Treasury Software Solutions | Global Cash Management System
When it comes to IT investment, treasury has lagged behind other areas such as finance and operations. Bank connectivity started in the 1980s and 90s with banking portals. In the early 2000s, we witnessed a cascade of treasury-related IT investments, moving from the generic “treasury software” reference to “treasury tools,” to “treasury workstations,” then “treasury systems” and “treasury management solutions.” All of these platforms help with cash management and liquidity management, but they added more layers of complexity and cost, while reducing technology ROI and increasing the risk of fraud and malware attacks for corporate companies.
All these IT iterations demanded upfront IT investments, required significant financial resources, and depended on host-to-host connections with each individual bank to access data from bank accounts and financial transactions. Companies paid hefty perpetual license fees for these treasury workstations, and had to make additional payments for systems upgrades with the latest functionality. Customer service was an additional cost and implementation was painful and expensive, further hurting overall customer experience.
If treasury wanted enhancements reflecting their best practices, the enterprise – not the system provider – had to pay for it; essentially, each client was paying for improvements that all the other clients would enjoy, a “rising tide lifts all boats” approach that could drown the initiating treasury software client with costs.
Bank connectivity has also changed: host-to-host connectivity was never designed to be real-time detailed bank account data, it was intended to move large batches of bank account data, not individual transaction information. Technology has changed which means host-to-host is no longer the best way to connect to your banks, and those types of connections are quickly becoming obsolete by the newer, faster and more secure technology of bank APIs, making the ability to further optimize liquidity management a reality.
