MEMO to IT: Multi-Cloud Environments for Your Banking & Payments

The singular, consolidated cloud-based systems architecture for ERPs and the needed connectivity between those systems and partner banks is being redefined. Prior to the evolution and migration of ERPs and early treasury management systems to cloud-based hosted models, the shift from prevailing client-server architecture often led the consolidation of as many modules and processes into single, albeit complex, highly configurable financial and operational solutions. Prior to the cloud, client-server ERPs had levels of integration and linkages across varied relational database tables, but these were still relational databases subject to all the limitations and performance issues any other database and client-server architecture presented.

Shifting to a Multi-Cloud Platform for Banking Connectivity

New technology standards and capabilities like application processing interfaces (APIs) have resulted in a merging of various cloud ‘layers’ each delivering a distinct advantage with regards to specific function, project timelines and value. Now, the use of multiple cloud-based solutions with these specific advantages is becoming a new standard for accelerating and supporting faster integrations. These cloud layers bring the leading practice capabilities of the designated function whether it be in support of sales, procurement or most commonly finance into a multi-cloud environment.

One Cloud ERP, Multiple Data Sources

Regardless of the ERP or industry the organization operates within, IT teams supporting finance have a distinct requirement to provide connections to outside cloud solutions. Whether it is a partner bank, market-data provider, tax portal, procurement solution or other specialized application for CRM. The integration of all these varied solutions calls for a multi-cloud, layered approach. Multiple sources of critical data used for decision-making create a quandary for IT: project timelines and the acceleration of various decision-making by executive leadership teams drives the need for faster and specialized cloud solutions.

An Example: Continuous Support Needs for Banking Connectivity

In looking at one example of a primary foundational element of financial systems project, but one often overlooked, is the critical area of bank connectivity, bank statement reporting and payments file delivery. This has historically been the most difficult and onerous task IT owns not only due to the difficulty some corporate IT organizations have in deciphering local and regional banking needs, but also the criticality of the payments workstream for accounts payable and treasury. In fact, in a recent CIO Pulse survey, 91% of IT leaders agree that bank connectivity is one of the most complex aspects of an ERP project.

Help for IT organizations

The use of a multi-cloud, integrative approach delivers value for IT while decreasing overall TCO after go-live. This can be accomplished through leading solutions that include APIs as well as pre-existing connections and payment file formats. From a banking perspective, the development of APIs and close partnerships with vendors can open platforms making ERP-to-bank integration projects faster and easier through the delivery of pre-programmed and pre-tested connectors. Project ‘phases’ are now turning into ‘validation steps’ because the interface between ERP and bank has been built and tested already – it is now a matter of implementation testing prior to production. This has helped expedite bank connectivity projects by months and years, slashing timelines and eliminating significant PMO time which the CIO can repurpose to other ERP projects. Testing time is further reduced with pre-existing configuration and file formats.

The CIO Driving Value for Finance and Treasury

Driven by the need for automation and improved financial controls in the face of fraud and other threats, CIOs must engage and partner with CFOs and others from the executive leadership to collaborate on how to achieve a successful, but quick ERP project.

CIOs, in establishing project teams and securing solutions vendors must select vendors with a focus on quick wins with out of the box capabilities. Banking and payment connectivity is a frequent target for CIO teams seeking improved efficiencies because of the historical tendency for ERP-to-bank integrations to stall due to project management challenges, on-the-fly development, and extensive back and forth testing with banking partners.

Accelerating your ERP migration or other systems integrations project, while fraught with challenges and risks, is proven to be made easier when corporate IT and finance use Kyriba as a selected partner. As part of your selection criteria as a CIO, CTO or CFO, a key component of these migrations should include pre-tested, pre-delivered banking connections along with pre-configured global payment formats. Working with both regional and global banking partners or other integrations should take weeks, not months to connect the bank to your ERP and systems. Additionally, the laborious, iterative approach of developing file formats and testing those with the banks while trying to decipher the bank’s specifications goes away when partnered with Kyriba due to our:

• Easy to use, pre-built, pre-tested bank functionality can accelerate global banking connectivity projects by more than 80 percent
• Accelerated ‘Time to Value’ for your finance and treasury teams
• Reduced project team involvement and staffing levels
• Delivery of accurate domestic and cross-border payment files, meeting the clearing system and specific country requirements
• Delivering more monitoring/notification capabilities and UI for your customers
• Payment File Transmissions, OFAC screening, and payment status reporting
• Fraud detection and account validation before files are transmitted to your pre-processing / front-end systems
• A pre-built format library supporting over 800 bank format variations and over 50K bank testing scenarios globally for thousands of banks
• Integrated global bank connectivity delivers out-of-the-box connectivity, including APIs and Fraud Detection and Compliance
• SFTP and API, taking all payment files into Kyriba’s prebuilt interfaces with no code specs needed from IT
• Management of ongoing maintenance and support

Also, as a certified SAP partner, Kyriba continues to expand the value delivered to SAP customers through accelerating banking and payments projects, greater payments control and centralizing and automating payment workflows. The SAP Integration and Certification Center (SAP ICC) has certified Kyriba’s Payments Network integrations for deployment on SAP S/4HANA and SAP ERP 6.0 (certifications).

Visit Kyriba’s ERP Cloud Migration to learn more about how we solve problems for IT undertaking ERP migrations, upgrades, or greenfield implementations.