standardised message types that SWIFT are developing in their eBAM programme, but this is a concern that they should be able to address easily, leaving corporates with a powerful bank relationship tool as part of their integrated TMS.

INFORMATIONREPORTING

When it comes to information reporting, TMS can offer a number of advantages for corporates. One of the main challenges that treasurers face when using spreadsheets or ERP systems for this function is the lack of real time information available in areas such as payables and receivables. A well-deployed TMS can provide right data to the right people at the right time to improve control, decision making and reducing expenses. Banks have portals that are capable of directly sending the reporting information that corporates need directly to their system in a seamless manner. ERP systems can do this integration, but TMS tend to be more versatile and flexible because of their specific focus on treasury processes.

The benefit of having this real-time view is that the treasurer has greater freedom to make key decisions over whether they should look at investing or borrowing, safe in the knowledge that they have up-to-date and accurate information. In addition, as this process is automated, it reduces the workload on an already-stressed treasury department.

ENHANCED EFFICIENCY As with any system, the automation that a TMS brings can improve efficiency and productivity by removing manual processes and improving accuracy. In a situation where you have multiple users in multiple areas of the company, a TMS can define workflows, meaning that the right people have the right access to the right information. This identity and access management (IAM) role lets the system do the work for the treasurer once the entitlements have been set up and the workflow established.

This also adds a very important level of security to treasury operations. Spreadsheets by their very nature are insecure and open to abuse. With a TMS, access to all data can be set by treasury and access privileges managed depending on whether staff move departments or leave the company. This should drastically reduce the prospect of data theft or manipulation. In addition, the TMS can provide a ‘paper trail’, detailing which user has accessed or input which data at which time, which can be vital for internal auditing purposes.

An end-to-end TMS can replace multiple spreadsheets that rely on the manual keying in of data, and

Cash flow is the main cause of financial risk within a business

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Choosing the Right TMSC

hoosing a treasury management system (TMS) is a rare occurrence for most treasurers - and one that they

consequently have little experience with. It is also a process that affects numerous business units, from IT to accounting, and whose accuracy has important ramifications for the regulatory compliance of the business. Defining a business’ needs carefully before choosing a TMS reduces the risk of dissatisfaction, and planning out the project in detail will help ensure that it is implemented on time and on budget. Treasurers should also consider whether to bring in third party assistance or have the TMS hosted externally.

DEFINING THE ROLE OF THE TMS

The first step in choosing a TMS is to define the needs of the business, in order to communicate these clearly to TMS vendors. Jeffrey Wallace, managing partner at Greenwich Treasury Advisors, says that the lack of an initial list of specifications will cause problems later. “Treasurers sometimes believe they just need to push a button and the system will work exactly as they expect, which, of course, is the complete opposite of what really happens,” he explains.

Determining the expectations of the executive board, particularly in areas such as reporting, is vital, as is ensuring that these are clearly articulated to the treasurer. “Particularly in the last two or three years, boards have expected answers to questions on counterparty exposure and the treasurer hasn’t always been able to give an answer straight away,” says Mark Lewis, director, corporate treasury at Wall

With the vast array of treasury management systems

(TMS) on the market, how should treasurers go

about choosing one? Anne Petrie investigates

the most important considerations and

how they can be weighed against

the all-important bottom line.

12


Street Systems. “The board tends to be surprised by this, but the reporting process doesn’t allow the treasurer to do that. If they want that level of visibility of global risk and cash liquidity, then there is a cost associated with that.”

Therefore, setting budget parameters for a new TMS is also essential because there is always a trade-off between cost and functionality. “Defining your requirements in line with budget and implementation costs is an important area to consider before you start looking at vendors and systems,” Lewis says.

A growing awareness that cost-control can come at the expense of a successful implementation has continued, even in the wake of the financial crisis. “Treasury people are very aware that there is a substantial cost to the implementation, just as there is a cost to a TMS. Maybe 10 or 15 years ago, at least with some of the smaller systems, they wouldn’t have even considered that,” Mark Taylor, consultant at Zanders Treasury and Finance Solutions, comments. Some firms might consider using a consultant or vendor to research requirements and even install the TMS.

Alan Francis, partner at Manex Treasury Systems, recommends researching systems used by similar companies, whether by size, company culture or industry. He suggests drawing up a matrix of instruments that the system will be required to process, plus other required functions such as front/back office split, flexibility of reports, user segregation, and interfaces to dealing portals and other systems. “I also recommend identifying key points of your specification and scoring alternatives on the basis of need/would like/must have,” he says.

IN-HOUSE OR REMOTELYHOSTED?

When choosing a TMS, many treasurers face a difficult decision between a web-based, vendor-hosted solution and an in-house system. A key advantage of the former is the lack of disruption to a company’s IT department and also a reduced possibility of implementation delays. In addition, a web-based system can give the global headquarters greater control over cash management. “This decision requires an examination of who is going to be using the system; is it going to be just headquarters or out in the field?” Wallace asks.

Security concerns, however, can lead a treasurer to opt for an in-house solution. For some companies, the advantages of having complete control

over their data in an attempt to reduce the possibility of it being hacked outweigh the possible challenges of integrating a new TMS into their technology infrastructure. Some are concerned that their data may be impounded - for example where a UK company’s data is hosted on a US server. This can be an issue in certain industry sectors, for example the oil industry, where clients and the host country might have competing interests. “For example, the Federal Reserve or the CIA may want to see the data to check for money laundering,” Zanders’ Taylor says. “Now, you can argue that if you’ve got nothing to hide you shouldn’t worry about that, but people do not want foreign powers taking control of their data.”

Another issue to consider whether to outsource the TMS installation will depend on budget restrictions, as well as the size and organisation of the company. In cases where a large number of existing processes are not centrally managed, the amount of business re-engineering needed is likely to require a significant amount of external support. “Re-engineering the lot will take some help from external sources,” Lewis says. “However, those of our clients that have the resources to manage the TMS internally do exactly that.”

CUSTOMISING THE SYSTEMWhether hosting a TMS in-house or externally, a treasurer needs to determine to what extent they want to buy an ‘off-the-shelf’ solution (for which they may have to re-engineer their

existing treasury processes), or whether they want a customisable system tailored to their specific requirements.

Taylor equates the customisation process with using Excel: “With many systems you can do basic processes but to really get the power of it, you need to set up the TMS in the way that suits your business, for example to receive reports out in the correct format. Although the vendor may have a set of standard reports, what you need for your operation is probably non-standard.”

Greenwich’s Wallace suggests that adjusting a company’s internal processes to fit the software is more efficient in the long run than the other way around. “It is important to recognise that TMS vendors have

�

Since a good treasury workstation will interface with the general accounts ledger, involving the accounts team at this stage is crucial, as is ensuring that the TMS easily interfaces with the ledger. “All the system vendors claim to handle the general ledger, and for the most part that’s probably true, but you also will want to check that using references,” Wallace says. Subsidiaries can also test the system from their perspective, as remote users who will receive the information from the treasury centre.

At the price negotiation stage, it is important to play the vendors off against each other. “Negotiate hard,” Wallace says, “for most vendors pad out their prices so that they can bring them down. Similar to buying a car, it’s always worth remembering that salespeople have quotas.”

Given the current market conditions, the past few years have seen treasurers focus more on the stability of the vendor. Consolidation has been rife in recent years - SunGard alone has acquired more than 10 treasury workstation vendors. Larger vendors therefore represent a lower risk than their smaller counterparts. According to Lewis: “There is no point in buying a system from a vendor that is unlikely to be around in the long term unless your plans are not long term.”

However, this would not be a concern for all firms. For example spin-off companies seeking an instant solution to get up and running as quickly as possible often intend to move to a heavier-weight system when the business is more established.

Orphan system risk, where the TMS’ technology is not updated owing to a lack of development money, is also a real risk with smaller vendors. However, some smaller vendors accuse their larger rivals of ‘milking the annuity stream’ of their acquisitions without updating the technology.

CONCLUSIONDefining your needs and ensuring a standardised testing demonstration takes place will lay the foundations for a successful TMS implementation. For a process that will happen rarely for most treasury departments, choosing the right system is paramount. Therefore, taking time to define business requirements, as well as implementation and hosting capabilities, and involving all the relevant stakeholders will help to ensure that the chosen TMS fulfils the expectations of the business. �

13


spent a lot of time talking to many people with regards to how to handle these common treasury processes. They are much more likely to be best practice than a company’s own Excel process,” he says. “But, of course, adjustment takes time. Most corporate treasuries are understaffed and there is always a crisis du jour, which is more interesting than doing the trivial and tedious work of setting up a treasury workstation.”

Adjusting existing processes carries its own set of challenges, both technical and staff-related. Manual processes, often with Excel spreadsheets, will have evolved over time, and staff will be accustomed to working in a particular way. Where vendors have to undertake a considerable amount of programming to match the existing processes, this can cause problems when an upgrade is necessary. This can, in turn, result in a static system that isn’t upgraded, as custom programming can be costly.

VENDOR REFERENCESBecause a treasurer will have

to live with their chosen TMS long after

implementation, it is important to do a thorough reference check and test case scenarios. In obtaining references, you should look at product quality and the cost of upgrades and support, in addition to implementation efficiency. The latter should include the time it takes to input historic data and train users. “Longer-term, post-live account management is vital,” says Wallstreet’s Lewis. “You need to understand what your expectations are and ask the right questions. Some vendors are more prone to let you get on with it, while others see it as a long-term relationship that will grow.”

Vendor demonstrations are an integral part of the selection process. If a company’s requirements have already been clearly identified, only a small number need to be considered in depth after the initial demonstration. Manex’s Francis suggests that at least three systems are considered, based on research of systems in use with competitors/similar companies. “Try for a spread of licence/implementation costs from lower to top end - and look for value for money,” he explains.

However, Lewis argues that three is probably “overkill” unless there are some very difficult requirements. “After the initial demo, you could probably choose two and take it from there,” he says.

Putting together the right type of test case scenario, as well as taking into the

account the lifecycle management of specific transactions, is an

important part of this process that is often missed. “That’s

where we’ve seen a lack of input from clients.

They rely far more on previous clients’ references to validate the vendor’s ability,” Lewis says.

Greenwich’s Wallace suggests

giving vendors sample transactions to which the

client already knows the answer ahead of their demonstration for

the vendor to run through in real time. This allows for a better basis for comparison, he says, rather than allowing the vendor to showcase their system’s best features, with less reference to the client’s requirements. “That will give you a good idea of how the system, reporting and inputting work. It forces them to depart from their script and respond to your script,” he explains.

Jörg Bermüller, Head of Cash & Risk Management, Merck

Damian Glendinning, Treasurer, Lenovo

Richard Smith, Assistant Group Treasurer, Mondi

14


What treasury

management

system (TMS) do

you use and why

did you choose it?

Clearly define your need, do a proper RFP and an intensive scoping phase to avoid surprises during the contract negotiation. A smooth and well-executed project will only be achieved if your company provides enough internal resources. A dedicated project leader is key; otherwise you will get lost in the overall workload and in co-ordinating across internal departments such as IT, back office and accounting. The same close treatment is required for external consultants.

During such a huge project we discovered different hitches, both internal and external. The first internal discussion pertained to the fact that we didn’t choose SAP as our TMS provider. Consequently we had special internal meetings on the pros and cons of SAP. In the end we were able to convince our internal IT department. Right from the start we established an internal steering committee that helped overcome any problems. External problems with the provider’s consultants were escalated throughout the SunGard hierarchy, up to top management if needed. This was an agreed approach with the chief information officer (CIO) of SunGard.

Treasury initially analysed the demand for a new system. Following this, we defined the specific requirements together with an external consultant and launched a request for proposal (RFP) containing 373 questions to the most well known TMS providers. After analysing the feedback, we created a shortlist of four service providers. The four remaining providers had to go through a one-day workshop showing their skills in a live environment. One of the requirements was that they had to show us their capabilities on our specific and extensive test cases. After a preliminary decision we entered into a detailed scoping phase. This was the solid basis for the final contract.

The Merck group selected AvantGard Quantum, QRisk plus an additional eTreasury module from SunGard for its TMS. It was the intention of treasury to implement a new system to improve the existing risk and reporting management tools. We were focusing on the connectivity with our existing IT periphery, plus looking for further process optimisation in areas such as deal entries, bookings, etc during the whole project. We chose SunGard because we were of the opinion that the system meets our requirements in the best and most efficient way, and that it provides the quality that we expect.

It is difficult to give advice to others - so much depends on your company and its circumstances. But I would strongly advise looking first at your operations: it is best to simplify a complex operation, rather than install a complex system to manage the complexity. If you can, try to avoid installing a system internally: doing everything over the internet significantly reduces the burden of maintaining systems and managing the security aspects. It also means that you stay within a standardised environment - this usually helps reduce problems with interfaces. Above all, keep it simple.

The benefit of keeping things simple is that there is less to go wrong. Things have generally worked smoothly from the outset. The main issue we have faced on the cash management side is realising one of the main benefits of using a single bank worldwide: a single set of interfaces from our systems for settling payments, mostly payables and payrolls. We have realised that, over the years, the banks’ infrastructures has evolved on a country-by-country basis, and they struggle to handle a single, uniform input. This is particularly true of payroll, where confidentiality issues and the absolute need to be timely complicate matters.

The decision to use a single bank worldwide was the result of an acquisition: we needed to set up cash management for 67 countries in four months. There was no time or resources to set up a traditional TMS. I have been pleasantly surprised by how well it works - we have a daily report of our worldwide cash balances. The choice of SunGard was the result of a RFP. The most important single criterion was their willingness to host the system on the web. It was also essential to have a platform that fully supported our use of FXall - we required the ability to do automatic confirmations via the internet.

Be very clear about the project objectives. These will guide not only the selection of the TMS provider and partner but also during the implementation process. Also, management buy-in is essential because of the impact on the workload of the treasury department.

The Wall Street Systems implementation went very smoothly due to the excellent implementation manager and the management buy-in at Mondi. With hindsight, we underestimated the effort required to extract and cleanse static data from our old system. Fortunately the data entry skills of our Wall Street Systems implementation manager became the stuff of legends!

Mondi set out to define the TMS project objectives: STP, integration, control, and automation. The detailed requirements were then compared to the various TMS available on the market. Five shortlisted vendors were invited to pitch. City Financials stood out from the competitors’ offerings because the integrated solution met both our practical and regulatory requirements. Market leaders further validated our choice - we took the time to speak to professional contacts in other companies’ treasury departments.

What advice can

you give others

embarking on the

same journey?

Were there any

hitches during

implementation

and how did you

overcome them?

Describe the

process you

went through in

choosing your

TMS.

Expert opinion

We don’t really use a TMS in the usual sense of the term. We use SunGard to manage our foreign exchange (FX) trades and positions, doing all the important mark-to-market and hedge tracking work. We do not use a TMS for cash management: we have a single cash management bank worldwide. All the information on our cash balances worldwide is in the same place: the bank’s internet banking system. We get a complete global daily cash report by simply downloading the statements. We also use this system to initiate all our payments from a central location. The result is simple, effective - and cheap.

Mondi, an international paper and packaging company, with production operations across 31 countries and revenues of €5.3bn in 2009, created a new treasury function in 2007. Technology was considered a key driver to automate as many tasks as possible, achieve straight-through processing (STP) and minimise the number of staff in the department. Mondi chose City Financials (now part of Wall Street Systems’ treasury solutions portfolio), as it was the best solution to meet these requirements.

Tony Kwee,Assistant Treasurer, Flextronics

Gary Williams, General Manager Treasury, Mitsubishi Corporation International (Europe)

Carol Power, Group Treasurer, Cable & Wireless Worldwide

15


First, define the strategic vision for the TMS within treasury and communicate that vision throughout the organisation. This helps set expectations and better ensures that all affected organisations understand and align to the overall vision. Second, do not limit your search to a solution that fits your existing processes, but rather think along the lines of best practices and how you could align your processes. In our case, we have a very unique situation that was best addressed by BELLIN which took the time to understand our processes and how to accommodate them.

Our hitches were principally related to the ability to collect the necessary operating details from across our subsidiaries to set up the TMS. Our implementation was more complex because of the high number of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems operating throughout our company. However, BELLIN’s standard interface with the TMS allowed us to quickly on board these systems. BELLIN drove the integration points with our banks and significantly reduced the development burden on our IT team.

I interviewed many multinational company treasurers and consultants (and bankers) who have gone through or participated in a TMS selection process. It became clear from these discussions that functionality is only part of the consideration. The key takeaways were identifying the end-state requirements and having the right team to get through the development and implementation process. BELLIN’s willingness to establish a partnership to collaboratively work with us, its reasonable development costs, plus being an ASP solution (contributes to a reduction in internal support and maintenance costs) all made our decision easy.

I would stress the importance of involving all internal and external stakeholders in the process, to ensure high quality results and genuine shared ownership of the resulting solution. For the implementation - especially under rigid time constraints - you need to develop a viable project plan with the vendor, clearly linked to key deliverables such as the critical processes, integrations and reports. You need to monitor progress against this plan closely, so that you can identify problems before they happen - and eliminate them. As ever, it’s the professional and personal qualities of the people involved that determine how smoothly the project progresses.

I’m glad to say that we encountered no major hitches in the implementation. The implementation project plan was deliberately generous in the allocation of vendor team effort, to provide contingent resources because of our timetable constraints and my lack of resources. We also focused on a first phase that addressed our core requirements, again because of our special corporate situation. In the event, we did not need to use all the allocated IT2 resources, so the project came in under budget.

The demerger timetable demanded that we had to move quickly and decisively, so we evaluated the relative closeness of fit of the alternative solutions for automating our treasury workflows. With no treasury team in place at the time, I concentrated on verifying vendor references and also on discussing the matter with fellow treasurers and other experts. From my perspective, the opinions of professionals whom I trust and respect were very important factors. There’s always some element of faith in making such decisions. In our case, the combination of consistent and positive external feedback enabled us to make this important choice with a sufficiently high level of confidence.

There is a natural tendency to ensure that the TMS will satisfy every single requirement and, if so, that it is configured to support all of them by the time it goes live. While the main providers will probably satisfy the majority of functionality requirements, including bank and dealing platform interfaces, it is not necessarily a good idea to try and go live on all functionalities. A distinction needs to be drawn between ‘must haves’ and ‘desirables’ on go-live. It is important for the customer to be firm on this point or risk project slippage and extra cost. Sometimes areas such as accounting or parts of risk management may be carved out and implemented at a later point, as long as any dependencies have been set up correctly.

There were a few hitches during our implementation. These were possibly caused by responsibilities and expectations between respective parties. Either way, it is essential that when a system is implemented the customer fully understands how the system is configured and consequent dependencies in order to keep any re-work to a minimum.

When selecting our TMS we didn’t really consider any other vendors, as the inherent bank communication function was our key requirement. However, my advice on the evaluation process would be to suggest organising a test pack of transactions along with expected output results under various scenarios. The configuration of a database may be an unwelcome overhead from a potential supplier’s point of view, but as a customer it is important to be confident that the system will meet your main requirements. Second, ask for a reference visit and meet with people who have lived with the system.

We use tm5 from BELLIN. Initially only our Vienna and Singapore treasury centres were using the system to maintain FX positions. Both were very happy with the system and support. We then considered tm5 for our broader treasury needs since it offers cash management and payments functionality. The fact that the system is delivered via application service provider (ASP) is also a plus. But a major deciding factor was the willingness of BELLIN to develop a collaborative partnership with us. This was critical since Flextronics is a large company with a complex structure of hundreds of subsidiaries operating in 30 countries.

We’re using IT2. As a start-up treasury in a demerging company we had no room for slippage in our timetable for selection and implementation. I had to be confident that IT2 could deliver the solution we needed. I was impressed by IT2’s process management facilities, ease of reporting and functional completeness. Above all else, I developed the necessary level of trust in the IT2 team - that they understood our needs, and that they had both the means and commitment to fulfil them. I felt that IT2 would fully support the realisation of my vision for treasury.

IT2 was selected some years ago when Bank of America offered it to their cash management customers. The overriding reason for choosing the system was its ability to seamlessly transmit payments and import bank statements without having to use an additional system. Second, we wanted a system that was relatively easy to implement, was intuitive and could be accessed remotely as we had plans to commence a European treasury function. We needed a tool to consolidate all the region’s cash flows, thereby gaining visibility of both daily and future cash positions. Our requirements in terms of types of transaction capture were, and still are, fairly straightforward.

16


In the days before treasury management systems (TMS) or other specialist treasury software was available, many of the larger

corporate treasuries built their own systems in-house. Some of these homegrown systems became so successful that new companies were created to commercially market the systems. In other cases, technology companies saw a window of opportunity and bought the rights to the systems, incorporating them into their own treasury product suite.

With the growth of the TMS market, in particular, most companies realised that there was no longer a need to build in-house. Although this sentiment is still quite prevalent, I have recently spoken to a number of corporates who decided to build their own treasury technology. I found this very surprising and decided to investigate further.

The main reason not to build your own TMS often comes down to cost. And there is certainly an argument here. Surely it is cheaper to buy a system than to build one yourself? Most treasury systems vendors would certainly agree with this. Another reason to buy instead of build is that existing off-the-shelf systems should have the functionality to give you everything you could ever need and more.

It is precisely these two arguments, however, that are used by corporates who have built their own systems to justify why they have done so. On the cost side, the companies that I have spoken to argue that the main reason they have built in-house is because the systems they investigated did not give them the functionality they needed. To add this functionality, they say, would have cost them a lot of money and did

not guarantee they would get what they had asked for in the first place.

What is typical of these corporates is the belief that they are unique in their requirements and off-the-shelf software just does not satisfy these needs. All the companies I spoke to said that they went through an evaluation process of standard systems and in the end concluded that there was a compelling case to build their own.

There are a number of other factors that they see as important. Within companies that build their own systems, there is a great belief in their IT department. Treasury and IT work well together. Development teams exist which understand the individual treasury requirements and can provide the aftercare support that is crucial. There is also a lot of focus on flexibility. One company told me that they place

huge value on the fact that they can make changes to their systems at any time and that the work gets done quickly, on time and to an agreed budget. This is important, particularly in a fast-paced treasury environment.

I cannot truly believe that, all costs considered, it is cheaper to build your own treasury systems. But there are also other considerations that need to be examined. One of the biggest headaches that treasury departments experience is the linking of disparate systems, otherwise known as interfacing. This raises inevitable questions, such as who is responsible for interfacing two or three systems from different vendors, and who supports them once established always causes discussions. If you build your own, then this problem is seen as more controllable.

A recent Association for Financial Professionals, (AFP) survey adds some useful data to the discussion. The study revealed that in general, high-volume activities tend to be more automated

To Build or toBuy?

Activity RateProcess electronic fund transfers 84%Produce accounting entries 65%Manage cash positions 48%Manage short term investments 36%Manage in-house bank accounts 37%Manage cash flows 29%Manage long term investments 29%Manage debt 25%Manage policies and procedures 19%Develop cash flow forecasts 17%Manage financial risk 18%Manage banking relationships 14%Analyse bank fees 6%

Rate reflects the percentage of respondents that significantly use technology within the particular business process.

In general, high-volume activities tend to be more automated than activities that are knowledge intensive.

The number of observations of the automated peer group relative to the manual peer prohibited the statistically valid conclusions regarding impact of automation on costs, resource requirements, and cycle times.

AUTOMATION

David Kelin, partner at Zanders, looks at the reasons some

corporate treasuries are turning their backs on off-the-shelf treasury

management systems (TMS) and looking to build their own in-house.

Source: Association for Financial Professionals’ Annual Treasury Benchmarking Survey 2009

17


than activities that are knowledge intensive. This conclusion agrees with what was generally understood: technology is very useful for automating those activities that may have been centralised but require a lot of manual effort. This would include such activities as payments, managing cash positions, creating accounting entries, etc.

It is interesting to note that many corporates use the argument that technology frees people up from the somewhat mundane treasury activities. This means that they can concentrate on the more decision-making activities, thus making their roles more interesting and rewarding. This study agrees with that premise. However if this is true, then technology is not being used as much for those decision-making activities as previously thought. At the bottom of the list are activities such as cash flow forecasting, managing risk, and analysing bank fees. These are activities that require decision-making based on data presumably derived from treasury systems.

Returning to the question of buy versus build, the research indicates that those companies who opted to build did so because they were unable to find a system that fitted their needs and they all had a very strong in-house

IT team who were supportive of the approach. They felt that their treasury had unique requirements that could not be met by off-the-shelf systems.

However, this is an expensive approach. For the majority of corporates there are systems available which will cover the majority of their needs. Research indicates that the greatest failure by a corporate is not making full use of the system once it is installed. This must also be a failure of the system vendor, as surely it is in their interest to make sure that their clients use the system in the best way possible. It seems that at least some companies have had enough and voted with their feet. However, one thing is certain - to build your own implies that you must have deep pockets. �

19


1. ConsultancyWhatever it takes to set up the project and run it, even working to tight timelines, a team of professionals will guide, consult and help the company to achieve its committed objectives.

Implementation management and monitoring.Group-wide supervision and support, considering all the

different aspects and requirements of local treasury business.Process review and optimisation, e.g. for cash pools, hedging

analysis and strategies, domestic and international payment processing, and liquidity forecasting.

Temporary staff.

2. Softwaretm5 - LoadBalancedTreasury

The core idea behind tm5 is the concept of ‘load balanced treasury’. Business logic and technical architecture supports this concept. It is all about bringing the system to the local user for their benefit, instead of centralising tasks in one spot. Local teams, including central treasury, can operate on their own terms - replacing spreadsheets and exchanging data with other companies and organisations for reconciliation purposes. This has tremendous advantages for all companies and departments within complex organisations. With BELLIN, everyone operates their local treasury requirements from one platform, which contains all the information. The central treasury retrieves whatever is required to run treasury management, effectively replacing the daily task of data collection. tm5 does not only offer daily cash management capability, including multi-bank and multinational e-banking solutions, but also flexible mid- and long-term liquidity forecasting. Additionally BELLIN offers solutions for clearing internal payment flows, as well as single invoice-based reconciliation for intercompany balances. BELLIN clients have recently won the Adam Smith Awards and twice rated ‘highly commended’.

Small business international payment processing with BELLIN’s hosted solution Payment2Go. “Most companies accept banks just like the weather. With our multi-bank and multinational web portal, all you need is a URL and a password. Now the company can concentrate on their core business and gets independent from systems offered by banks. Since it is a fully-hosted solution,

if there is any trouble during the operation, we fix the problem or provide you with a consultant at your side for further assistance at any time. I am convinced that this will be the future in the day-to-day banking business - and this is even more interesting for small and medium-sized companies,” says Martin Bellin.

3. ServicesBELLIN provides the full range of services for your treasury:

ConsultingApplication implementation, configuration and customisation.Complete treasury reviews.Optimisation of processes and strategies. Temporary staff members.

Softwaretm5 - a fully web-based solution for global treasuries in different configurations.tm5 classic for international operating multinationals.tm5 limited with a certain extend in configuration and usability.tm5 light for smaller businesses but high complexity.Payment2Go - the web-based SaaS payment platform.

ServicesFinancing options for the purchase and rental of the end user licence. Hosting, ASP and SaaS.Worldwide local support for all subsidiaries.Market data.Connectivity for payment processing to several banks (Citi, Deutsche Bank, Bank of America. Lloyds and many more) and organisations such as SWIFT.

BELLIN is one of the leading providers of fully-integrated solutions for corporate treasurers. BELLIN provides hundreds of corporations and thousands of associated companies around the globe with completely web-based treasury management systems (TMS) and integrated payment gateways. The design of the solutions allows companies of various sizes to optimise internal processes and to fulfil compliance and security requirements. Corporates ranging from mid-caps to large multinationals, such as Virgin Atlantic Airways, Semikron, Flextronics or Liebherr, are happy

with a system implementation process that adheres to tight timelines and budget. BELLIN’s solutions include cash management, payment processing, liquidity planning, deal capture, risk management, intercompany reconciliation and netting, and credit management.

BELLIN’s experiences are based on in-depth knowledge of treasury processes. Most of the consultants are former treasurers with many years of experience. That is why BELLIN offers consultancy around treasury processes in addition to software solutions. Our customers

are helped to merge their business processes with the capabilities of powerful systems in the best possible way. Other services are application service provider (ASP), software-as-a-service (SaaS) and hosting of systems with up to 24/7 hotline support, market data provision and local support.

The BELLIN partner network covers local services in Germany (where its headquarters is located), Canada, the UK, Sweden, France and Austria.

CONTACT INFORMATIONFor further information please contact our sales department:Ettenheim/Germany - Tel: +49 7822 4460 0 Vancouver / Canada - Tel: +1 604 677 2593 100Email: [email protected]: www.bellin.de

BELLIN

PRODUCTS & SERVICES

www.it2tms.com

“

21


IT2 enables cost effective best practice treasury solutions to be implemented by treasuries of all sizes and levels of complexity. IT2 is shipped with libraries of best practice treasury processes, reports and interfaces, providing a secure base for accelerated implementation. In operation, IT2’s treasury processes enable workflows, policy, and automatically-updating documentation to be combined into one integral and complete solution, for cash, treasury and financial risk management, including hedge accounting solutions and a fully-integrated nominal ledger.

IT2 includes up-to-date integral solutions for managing and analysing counterparty risk, and for bank account administration (including eBAM), providing visibility of enterprise-wide cash and financial risk, in real time. IT2 solutions are fully scalable, and can flexibly be extended for the management of assets, commodities, futures, leases, payment factories and capital markets operations, where needed, for the complete fulfillment of client requirements.

IT2 solutions provide very high levels of security, control and transparency. Detailed audit trails of all treasury activities provide further levels of reassurance of operational accuracy and robustness to internal and external auditors.

IT2 NET facilitates 24/7 web-based communications between treasury and global networks of remote business units, supporting deal requests, netting invoice transmission, cash forecasting and reporting, including external and in-house bank statement distribution.

IT2’s uniquely integrated and complete solution enables treasury teams to focus on their professional duties, with full confidence in the high quality of the underlying technology.

IT2 Treasury Solutions’ worldwide team of more than 100 treasury technology professionals is 100% dedicated to the design, development, delivery and support of the IT2 Treasury Management System. IT2’s activities are firmly centered on our core corporate competencies of treasury expertise, software innovation and service excellence.

There are more than 230 IT2 clients worldwide,

80% of which are corporate treasuries; the remainder comprises a diverse range of financial institution treasuries. IT2’s clients are distributed across Europe, North America, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and South Africa, and include blue chip organisations such as GSK, Etihad Airways, Hysan Development Co, Pirelli International, SABMiller, Tyco International and Volkswagen International Finance.

CONTACT INFORMATIONIT2 UK Eyot Gardens House, 23 Eyot Gardens London W6 9TR Tel: +44 20 8741 3553

IT2 USA 12th Floor, 1515 Broadway New York, NY 10036 Tel: +1 212 520 6612

IT2 Hong Kong Suite 8, 20F One International Finance Centre 1 Harbour View Street, Central Tel: +852 2167 8111

Email: [email protected]

IT2 Treasury Solutions

PRODUCTS & SERVICES

The secure route to treasury best practice

GTreasury provides the ONE Enterprise Treasury Platform for both web-based application service provider (ASP)/software-as-a-service (SaaS) services and on-site treasury workstation installations to over 350 companies in 90 countries. All support and development efforts and those of its partners and clients are focused on one seamless system.

GTreasury is totally dedicated to serving the treasury management functions of government agencies, corporations, and banks worldwide. This is our only business. All of our company’s support and development efforts and those of our partners and clients are focused on a single, seamless system. We firmly believe this approach results in a richer product line, lower overall costs, long-term security, and a proven choice for our users.

“One of our biggest wins with GTreasury was our ability to use the core product with minimal customisation. This speaks to the completeness of the system. Minimal custom work also reduces the risk we have when we upgrade to the next generation of the GTreasury system and being able to use the core product allowed us to go live very quickly.”

- John Boudreau - TreasurerSABIC Innovative Plastics, Pittsfield, MA

BenefitsGlobal visibility and transaction initiation on all bank accounts.Scalable - over 50 modules.Configurable - user friendly.Single platform - both ASP/SaaS and on-site.Experience - personnel have on average 15 years industry experience.High performance.Proven.

Why GTreasury?Outstanding customer service.Overall ease of use coupled with comprehensive functionality that is unparalleled in the marketplace.ONE focus on treasury management systems (TMS).

Core FunctionsDynamic cash positioning.Robust reporting.Secured funds transfers.Enhanced forecasting.Adaptable dashboards and graphs.Flexible back office integration.Advanced account reconciliation.Comprehensive debt and investment management.Foreign exchange (FX) exposure management.Bank and account administration.Bank fee analysis.

PRODUCTS & SERVICES

CONTACT INFORMATIONG Treasury SS, LLC3 Corporate Drive, Suite 110, Lake Zurich, IL 60047Tel: 847.847.3706 Fax: 847.847.3716 Website: www.gtreasury.com

Wall Street Systems (Wallstreet) helps corporations of all sizes manage liquidity, cash flow, achieve effective risk management and transform their treasury operations.

For the mid-sized corporation, Wallstreet delivers integrated, on-demand and cost-effective treasury solutions for all aspects of corporate treasury requirements. Powerful cash, deal and risk management, together with integrated accounting to meet regulatory requirements, are made available via simple web browsers.

For the world’s largest and most sophisticated treasury operations, Wallstreet delivers simplification of complex treasury through a single integrated and strategic platform. With immediate visibility and control; compliance, payment volumes, parallel accounting (multiple GAAP), multiple in-house banks and integrated payments, Wallstreet ensures unprecedented treasury return on investment (ROI) and risk mitigation.

Wallstreet also now offers a leading electronic bank account management (eBAM) solution, enabling your company to manage bank data, corporate signatories and account exposures across all global accounts rapidly, accurately and securely.

Corporations who use a treasury solution from Wallstreet have the peace

of mind of working with a long-established, financially robust solutions partner. Wallstreet has the world’s largest global treasury systems practice with more than 75 go-lives each year, 2,000 people years of expertise and many senior industry figures. And with an unrivalled implementation track record, Wallstreet clients know their treasury operations are in safe hands.

With the recent incorporation of City Financials and Speranza Systems, now more than 250 of the world’s leading corporations rely on treasury solutions from Wallstreet. Clients

include GE, IBM, Toyota, Daimler, Merck & Co, Fujitsu, Kellogg’s, Volvo, Nasdaq and Vodafone.

Wall Street Systems has a 20-year heritage and an outstanding reputation for quality and responsive service. The company is a privately held corporation, and is majority owned by Warburg Pincus, a global private equity investor. It operates out of 13 offices worldwide.

CONTACT INFORMATIONEmail: [email protected]: www.wallstreetsystems.com

Wall Street Systems

23


MyTreasury is the leading global electronic trading platform specifically designed to meet the money market and foreign exchange (FX) trading needs of treasury investors. It is part of the electronic broking division of ICAP, the world’s premier interdealer broker and supplier of post trade services.

MyTreasury was launched initially to offer offshore money market funds (MMFs) to European treasury investors, now has 100% of IMMFA MMF providers live on the platform and offers over 250 share classes across

more than 140 funds. MyTreasury has over 400 individual users in over 220 investor organisations ranging from local governments through all sizes of corporates to major financial institutions.

MyTreasury is the only trading platform to offer fully automated trading with all funds, requiring no manual intervention and no assignment of trading authority to the third party platform provider. MyTreasury has also been integrated with all the major treasury management systems (TMS) to deliver fully

automated trade booking and settlement. MyTreasury has extended its geographical

operations to include Hong Kong, China and Singapore as well as into the US with the addition of onshore funds to the platform. The scope of the platform is currently being extended to offer term deposits, certificates of deposit and FX by the end of 4Q10.

Website: www.mytreasury.com Tel: +44 (0)20 7000 5163Email: [email protected]

With almost 30 years of experience in cash management solutions, OpusCapita helps companies to become more agile and efficient by automating financial processes. The fourth-generation software, OpusCapita 4G, is groundbreaking in its field and the most user-friendly finance software available anywhere.

OpusCapita’s customers include thousands

of companies and public sector organisations in the Nordic countries and the software is used in more than 50 countries. The company collaborates with banks, information providers and other software vendors to provide organisations with the best possible solutions for cash flow automation.

OpusCapita’s 120 financial management

and IT professionals work in offices in Helsinki, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Tampere. In 2009, the turnover was over €13.8m. OpusCapita was established in 1984 and is privately owned.

Website: www.opuscapita.com Tel: +358 207 463 200Email: [email protected]

AvantGard offers a full suite of solutions for liquidity management focused on treasury, payments and receivables management. In addition, AvantGard offers connectivity from these solutions out to a broader ecosystem including FX management, eBAM, SWIFT, banks, collection agencies, credit data, market data, money market funds (MMFs) and more. Further, as a SWIFT Global Partner, SunGard AvantGard helps corporations improve corporate-to-bank connectivity, which includes

providing several options to connect to the SWIFT Network and to manage that connection. From basic cash management to sophisticated risk analysis, investment/debt management, trading, netting, etc. AvantGard Treasury can meet a wide range of requirements.

The AvantGard global services team delivers domain expertise and best practices as part of a full-scale implementation with detailed training, and ongoing support services. ASP, hosted solution and managed

services delivery are also available to help reduce total cost of ownership and offer a comprehensive approach to solution delivery. Over 2,500 organisations and more than 25,000 professionals in 40 countries rely on AvantGard to gain real-time view of global cash and risk; improve cash flow and lower DSO; mitigate corporate credit risk; expedite payments execution and manage banking relationships.

Website: www.sungard.com/avantgard

Treasura brings the power of a robust treasury management solution (TMS) to the web, enabling increased productivity at lower costs and implementation timeframes, while eliminating the need for IT maintenance and support. Treasura is the most highly adopted web-based treasury solution leveraging 20 years of experience serving the needs of treasury professionals.

With Treasura, you can:Automate data gathering to eliminate

delays and errors from manual processes. Organise your treasury information to

fit the operation and management of your

treasury processes. Gain a consolidated view of your

cash positions across multiple banks, currencies, and business segments.

Implement sophisticated rules to ensure policy compliance.

Conduct in-depth cash and forecast performance analysis.

Manage your portfolio of investments, debt, FX, and derivatives.

Improve controls with automation and audit-friendly workflows

Why choose Treasura?100% web-based: access Treasura

from anywhere, at any time, without ever compromising your security and control processes. If you know how to use the web, you know how to use Treasura.

Cost-effective: Treasura is subscribed to ‘as you go’ for only the modules you need.

No software to install: minimise your implementation costs and timeframes, and your need for internal IT support.

Website:http://financial.thomsonreuters.com/treasuraTel: +1 (604) 682-2862Email: [email protected]

MyTreasury

OpusCapita

SunGard AvantGard

Thomson Reuters - Treasura

24


SYSTEM NAME ACORN ATOM BELLIN TM5 CHESAPEAKE FINACLESYSTEMS TREASURY

SMARTTREASURY

1. Dealing - Financial Instruments

Foreign exchange

Spot � � � � �Forwards � � � � �Foreign exchange (FX) swaps � � � � �FX options (over-the-counter (OTC)) � � � � �

Debt interest rate products

Money market loans and deposits � � � � �Bankers’ acceptances � � � � �Euro commercial paper (ECP) - discounted, multicurrency � � � � �Euro medium-term note (EMTN): multicurrency � � � � �Bonds: ad hoc � � � � �Money market funds (MMFs): investments � � � � �Securities � � � � �

Derivatives

Short-term: forward rate agreements (FRAs) - multicurrency � � � � �Interest rate swaps � � � � �Cross currency swaps � � � � �Swaptions � � � � �Interest rate options � � � � �Financial futures � � � � �

Electronic dealing

Can the system link to one of the main e-dealing systems such as 360T, Currenex or FXall? � � � � �

2. Cash Management

Balance and transaction management

Automated scheduled delivery of bank balance and transaction reports. � � � � �Manual delivery of bank balance information and transaction reports. � � � � �

Reconciliation

Automated scheduled reconciliation of bank statements and TMS position. � � � � �Manual reconciliation on an ad hoc basis. � � � � �Ability to import a reconciliation file from an external source, such as SAP. � � � � �Performed within the TMS on a total balance basis. � � � � �

Forecasting

Ability to record and report treasury transaction flows. � � � � �Ability to record and report interest flows. � � � � �Ability to record and report cash calls (inter-company funding). � � � � �Ability to perform comparative analysis between forecast and actual figures. � � � � �

Confirmations

Ability to link to a confirmation matching service? � � � � �

3. Accounting

Support an internal and integrated, ledger or sub-ledgers? � � � � �Provide an interface to an external accounting system? � � � � �

4. Reporting

Maintain a library of reports that a user can adapt? � � � � �Have a internal report writing feature? � � � � �Link to an third party report writing tool? � � � � �

5. Security

Does the TMS conform with security principles, such as ‘four eyes’, segregation of duties, etc? � � � � �

6. Risk

Is there a risk management module that allows users to calculate and measure risk? � � � � �

7. Target Company Size

Small (US$500m and below) � � � � �Medium-sized (between US$500m and US$1bn) � � � � �Large (greater than US$1bn) � � � � �

TMS Functionality Survey 2010

25


FINDUR - FINLOGIK FTI STAR GTREASURY HANSE ORGA INTEGRATED IT2 KYRIBACORPORATE TREASURY TREASURY TREASURY

SOLUTION WORKSTATION SYSTEM (ITS)

� � � � � � � �

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� � � � � � � �

� full functionality, � some functionality, �no functionality

Only those vendors that filled out the gtnews TMS Functionality Survey between July - September 2010 are included

26


SYSTEM NAME MICROGEN OLYMPIC OPENLINK OPUSCAPITA ORACLE -MUSKETEER BANKING FINDUR FLEXCUBE

SYSTEM

1. Dealing - Financial Instruments

Foreign exchange

Spot � � � � �Forwards � � � � �Foreign exchange (FX) swaps � � � � �FX options (over-the-counter (OTC)) � � � � �

Debt interest rate products

Money market loans and deposits � � � � �Bankers’ acceptances � � � � �Euro commercial paper (ECP) - discounted, multicurrency � � � � �Euro medium-term note (EMTN): multicurrency � � � � �Bonds: ad hoc � � � � �Money market funds (MMFs): investments � � � � �Securities � � � � �

Derivatives

Short-term: forward rate agreements (FRAs) - multicurrency � � � � �Interest rate swaps � � � � �Cross currency swaps � � � � �Swaptions � � � � �Interest rate options � � � � �Financial futures � � � � �

Electronic dealing

Can the system link to one of the main e-dealing systems such as 360T, Currenex or FXall? � � � � �

2. Cash Management

Balance and transaction management

Automated scheduled delivery of bank balance and transaction reports. � � � � �Manual delivery of bank balance information and transaction reports. � � � � �

Reconciliation

Automated scheduled reconciliation of bank statements and TMS position. � � � � �Manual reconciliation on an ad hoc basis. � � � � �Ability to import a reconciliation file from an external source, such as SAP. � � � � �Performed within the TMS on a total balance basis. � � � � �

Forecasting

Ability to record and report treasury transaction flows. � � � � �Ability to record and report interest flows. � � � � �Ability to record and report cash calls (inter-company funding). � � � � �Ability to perform comparative analysis between forecast and actual figures. � � � � �

Confirmations

Ability to link to a confirmation matching service? � � � � �

3. Accounting

Support an internal and integrated, ledger or sub-ledgers? � � � � �Provide an interface to an external accounting system? � � � � �

4. Reporting

Maintain a library of reports that a user can adapt? � � � � �Have a internal report writing feature? � � � � �Link to an third party report writing tool? � � � � �

5. Security

Does the TMS conform with security principles, such as ‘four eyes’, segregation of duties, etc? � � � � �

6. Risk

Is there a risk management module that allows users to calculate and measure risk? � � � � �

7. Target Company Size

Small (US$500m and below) � � � � �Medium-sized (between US$500m and US$1bn) � � � � �Large (greater than US$1bn) � � � � �

TMS Functionality Survey 2010

27


PARITY PLATFORMA SALMON SPECTRUM THOMSON WALLSTREET WALLSTREET WALLSTREETTMS FOR TREASURER REUTERS TREASURY CITY SUITE

WINDOWS TREASURA FINANCIALS

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Only those vendors that filled out the gtnews TMS Functionality Survey between July - September 2010 are included

� full functionality, � some functionality, �no functionality

The Global Corporate Treasury Awards, sponsored by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, pays tribute to treasury innovation that has contributed to the success of a corporation’s business.

www.gtnewsawards.com

Sponsored by

gtnews would like to congratulate all of the 2010 category winners.

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