Erfolgsgeschichten

In 2020, Cooke Aquaculture introduced Cooke Bank as a concept for centralizing its global liquidity and FX exposure. Between October 2020 and April 2021, a multi-layered, fully tax and transfer pricing compliant In-house Bank...

In 2020, Cooke Aquaculture introduced Cooke Bank as a concept for centralizing its global liquidity and FX exposure. Between October 2020 and April 2021, a multi-layered, fully tax and transfer pricing compliant In-house Bank (IHB) Solution was configured in Kyriba with a fully automated current-account relationship between treasury and operating units. “The primary goal of the in-house bank model was to internalize as many transactions as possible using the resources available in order to unlock liquidity.” Onaolapo Badejoko Treasury Risk Manager, Cooke Aquaculture Inc. Cooke Aquaculture has a robust growth strategy, including acquisitions and ongoing strategic search for development opportunities. The company’s global operations journey resulted in the need for Cooke to develop a Treasury function that would make cash a corporate resource across the enterprise and unlock liquidity. “Our in-house bank success story has led to a lot of cost savings. In terms of the payment factory rollout where all payments flow into one location, we now have control over when and how to pay, as well as over who gets paid. This has led to economies of scale, payment process efficiency, and full control over liquidity, group-wide.” Onaolapo Badejoko Treasury Risk Manager, Cooke Aquaculture Inc. Key Challenges with Legacy Processes • Decentralized Cash Management • Decentralized & manual payment processing • Poor access to surplus cash balances • Complex, manual processing of intercompany liabilities • Multi-layered fiscal structure • Decentralized FX Management Objectives of In-house Bank Project • Implement tax compliant, multi-layered in‑house bank structure • Unlock otherwise trapped liquidity • Reduce number of cash management banks and bank accounts • Real-time, multi-currency liquidity management • Reduction in transaction costs / external money flows • Integration with ERP to support payments • Centralization of FX exposure management • Robust management and tax reporting “Cooke’s in-house bank promotes centralization and standardization of payment processes while enhancing controls. Their streamlined payment process reduced costs, improved cash liquidity and visibility, and minimized risk while increasing productivity.” Craig Chapman Senior Manager, Actualize Consulting Key Take-aways for Successful In-house Bank Implementation Timing » Engaged early with internal accounting, tax and legal teams » Sequencing workflow efficiently was critical for Cooke’s successful implementation Standardization » Simple structures from an implementation, adoption and performance standpoint resulted in 100% accurate and automated accounting and reconciliation » Implemented a standardized process across all entities Clarity » Established clear project roles and responsibilities » Set a roadmap, project plan and stuck to deadlines and due dates Integration » ERP integration eliminated excessive manual input » Unlocked 20% of full-time employees in the financial shared service center for more strategiclevel work Benefits of Successful In-house Bank and Payment Factory Implementation In-House Bank • Administration of intercompany (cash) liabilities • Cooke Bank is the liquidity provider of the whole group Payment Factory • Payment process efficiency • Control over WHEN and HOW to pay or get paid Additional Synergies • Cooke Bank becomes the perferred “banking partner” of affiliates • Reduced bank fees   About Cooke Aquaculture Cooke Aquaculture Inc. is a vertically-integrated family company based in Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick, Canada with salmon farming operations in Atlantic Canada, the United States (Maine and Washington), Chile and Scotland, as well as seabass and seabream farming operations in Spain.

Hunt Companies is at the forefront of the Real-Time Payments (RTP) movement. Adopting the technology to lower bank wire fees and reducing the time spent correcting rejected payments has already provided significant gains in...

Hunt Companies is at the forefront of the Real-Time Payments (RTP) movement. Adopting the technology to lower bank wire fees and reducing the time spent correcting rejected payments has already provided significant gains in both hard and soft savings. “I am very happy to be pioneering Real-Time Payments with Hunt Companies, as I want us to be there when it is widely accepted by more banks and not have to play catch up. It benefits every business line across the organization as we can reduce bank fees substantially on payments.” David Miller, Treasurer & Sr. Vice President, Hunt Companies Key Challenges: The volume of payments processed by Hunt Companies monthly resulted in significant bank fees. With wire transfers, often the rejection notification of the payment would come hours – even days – after the payment was shown as complete. Significant time was spent by the department to research and resend failed payments. Real-Time Benefits of Real-Time Payments Reduces bank fees from $6 on average for a wire transfer to less than $1 for RTP, with a potential for much greater savings as more banks are added An impactful number of productivity hours gained per month by Hunt’s finance team no longer needing to research and re-issue failed wire payments In just 3 months, Hunt Companies has seen a 375% increase in number of payments using RTP month-over-month, a number expected to grow exponentially as more banks are added and transaction size limits are increased. While currently less than 10% of Hunt’s payments are made using RTP, transaction size limits were only recently raised to $1M, already making an impact for Hunt. David Miller, Hunt’s Treasurer & Sr. Vice President, is eager to see the transaction limit continue to increase and more banks adopt RTP. The Hunt® trademark is registered to its respective holder and use of the trademark does not imply any affiliation with Kyriba or Real-Time Payments (RTP). To the best of our knowledge, the information contained herein is accurate and reliable; however, we do not assume any liability whatsoever for the accuracy and completeness of the above information and make no warranties which extend beyond the description contained herein. Any information given in this statement does not constitute any warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular use.

“During our implementation, we took the Big Bang approach of replacing our previous TMS, Payment Factory and many home-grown tools all at once. On Day 1 of “Go Live” we were successful in connecting...

“During our implementation, we took the Big Bang approach of replacing our previous TMS, Payment Factory and many home-grown tools all at once. On Day 1 of “Go Live” we were successful in connecting to our banks and making payments in over 20 currencies, with more than 250 users trained in 18 countries.” Scott PaulyTreasury Manager and Implementation Lead, Ingram Micro Inc. Day 1 Implementation Success Bank connections and payments in over 20 currencies Cash Management and Forecasting modules deployed for real time cash positioning and In-House Banking structure FX transactions seamlessly feeding from trading application Loan facilities and investment trading All data feeding upstream to financial reporting applications for enterprisewide visibility 250 users in 18 countries trained and operational at Go-Live for enterprisewide visibility   “Ingram Micro won the Implementation of the Year award for making the FX lifecycle into something that takes minutes per day instead of hours, and for making this highly complex and error prone process into something that runs like clockwork.” Leslie SlaterFounding Principal, 3PO Consulting, LLC

Hear first-hand from Kyriba clients how treasury transformation was realized through Kyriba’s innovation, technology and support. Treasury leaders at Specialized Bicycle Components, HealthCare Services Corporation, Cenveo Worldwide, Koch Industries, and LifeSpace Communities share their...

Hear first-hand from Kyriba clients how treasury transformation was realized through Kyriba’s innovation, technology and support. Treasury leaders at Specialized Bicycle Components, HealthCare Services Corporation, Cenveo Worldwide, Koch Industries, and LifeSpace Communities share their key challenges prior to implementing Kyriba, and highlight positive business results achieved with Kyriba. About Cenveo Worldwide Cenveo is the world leader in the management and distribution of print and related offerings, encompassing 20 facilities across the United States with a long history of delivering top value for customers. https://cenveo.com/ About Health Care Services Corporation Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC) is the fourth largest health insurer in the US, with revenues of $62 billion. A mutually owned company, it has 16 million health plan members, 20,000 employees and more than 30 operating subsidiaries. The treasury team, which consists of 41 people, is responsible for managing 14 bank relationships and more than 200 bank accounts. It also oversees $12 billion in cash management and investment assets, as well as $120 billion of cash transactions on an annual basis. https://www.hcsc.com/ About Koch Industries Koch Industries is one of the largest private companies in America. A diverse set of businesses and industries across the world work together to keep improving and exploring new ways to make life even better. https://www.kochind.com/ About LifeSpace Communities Lifespace Communities is a not-for-profit organization that owns and operates 14 continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) in seven states, serving more than 4,700 residents and employing nearly 3,700 team members. https://www.lifespacecommunities.com/ About Specialized Bicycle Components Founded on the principle of performance and fueled by innovation, our focus on the rider and their needs is our constant. From seasoned pros and weekend warriors, to kids and commuters—if you ride, we’re for you. The passion we have for sharing our love of bikes with the world can be seen in those who choose to work here. Headquartered in Morgan Hill, CA, the passionate and creative teammates at Specialized have designed and manufactured the world's most innovative bikes and gear since 1974. http://www.specialized.com

Dana Farber Cancer Institute implemented Kyriba after years of operating cash management and accounting in an ad hoc manner: Doing what was necessary but relying on significant manual processes and disparate systems. Behind their...

Dana Farber Cancer Institute implemented Kyriba after years of operating cash management and accounting in an ad hoc manner: Doing what was necessary but relying on significant manual processes and disparate systems. Behind their industry peers in process maturity, Dana Farber worked with Kyriba to quickly change all that. “In all these areas we've grown from all manual based to full automation, providing 100% visibility for strategic decision making. We are looking at realtime and on-demand cash visibility for a strategic cash forecast we can continually fine-tune.” Gerry DiStefano, Director of Treasury, Dana Farber Cancer Institute Key Challenges: Heavy manual, excel-based model resulted in excessive, unstructured and disparate functions in Treasury and Accounting. Limited visibility into cash positioning within their ERP and across the organization, as updates were only done at the end of the month. Strategic decision-making was near impossible without real-time cash positioning and forecasts. Positive Business Outcomes from Kyriba: Fully automated, insight-driven processes resulting in 228 hours per month saved - an 83% productivity improvement across the organization. Kyriba is capturing 98.4% of accounting activities, with 82% of accounting rules mapped. $925K in annual value realized in cash optimization and productivity Value Realization: 228 Hours Per Month Kyriba’s Value Realization Assessment (VRA) enabled Dana Farber Cancer Institute to provide the current state review post Kyriba deployment, resulting in 83% productivity improvement, including but not limited to: Cash Accounting & Reconciliation: 121 hours saved per month (81% improvement), plus 100% productivity improvement on reporting and posting inter-company cash transactions, financial transactions and month-end market valuations Daily Cash Positioning: 58 hours saved per month; 92% improvement Short and Long Term Cash Forecasting: 49 hours saved per month; 82% improvement “It’s nice to be in the strategic performance sector with benefits realized across the organization.” Gerry DiStefano, Director of Treasury, Dana Farber Cancer Institute Annual Hard Savings of $652K Increased interest income by nearly $215,000 annually Improved strategic business investment to $437,500 annually

BASF creates chemisty for a sustainable future. They combine economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. “With Kyriba, we implemented a tool that helped us achieve visibility into our global currency risk and...

BASF creates chemisty for a sustainable future. They combine economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. “With Kyriba, we implemented a tool that helped us achieve visibility into our global currency risk and FX position with the touch of a button.” Roland Heisecke, Director Treasury Risk Management, BASF SE The BASF Challenge BASF’s former FX Management process was based on a regional, decentralized approach to exposure reporting and risk transfer to HQ, making it nearly impossible for treasury to accurately calculate and mitigate FX risk on a global perspective. Identifying the Right Solution Kyriba Risk Management provided BASF with the opportunity to implement a streamlined, automated and universal FX management process across every region. An Automated FX Risk Transfer (ART) tool was also developed to analyze the FX risk positions of BASF’s subsidiaries and automatically generate hedge deals to transfer risk from the entity to HQ. Measuring Success » Significant reduction of manual effort » Increased transparency - daily updated overview of FX risks » Aggregation of FX risks reduced hedging costs  

Technology platform is key to support rapid growth in the PRC The Challenge Statements of more than 130 bank accounts required manual download from excel. The cash account types had to be manually marked...

Technology platform is key to support rapid growth in the PRC The Challenge Statements of more than 130 bank accounts required manual download from excel. The cash account types had to be manually marked on bank transactions details. It took 15 days to convert a cash flow report and the accuracy of the reports varied based on human coding errors. Cash management was fragmented and there was no cash planning with a lack of visibility on the global cash position. "By mastering cash flow trends of each business unit and combining actual business needs, we now have intelligent cash forecasting and variance analysis data to equip the team to maintain stable cash flow." An Shuang, Head of Treasury, Aihuishou International Co Ltd The Solution The company determined it needed to invest in its treasury team, improve its processes and implement a modern treasury solution. Initial requirements included the ability to centralise all bank accounts onto a single platform to reduce manual errors, gain time and efficiency, and the ability to improve cash management with real-time visibility of cash positions and balances and support expanding business overseas. Best Practice and Innovation The team required real-time, accurate data reporting for cash forecasting and positioning. Partnering with Kyriba empowered the team with a centralised cash management solution that delivered a daily cash report with regional and group level analyses. ESG is crucial to Aihuishou as it has two main businesses – mobile phone recycling and recycling of recyclable waste of residential life, which have made great contributions to environmental protection in China and around the world. Faced with the challenge from investors of financing ESG programmes with heavy fixed assets investment (CNY1bn), the treasury team solved this problem with lease financing. It reduced the big investment on fixed assets and strengthened their business and financial structure at the same time. Aihuishou has taken giant steps in the PRC with its technology platform partner. Its next step is to connect network payments (eg Alipay, WeChat payments and other third-party payments) to the platform to enable a large amount of transaction funds out of bank accounts into the payments hub to gain more financial control, advanced fraud protection and intelligent management of payments. While bottom line value is clearly a priority for Aihuishou, evidenced by the valuation the market placed on its initial public offering (IPO), the treasury team also prioritises ESG as a function of their treasury culture and ambition to build value across the enterprise. "Kyriba is very happy to congratulate our client, Aihuishou International Company, for being recognised as a best in class treasury solution in the People’s Republic of China. Kyriba is honoured to support Aihuishou’s global treasury operations and help modernise their cash, liquidity and treasury processes. By centralising visibility and optimising liquidity, the Aihuishou team has transformed into a world class treasury and is an example for others to follow, as treasury improves visibility, controls and productivity to unlock liquidity and drive business value across their organisations. Congratulations to the entire Aihuishou treasury team on your success.” Bob Stark, Global Head of Market Strategy, Kyriba Key Benefits 200+ domestic and overseas bank accounts centralised and managed on the platform, enabling real-time visibility into daily cash positions and balances. 400% improvement in cash flow reporting time from 15 to three days. Stabilised cash flow from intelligent cash forecasting and analyses that generated multiple ‘what if’ cash flow scenarios. Secured six months of cash stability with reliable cash positioning – gained valuable recognition from investors and capital markets. A fair, transparent, and secure supply chain finance (SCF) system has been established to support the enterprise’s vast e-business. CNY1bn reduction of fixed assets through a financial leasing method to support the enterprise’s light internet business.

“Kyriba provided a great tool that allowed us to delever nearly 30% just by knowing where our cash was, where it was needed, and getting it there in the most efficient manner, eliminating needless...

“Kyriba provided a great tool that allowed us to delever nearly 30% just by knowing where our cash was, where it was needed, and getting it there in the most efficient manner, eliminating needless borrowing. We are a very satisfied client. We utilize Kyriba every day. Kyriba is one of the easiest and most robust applications I have ever used.” Morty Mandel, Director of Finance Operating in over 25 countries, Bray International found themselves in spreadsheet chaos, with limited visibility into global cash positions, resulting in inefficient processes and needless borrowing. With Kyriba, they saw immediate deleverage results and value realization in global visibility and standardized forecasting, with significant gains in productivity. Before Kyriba Decentralized processes using multiple Excel spreadsheets Limited cash visibility resulting in needless borrowing. Non-standard cash forecasting Cumbersome and loss of confidentiality in payments Positive Outcomes with Kyriba Global and centralized visibility into cash positions Standardized cash forecasting Better utilization of cash to service debt Drastically reduced error rate Robust security and confidentiality Improved GL Reconciliation speed and accuracy Modules Implemented Cash Management Cash Forecasting Cash Accounting Financial Transactions Payments GL Reconciliation What’s Next Payment Factory FX Risk Management » 97% productivity gains in reconciliation processes » 30% deleverage even through Covid

“Where we have already seen a significant time-savings has been the payments module. In just a few months, having all the feeds into the system from various banks and ERPs, and automatically creating reports...

“Where we have already seen a significant time-savings has been the payments module. In just a few months, having all the feeds into the system from various banks and ERPs, and automatically creating reports and payments from those reports has shown incredible value to our organization. It has been night and day from where we were before.” Christopher Lynn, Cash Analyst As Lifespace looks to grow their number of communities nationwide, while maintaining best practices and efficiencies in Treasury, Kyriba has been able to adapt to their scale and size, tailoring the modules to accommodate budget while creating value. Before Kyriba Excel-based Daily Funding Multiple reports from multiple different sources Main Drivers to Kyriba Instant visibility into cash positioning Automation of payments process Adaptability to the smaller enterprise Modules Implemented Payments Cash Accounting What’s Next Cash Forecasting Debt & Investment Automated Reconciliation

How one of America’s largest privately held companies put Kyriba technology to work to centralize Treasury functions and achieve strategic level maturity. In 2018, Koch Industries worked with Kyriba’s Value Engineering team to perform...

How one of America’s largest privately held companies put Kyriba technology to work to centralize Treasury functions and achieve strategic level maturity. In 2018, Koch Industries worked with Kyriba’s Value Engineering team to perform a process maturity assessment for their treasury and finance functions. What they uncovered was a definitive need for a TMS to assist in realigning and improving internal processes. Key Challenges Lack of real-time visibility across their global banking landscape. Excessive labor intensity and process disparity in cash management and payment workflows. Ad-hoc bank account management due to sheer volume of banks worldwide. Journey to Digital Transformation While Koch was structured to operate in an Excel environment, their needs had outgrown the limited tools and capabilities Excel offered. Post implementation of Kyriba, Koch Treasury was able to: Achieve 90% on-demand cash visibility into global cash balances, standardizing systematic workflows. Become a better partner for finance and increased collaboration across the organization with centralized information and reporting. Establish themselves as a strategic operation, with best practices in place for operational efficiencies. “Kyriba has enabled us to achieve 90% on-demand cash visibility which meets our needs for daily liquidity management. Having insight as to where cash is and what our balances are globally and in real time, is a HUGE benefit from Kyriba. We never came close to the level of accuracy and efficiency we have now.” Mark Waggoner, Assistant Treasurer at Koch Industries Value Realization: Global Cash Visibility Prior to Kyriba, Koch’s entities operated independently when it came to cash management. When they made the strategic decision to bring all cash and bank management under one platform, they achieved full confidence in their daily cash positioning worldwide. They were also able to centralize treasury operations into one, global treasury team. “We now have a centralized tool that everyone uses globally to standardize how we manage cash and that has created efficiencies in our operating model.” Chris Mitchell, Treasury Director at Koch Industries Modernizing Payment Processes The project wasn’t to simply push all payments to Kyriba. It was a true exercise in modernizing the entire Koch infrastructure while still controlling costs. Kyriba’s payment libraries and standardized workflows improved: Connectivity as a Service through bank formatting and management. Payment visibility through a payments hub. Multiple ERPs connected for seamless workflows. Financial security through better system access controls. “Our payment processes were pretty antiquated before this project. We saw the opportunity with Kyriba to bring those up to more modern standards. It gives us a good platform moving forward to continue to modernize our payment platforms.” Mark Waggoner, Assistant Treasurer at Koch Industries About Koch Industries Koch Industries is one of the largest private companies in America. A diverse set of businesses and industries across the world work together to keep improving and exploring new ways to make life even better.

Enterprise Liquidity Management results in $490K value in less than 3 months Cenveo needed a way to improve visibility into overall liquidity and provide management on-demand insights into the performance of their strategic liquidity...

Enterprise Liquidity Management results in $490K value in less than 3 months Cenveo needed a way to improve visibility into overall liquidity and provide management on-demand insights into the performance of their strategic liquidity objectives. Their digital transformation in Enterprise Liquidity Management through Kyriba saw immediate, impactful results. Key Challenges Executive leadership needed reliable, real-time, actionable liquidity insights and on-demand scenario analysis. Disparate, labor intensive, and inconsistent treasury processes consumed 729 hours/month across a small team. Excessive labor intensity and process disparity in Cash Management, Cash Forecasting and Payment Workflows required more than seven hours a day to manage. Journey to Digital Transformation Consulting firm Clearsulting executed a wholistic evaluation of people, systems, and processes, highlighting the need for liquidity management software. Once the requirements were understood, Clearsulting helped improve the invoice approval and payment process, optimized cash forecasting and cash accounting processes, and led the implementation of Cenveo's Kyriba solutions. Cenveo leveraged Kyriba Value Engineering’s Collaborative Value Assessment (CVA) to help evaluate what to change, why change it, and why now. “Kyriba’s Enterprise Liquidity Management platform achieved the CFO’s objective or reliable timely liquidity insights and enabled my team’s transformation from tactical to strategic business partner.” Benjamin Seal, VP Treasury   Value Realization: 657 Hours Per Month The Value Realization Assessment (VRA) enabled Cenveo to provide the current state review post Kyriba deployment, resulting in 90% productivity improvement, including but not limited to: Cash Management: 100% real-time liquidity visibility, 95 hours per month productivity gain. Cash Forecasting: 43% liquidity forecast accuracy improvement, 113 hours per month productivity gain. Liquidity Payment Optimization: Increases in data integrity and workflow controls ensured no loss of discounts, 137 hours per month productivity gain. “The most critical step in our solution evaluation process included leveraging Kyriba’s Value Engineering service that helped us document what we need, why we need it, and why now is the time to execute.” Benjamin Seal, VP Treasury   Cenveo & Kyriba: Strategic Business Partnership Supply Chain Financing: Evaluating upside potential of $17.7M in cash flow benefit. Business Interruption Claims: Beginning the process of filing for an estimated $1M benefit. About Cenveo Cenveo is the world leader in the management and distribution of print and related offerings, encompassing 20 facilities across the United States with a long history of delivering top value for customers.

Swile set its sights on becoming a global player in employee engagement using a fully virtual solution. To achieve this goal, Swile offers a single smartcard to access all employee benefits (meal vouchers, gift...

Swile set its sights on becoming a global player in employee engagement using a fully virtual solution. To achieve this goal, Swile offers a single smartcard to access all employee benefits (meal vouchers, gift vouchers and coming soon, a sustainable mobility voucher) using an app to measure, manage, and impact employee engagement. In less than three years, Swile has acquired 13,000 corporate customers of all sizes and more than 400,000 cardholders, i.e., more than 10% of the entire market, based on its DNA — focusing on the human and social aspects. A business that uses Swile Swile's treasury management model is unique. Swile holds cash for third parties. Doing so requires segregating cash into accounts and categorizing it so that the treasury team can monitor and manage it accurately. “Controlling cash is key for all businesses, but this is even truer for a business that holds money for third parties. We must be able to control and categorize flows so we can accurately determine what does and doesn't belong to us. Using the Kyriba Cash and Payment modules, we categorize flows accurately,” says Frédéric Chabrol, Swile’s VP Finance. "Kyriba's disruptive story mirrors ours. We have the same DNA. I really appreciated the customized support we received when we were evaluating Kyriba and then the implementation support from Absys Cyborg’s treasury management consultants. This project has a lot of human aspects and that was incredible." Frédéric Chabrol, Swile’s VP Finance   The CNTR, the French meal vouchers agency, audits Swile monthly. To comply with regulations, Swile must be able to accurately explain cash flow. If volumes grow by leaps and bounds, specialized technical expertise is required to provide insight into those changes. “In a way, we are a medium-sized business, but we specialize in the issues of large businesses,” explains Romain Giraudeau, Swile’s Cash Manager. In 2019, Swile’s CFO embarked on a process to pick a treasury management solution to keep up with the company’s hypergrowth and manage its cash: “We wanted to bring on board a sufficiently robust solution to manage our growth outside of France and be able to pinpoint the company’s treasury in a centralized manner. Uploading bank statements is one thing, but managing payments is crucial, especially in Brazil, the largest meal voucher market globally," Chabrol points out. Alongside the project, the CFO decided to hire a Cash Manager. “I’ve been using the Kyriba solution since its inception. I practically learned treasury management using it, starting with my internship and until now. When I first started at Swile, I was pleasantly surprised to find that they were using this solution. It has clearly passed the test of time. When you pick Kyriba, you can't go wrong,” Giraudeau tells us. "The various solutions offered by mainstream banks did not meet the company’s challenges. By contrast, the Kyriba solution met my expectations but could prove too costly. I was lucky that Kyriba understood our needs and approached us in the right way with a proposal that allowed us to use the solution." Frédéric Chabrol, Swile’s VP Finance   A choice that meets Swile's technological and HR ambitions Swile settled on Kyriba’s treasury management solution due to its ability to handle the company’s complex transactions. The treasury teams at Kyriba and Absys Cyborg instilled Swile with confidence because both offered hands-on approaches. “Kyriba's disruptive story mirrors ours. We have the same DNA. I really appreciated the customized support we received when we were evaluating Kyriba and then the implementation support from Absys Cyborg’s treasury management consultants. This project has a lot of human aspects and that was incredible,” Chabrol confides. The Swile project began in the first quarter of 2020. Although Kyriba is often mistakenly thought of as a solution for large businesses only, Swile understood that its solution must address the company’s ambitions. It had to enable the CFO to manage Swile’s hyper growth and follow the roadmap drawn up by senior management. For Chabrol, “The various solutions offered by mainstream banks did not rise up to meet the company’s challenges. By contrast, the Kyriba solution met my expectations but could prove too costly. I was lucky that Kyriba understood our needs and approached us in the right way with a proposal that allowed us to use the solution.” The CFO also had to factor in a heavily regulated environment in which internal controls and protections against fraud and money laundering are ever present. “By just clicking on a button, you can view cash flow, track flows and comply with regulations. Everything is simpler when you have great visibility,” Chabrol adds. “Our core business is controlling our cash and cash burn. The treasury solution is a core building block and by automating it from end to end, we can achieve total financial control.” The SaaS model (Software-as-a-Service) also played a major role by providing real, instant advantages when the project went live in April 2020. According to Giraudeau: “These days working with SaaS is the obvious choice and security is not really an issue. First, I trust Kyriba to manage security in its entirety. Further, how confidential can figures on a bank statement be? It is instant availability that is crucial. I was very happy during the Covid-19 health emergency to be able to log in remotely and access all the data.” Boosting the HR link across the globe Swile's CFO was closely involved in the treasury management project from the selection process up to implementation: “All CFOs should follow this process and make it fit in with a company’s strategy. The solution is simple enough to log in to check a company’s health daily,” Giraudeau asserts. Swile has implemented effective and efficient processes to take full advantage of the solution. But more than anything, the solution has the ability to reinvent itself, depending on current trends and the company’s strategy: “After France, we focused on Brazil, the industry’s leading market. Currently, we are focusing on Mexico and on Europe overall,” Chabrol affirms. Eventually, Swile would like to set up localized treasury to work across various time zones, manage regulations, and market specificities while continuing to conduct centralized management from headquarters. Chabrol concludes: “In the end, the first international connectivity project was implemented in a country in which bank regulation and communication are not as straightforward as in Europe. We had to be pioneers and stay as up to date as possible. “As we expand into other countries, Swile is going to enhance the solution’s features to keep up with the company’s ambitions. This involves setting up a Shared Services center and a Payment Factory. At the same time, the CFO would like to improve the dashboard to be increasingly connected and automated and adopt emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence for forecasting.”

What were Mantrac’s objectives? Mantrac Group’s treasury structure was highly complex and dependent on manual processes. Visibility over cash was limited, particularly as the group was using almost 100 banks, with over 700 bank...

What were Mantrac’s objectives? Mantrac Group’s treasury structure was highly complex and dependent on manual processes. Visibility over cash was limited, particularly as the group was using almost 100 banks, with over 700 bank accounts across 13 countries. The lack of visibility meant cash was not always held in the most suitable accounts, creating inefficiencies when paying down debt. And the use of almost 50 e-banking systems resulted in control risks, as well as operational challenges. To tackle these challenges, Group Treasurer Roshun Tulkens, shortly after he joined the Group, embarked on a six-month exercise to interview and research potential providers, while consolidating the company’s bank relationships. While multiple banks were still needed in complex markets like Egypt, Nigeria and Iraq, the team was able to reduce its banking relationships to less than 20 banks and 300 bank accounts – resulting in an impressive $1.6m cost saving via bank fee reductions. "We wanted to be able to sleep better at night by having the controls in place to mitigate potential fraud." Roshun TulkensGroup Treasurer, Mantrac Group Why did Mantrac choose Kyriba? Tulkens looked at eight different systems to find the best fit for Mantrac’s needs. One consideration was the need for a system that could provide the right support in challenging markets. “A lot of TMSs are focused on Europe and North America,” says Tulkens. “We wanted a provider that could help us in complicated markets like Africa, Iraq and Russia – and we also wanted a system that was strong on payments.” Another consideration was that the new TMS would be used by teams representing 30 different companies. It was therefore important to choose an intuitive system that could be used by local finance people. Other considerations included cost and the proposed implementation time. Based on these criteria, Mantrac selected Kyriba as its TMS provider. "If we hadn’t completed phase one before the crisis, the situation would have been much more challenging. If you have to log into multiple e-banking systems or call banks to work out how much money you’ve got, there is not going to be a lot of time for strategic decision-making." Roshun TulkensGroup Treasurer, Mantrac Group What was the implementation experience? The implementation was structured into two phases: the first focused on cash management, forecasting, reporting and accounting, while the second focused on payments and valuations. With over 140 people using the system, training was an important consideration, and had to be delivered across different time zones and in different languages. While the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis brought some challenges – such as the transition to remote working and the need for wet signatures – the second phase was completed successfully, with training and testing carried out remotely. What benefits did Mantrac realize? One major benefit is the visibility that has been achieved – not just over cash, but also over payments and pricing. “Before the implementaion, I did not have visibility over the volume of payments we were making from each of our banks, the volume of collections coming into each bank and the bank charges we were paying,” says Tulkens. Connectivity with other systems such as the procurement database and ERP system has not only improved security controls, but also eliminated the need for manual intervention. Other benefits include the ability to forecast and mitigate fraud risk more effectively, as well as lower FX costs. In total, the TMS has generated added value of $800,000 per annum by enabling the company to harness process efficiencies and time savings, switch to cheaper electronic payments and pay down debt using excess cash. What is next for Mantrac Treasury? Looking forward, the team won’t be resting on its laurels. “There will be some further bank consolidation, particularly in some of the more challenging jurisdictions,” says Tulkens. “We are also expanding into two new countries.” At the same time, the team will continue to streamline processes, as well as incorporating some recent acquisitions into the system. And with Mantrac’s five-year digital plan underway, other topics could include looking at the value of machine learning in the context of cash forecasting, as well as potentially integrating the TMS with a new ERP system.

Visibility Challenges Şişecam’s international growth over the past few decades meant the company had a fragmented approach to cash management. While treasury handled strategic decisions such as borrowing, individual subsidiaries within the group handled...

Visibility Challenges Şişecam’s international growth over the past few decades meant the company had a fragmented approach to cash management. While treasury handled strategic decisions such as borrowing, individual subsidiaries within the group handled their own payment operations and managed their cash using their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Treasury provided guidance to subsidiaries on how they should manage their cash. However, Şişecam lacked a centralized reporting system that could provide real-time visibility over cash balances globally and indicate whether guidance was being followed. Reporting tended to take place on a monthly basis, with individual subsidiaries reporting at the end of the month. As a result, treasury had to follow complex, labor-intensive and time-consuming processes to gain group-wide visibility over cash. "The biggest benefit with Kyriba is that you have one platform from which you can manage your bank operations for all your companies across the world." Baris Gokalp Treasury and Finance Director Şişecam   Payment Issues In addition, Şişecam’s payment processes were inefficient. While it was sending payment files to its banks via file transfer protocol (FTP), it followed these up with written instructions sent by fax and email. If a key signatory was unavailable, a payment could be held up by several hours until the signature was collected. Typically, it took between 30 and 60 minutes to execute a payment. Furthermore, not all payment orders were created via ERPs, which made it difficult to monitor and track payables. Quantitative Results 1000 bank account statements delivered daily 15 minutes the maximum end-to-end time it takes to make a payment Three-year history of transactional banking data One-week onboarding period for new companies and banking partners 10 country operations using Kyriba   Search for a Solution In its search for a treasury management system (TMS), Şişecam specifically looked for a vendor that met the following criteria: A good reputation in the market – and the ability to provide global customer references Supplier of a cloud-based, software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution that could integrate with different ERP and banking systems, while supporting the payment formats of different countries Provision of a fraud detection system A focus on security and security certifications Extensive experience with large-scale TMS implementations for other global businesses A strong relationship with SAP – Şişecam’s main ERP system – and the ability to integrate with other ERP systems outside of SAP Kyriba met all of these criteria. Its TMS would also enable Şişecam to quickly onboard new ERP systems and banking partners as the group made acquisitions. Business Transformation The implementation of Kyriba has given Şişecam complete visibility over its cash and totally transformed how it manages its payments. It now receives SWIFT MT940 end-of-day bank account statements through its Kyriba TMS, which means it has an up-to-date view of its cash positions. It can also access transactional data with its banks stretching back three years. Furthermore, all payment orders have to be raised via Şişecam’s ERP systems, heightening the group’s control over the payment process. If there is no record of a payment order in an ERP system, that payment will not be made. Once an order has been raised on an ERP system, a payment file is created directly within Kyriba. Signatories can log in to the system to approve payments quickly and easily, using multi-factor authentication security. Şişecam’s banks are also able to rapidly highlight formatting errors and raise queries about specific payments. The time it takes to execute a payment has fallen to between eight and 15 minutes. Kyriba’s digital approval processes proved a real benefit when Şişecam’s staff were asked to work from home due to COVID-19. Signatories were able to approve payments remotely, which eradicated the health risks associated with handling hard-copy documents. Fraud Detection In addition to the Kyriba Payments Network’s general payments module, Şişecam implemented the fraud detection module to raise alerts around suspicious payments – for example, alerting the first payment to a new supplier or a payment to a regular supplier that is significantly larger than usual. Besides picking up on changes to IBANs of the suppliers, the system checks if the company or country is sanction listed or not. When the system identifies a suspicious payment, it requires additional checks to be made. As a result, Şişecam can prevent fraud in real time, rather than just respond to fraudulent activities that have already taken place. Next Steps Going forward, Şişecam plans to use Kyriba to offer a supply chain finance service. At present, the company follows manual processes when agreeing on the discounting terms and making payments to suppliers in certain markets. With a digital process, all the suppliers of Şişecam will have the ability to monitor and discount their receivables from Şişecam Group Companies Worldwide. It also plans to integrate Kyriba’s cash forecasting module and foreign exchange management product into its program. A Positive Experience Şişecam found the process of implementing Kyriba easy, with go-live happening relatively quickly. Employees are very impressed with the system, which they find easy-to-use. Significantly, Şişecam has benefited from Kyriba’s accumulated knowledge and experience of working with numerous customers around the world. For example, Kyriba has already established extensive connections with banks in different countries. It is also aware of processes that different companies use to facilitate safer payments or reduce the risk of fraud. The recent COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the value of Kyriba being a SaaS solution and its ability to support and foster business continuity. Kyriba manages the disaster recovery process for its TMS, and as payment files are created and stored on the system, they can be easily recovered.

The continued growth and global nature of Amway’s business presented many positives, but it also created challenges for the treasury function.

“We have standardized what were once fragmented, global payment processes across multiple ERPs, enabling automation, stronger controls and better visibility.” Janice Minter, Senior Treasury Analyst, Amway Key Payments Challenges The continued growth and global nature of Amway’s business presented many positives, but it also created challenges for the treasury function. Amway’s operations spanned more than 80 markets, but more than 200 local banks were used for cash management and 50 banks initiated and transmitted payments. Maintaining bank connectivity with source systems was taxing and the treasury team recognized that a transformation of the global payments process was required to scale to growing business needs. The key challenges that drove treasury to this conclusion included: A lack of transparency into global payments Inconsistent payment controls across countries Inefficient alignment of payments to shared services operations Increased risk of unauthorized and fraudulent payments Numerous banking connections needed for source systems A Plan for Payments Transformation At the inception of the project, Amway conducted a detailed analysis to help identify specific areas of the payments process that needed improvement. The analysis concluded that the company’s technology infrastructure was unable to meet expected future payments volume; current processes did not support remote access and payment connectivity; and payments were initiated out of too many banks and accounts resulting in unnecessary banking fees. To remedy the issues, Amway established a list of goals for the payments transformation process: Implementation of a single payment hub technology to consolidate payment activity into one portal Automatic management of bank payment formats Support of SWIFT connectivity and select host-to-host connectivity protocols for enhanced bank security and encryption Integration with the company’s new ERP solution for digitized integration of approved payment files Building a Better Payments Workflow Post-needs analysis, Amway chose Kyriba as its treasury management system (TMS) and designed an entirely new global payments workflow, including a technology roadmap that outlined the need for a best-of-breed payments platform. In the new workflow, business units initiate payments for approval within the ERP system. After all approvals are in place, the payments are added to the ERP’s payment file and sent from one of three regional finance shared service centers to the Kyriba payment hub where the appropriate banking formats for each bank are identified. To address Amway’s complicated banking connections to source systems, a singular pipeline (standard payment template) was created. Today, Amway’s source systems leverage that template to provide the payment file to Kyriba and Kyriba manages the connections/specs with the company’s banking partners, freeing up IT resources to focus on other business initiatives. After banking formats for each bank are identified and attached to each payment, an approval at the batch level is required for payments to be transmitted by the bank’s choice of connectivity, including a direct host-to-host solution to transmission via Amway’s SWIFT BIC. After the payment file is received by the bank, payment acknowledgments (ACKs and NACKs) are imported into the payment dashboard within Kyriba. Service center staff leverage this data to track payments in real-time. To close out the workflow, prior-day bank statements also flow into Kyriba and the ERP’s cash management module, enabling automatic reconciliation of daily bank statements. Lastly, verified payments are processed to the general ledger. An Award-winning Payments Centralization Program Amway’s initiative to transform the way it managed global payments was no small feat. The centralization of payments to three regional shared service centers was a significant shift away from local expertise and siloed payments. Local bank portals and processes were replaced with payments technology from Kyriba and the number of banks used for payments were cut in half. Amway was able to drive cost savings and operational efficiencies through overhauling their payments process. In recognition of its efforts, Amway won the 2019 Silver Alexander Hamilton Award in Working Capital and Payments. Overall, Amway was able to realize reduced risk of payment fraud, improved productivity, standardized payment controls and a reduction in working capital requirements.   About AmwayAmway is an entrepreneur-led health and wellness company based in Ada, Michigan. It is committed to helping people live better, healthier lives – across more than 100 markets worldwide. According to Forbes magazine, it is among the Top 50 privately held, family-owned companies in the United States. Top-selling brands for Amway are Nutrilite™, Artistry™, and XS™ energy – all sold exclusively by entrepreneurs who are known as Amway Business Owners. Amway is the No. 1 direct selling business in the world, according to the 2021 Direct Selling News Global 100.

In transitioning from legacy and largely manual processes for hedging foreign exchange (FX) risk management, the treasury department of Trane Technologies sought greater visibility and quantification of its exposures. This involved partnering with a...

In transitioning from legacy and largely manual processes for hedging foreign exchange (FX) risk management, the treasury department of Trane Technologies sought greater visibility and quantification of its exposures. This involved partnering with a dedicated technology provider and adoption of a centrally-led FX management strategy. "Kyriba resolves our immediate FX risk management limitations and allows us to develop best in class solutions." Chris DonohoeAssistant Group Treasurer, Having previously suffered an inability to determine key factors impacting FX exposure in real-time, analysis was reactive rather than proactive; numerous ERP systems with varying capabilities made analysis complicated, cumbersome and directional in nature, so hedging was limited only to known exposures such as intercompany loans; and consolidation tools provided functional currency or USD transparency, without transactional currency details. To address these gaps and translate exposure management into meaningful analysis that adds value to the business, Trane Technologies turned to FiREapps, now a Kyriba company. "We now have have the ability to work with our entities on specific projects and to implement business solutions rather than simply providing high-level FX hedging." Chris DonohoeAssistant Group Treasurer, Net Asset Position by Currency — to map and detail net asset exposure by asset category, legal entity, SBU, region and enterprise Map FX Accounting — to cross check for FX bookings in relation to P&L, CTA and cash flow reporting Hedge Determination — to determine Value at Risk (VaR) analysis for all hedging programs and portfolio risk optimisation to determine most efficient strategies Advanced Reporting — to explain sources of noise in the FX results and provide dashboard reporting on balance sheet hedging effectiveness Thanks to working with Kyriba for the past two years, Chris and his team are now able to cite quantitative and qualitative benefits beyond expectation, the most impressive of which is achieving 97 percent realtime visibility of group FX exposure. Most note-worthy is the global reduction of risk by an excess of 50 percent over 12 months based on the VaR quantification, which is immense for a company of this size and stature. “We in treasury have evolved into a true strategic partner to the business rather than just a corporate function,” explains Chris. “We now have have the ability to work with our entities on specific projects and to implement business solutions rather than simply providing high-level FX hedging.” Chris also notes an increased engagement from the business, resulting from awareness training and a more detailed outline of exposures. Global group risk quantification and trend analysis by business unit and by currency and dashboard presentations for business and board perspectives are also clear strategic benefits. Some Examples of the New Global Net Asset Exposure Quantification Process NB: figures and currency pairs not actual - for example purposes only

Five years ago, its corporate treasury team initiated a journey from corporate policy maker towards a strategic and pro-active corporate treasury department. With a centralized operations team as part of a new organisational set-up....

Five years ago, its corporate treasury team initiated a journey from corporate policy maker towards a strategic and pro-active corporate treasury department. With a centralized operations team as part of a new organisational set-up. The purpose of this change was to gain global insight and control of the company’s cash and support the basic treasury functions in the shared service centers. The first step was the implementation of a centralized payments hub that supported the standardization of the global payments processes. After one of the main cash management banks announced its termination of the global cash management services, the corporate treasury team realized that if they wanted to initiate change and achieve the envisioned results, each team member needed to have a focus. A dedicated treasury operations team was created to include a treasury project manager and treasury systems manager. Also key in the foundation of this transformation was the development of a dedicated treasury-owned IT strategy that set clear guidelines for the selection of new systems. Choosing cloud solutions was particularly important in future-proofing the treasury operations, in order to reduce overall dependence on internal IT, and always have an up-to-date version in order to improve speed of decision-making. “We now have the tools to further optimize our cash flows and processes, quickly and efficiently. We can provide better internal insight and authority to our stakeholders and because of the automation we have more time for strategic thinking.” Jeroen Brieffies Group Treasurer Royal FrieslandCampina   This setup kick-started acceleration towards an optimal global payment and collection process that would become more time and cost efficient and less error-prone using an efficient and lean IT infrastructure. Project Everest, as it was named, was born in 2017 to realise these objectives. After careful consultation by the main stakeholders, the project plan was mapped out with four camps to reach the summit. 1) Intercompany Netting: The shared service teams spent a lot of time on correcting errors with intercompany invoices. The settlement of internal payments were processed on a gross basis via external bank accounts. In 2017, corporate treasury selected Coprocess as their global netting tool for matching, discussing and monthly netting. The netting of one million invoices per year is now a continuous process, which releases the pressure of month-end processing by the shared service centers and reduces the transaction charges by 100,000 euros per year. The largest savings though are gained via the realized process optimization. 2) In-house Banking: To provide a basis to further reduce external payments and move away from notional pooling, an in-house bank system was selected and implemented in 2018. During the selection process Kyriba provided FrieslandCampina with an opportunity not only to set up a solid in-house bank, but also to update and integrate the TMS functionality within one solution. The total solution was implemented in six months and went live at the end of 2018, with full treasury functionality and an in-house bank. After the conversion of notional pools to zero balancing pools, the in-house bank has over 180 accounts, and a balance of 3.7 billion euros. The first cashless payments of intercompany interest, FX, and netting are booked via the in-house bank, and the number of external bank accounts is reduced by 50. 3) Payment Factory: With the in-house bank in place the last step on the route to the summit is the implementation of a payment factory. With the use of virtual accounts, FrieslandCampina wants to further reduce the number of bank accounts and gain control of outgoing and incoming cash flows. A pilot has been started in 2019 with multiple banks. 4) Beyond the Summit: FrieslandCampina is continuously looking at digital optimization, and using the efficient set up of the treasury operations team to achieve objectives. Next on the agenda is the implementation of Kyriba’s FX risk management module (formerly FiREapps), to automate FX trading and centrally calculate and monitor FX exposure. RPA (Robotic Process Automation) will also be implemented to further reduce manual steps in the treasury and netting processes. Thanks to the focus the team now has on operational excellence, the project Everest has so far been delivered on time, with integrated processes, without interruption to the business, within budget, and beyond expectation. “We are so proud of the digital transformation journey initiated by treasury,” says group treasurer Jeroen Brieffeis, project manager of Everest. “We now have the tools to further optimize our cash flows and processes, quickly and efficiently. We can provide better internal insight and authority to our stakeholders and because of the automation we have more time for strategic thinking.”

FrieslandCampina has branch offices in 34 countries and employs around 23,000 people. It is not a listed company, but a cooperative, in which the member dairy farmers in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium fully own the company.

FrieslandCampina has branch offices in 34 countries and employs around 23,000 people. It is not a listed company, but a cooperative, in which the member dairy farmers in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium fully own the company. “We therefore operate a bit differently from listed multinationals,” says Jeroen Brieffies, Head of Treasury Operations at Royal FrieslandCampina. “We have an ‘owners mindset’, with a clear culture focused on farmers products.” Complex organization Brieffies returned to the Netherlands around five years ago, after being stationed in Switzerland. “At that time, we wanted to benchmark our treasury organization and asked Zanders to do a strategic analysis for us. It appeared that we performed very well on funding and on risk management but were lacking in support towards the operational side of the business. We then started a journey from being a corporate policy maker towards a strategic and pro-active corporate treasury department with a centralized operations team as part of a new organizational setup.” “Before we started this project, we had a lot of intercompany flows. Everybody was sending invoices to each other and at the end of the month we had to see if it all matched well. But now, instead of waiting until the end of the month, we have a continuous process and some dedicated people in intercompany teams are working on that. With the Kyriba tool we’re able to centralize all cash, which makes it much easier to do our day-to-day cash management. We paid the bank for having an in-house bank and there was a notional cash pool. If you have a system to take care of that, it makes many things a lot easier and is cost-saving too.” Jeroen Brieffies Head of Treasury Operations Royal FrieslandCampina   During this period, a lot of things started to move at FrieslandCampina. The organization had already started a project called Summit, to standardize all SAP instances within the whole company, which required all entities to comply to these standards. At the same time, financial shared service centers (FSSCs) were being set up, in which all payments, collections and other administrative activities were centralized. The rise of these new developments led to the idea of setting up a treasury operations department within corporate treasury. This would support the business more in its daily operations, and ensure treasury could standardize the payment and collections processes. The first step towards the support of the FSSCs was the implementation of TIS as a payment hub. Because of his time in Switzerland, Brieffies came up with the project name Jungfrau – one of the famous mountain tops in the Alps. That mountain can now be reached easily, after a complex building process of a railway – making it an appropriate metaphor for the difficult process you have to go through in order to create more efficiency in the end. Everest Project The new developments and objectives led to the start of a project named ‘Everest’. Brieffies explains: “the implementation of TIS kickstarted an acceleration towards an optimal global payment and collection process that would take less time, be less erroneous and less costly, using an efficient and lean IT infrastructure–and that’s why we called this next big step project Everest.” “We first decided to set up some workshops with FSSC’s, finance & reporting, tax and corporate legal, to point out the challenges we had in this process,” Brieffies continues. It then turned out that the whole internal process offered challenges too. “As a dairy company we are like an oil refinery; milk comes in and we make all kinds of components that we use for several products. So, both logistically and financially we have to make sure that all this follows the correct route. We therefore decided to start with the intercompany netting first. Then we’d have a solid base metaphorically called ‘Base camp’; a standardized ERP-system, FSSCs to centralize our payments and collections, and a payment tool. And once we have intercompany netting, we want to move up to an inhouse bank to take care of all the internal payments.” Corporate treasury selected Coprocess as their global netting tool provider for matching, dispute resolution, and monthly netting of around one million intercompany invoices a year. On top of that, FrieslandCampina is currently looking at the opportunity to set up a payments and collections factory, to do its payments and collections ‘on behalf of’ (POBO and COBO). “The challenge in that is mostly the collections,” says Zanders consultant Bart Timmerman. “You can direct payments yourself, butit’s not certain on what account clients will do their payment and what references they use, if any. So, reconciliation of incoming payments is in that sense a big challenge.” A Dedicated Project Manager Due to this reconciliation challenge, Brieffies hired Zanders for support. “We asked Zanders to draft a blueprint and to support us in the implementation of the Kyriba tool we selected as our new treasury management system. When we set up treasury operations and started with TIS as our payment hub, we noticed that we had a tool within our FSSCs, but we needed manpower in corporate treasury to support it. The corporate treasury team realized that if they really wanted to make a change and get the envisioned results, each team member needed to have focus.” A dedicated treasury operations team was created, which included a cash and currency manager, a treasury systems manager and a treasury project manager. Next to the new team setup, another major foundation to this transformation was the development of a treasury IT strategy that set some clear guidelines for the selection of new systems. Choosing cloud solutions was particularly important in future-proofing the treasury operations. This allowed treasury to reduce overall dependence on internal IT, and always have an up-to-date version in order to improve speed and decisiveness. “A project like Everest could not have been realized without a dedicated project manager,” Brieffies notes. “My colleague Marije Siebenga filled in that role and was the driving force behind this project. And at the end we could elevate it all up to a higher level.” “Project management was one of the key success factors of this project,” says Zanders’ Timmerman. “It was very clear what direction the company wanted to go, what system it needed to get there and what Zanders’ and Kyriba’s roles were.” Nick Clare, responsible for Kyriba’s European channel sales agrees: “All issues were sorted out quickly, mostly because FrieslandCampina’s Treasury was very vendor-savvy. They always took full ownership of the solution. That’s a role model.” Having Everyone Involved This proactive approach from FrieslandCampina’s treasury even saw it, together with Kyriba, being nominated for the EuroFinance digital transformation award. “The scale of the company is vast and very complex with hundreds of entities, so it’s commendable what its treasury has done,” says Kyriba’s Clare. “Friesland-Campina now has a platform that they can scale.” Guided by the blueprint, FrieslandCampina implemented the new system itself. And that’s a role model for how system implementation should be done, according to Timmerman: “At the end, the company needs to adopt and know the system. So, after teaching them the tricks, it’s better for our clients to work with the system themselves.” This is a sentiment that Brieffies agrees with: “All users had to get used to the system which sometimes resulted in a critical stance, but now that their processes are automated, they are very enthusiastic and supportive. In these kinds of projects, it’s important to have everyone involved, like the back-office team, finance and IT. They need to support your solution–that’s often underestimated.” Mutual Dependency Using a treasury solution like Kyriba should lead to improved efficiencies and the benefits of having fewer repetitive tasks. This is something that applies to the rest of the business too, thanks to Project Everest. “Before we started this project, we had a lot of intercompany flows,” Brieffies says. “Everybody was sending invoices to each other and at the end of the month we had to see if it all matched well. But now, instead of waiting until the end of the month, we have a continuous process and some dedicated people in intercompany teams are working on that. With the Kyriba tool we’re able to centralize all cash, which makes it much easier to do our day-to-day cash management. We paid the bank for having an in-house bank and there was a notional cash pool. If you have a system to take care of that, it makes many things a lot easier and is cost-saving too.” This is the reason FrieslandCampina has its own treasury system manager connecting all systems within the company to the treasury system. “There is now a mutual dependency,” continues Brieffies. “In the past, treasury was dependent on the business delivering information, but now it’s also the other way around. The business wants to know its in-house balance.” Next Steps In terms of treasury maturity, one of FrieslandCampina’s goals was to undergo a transformation. “We did our strategic benchmarking in 2015 and made a road map for the coming years,” Brieffies explains. “But now we would like to see what progress we have made and where we are compared to peer corporate treasuries.” “It’s good to do a treasury scan regularly, because treasury technology is changing fast and peers are developing too,” comments Zanders’ Timmerman. “So – using the metaphor – after a few years the mountain tops will be higher.” Brieffies is now working with his department on a pilot to set up virtual bank accounts. “We see that as a necessity to have the COBO in place. We need to reconcile what we received for selling specific dairy product, such as yoghurt, cheese or ingredients, in order to provide the correct management information.”

A Fragmented View In 2010, Wanhua began the process of upgrading its finance technology. At the time, it relied on numerous e-banking solutions, which was not only inefficient but resulted in the business having...

A Fragmented View In 2010, Wanhua began the process of upgrading its finance technology. At the time, it relied on numerous e-banking solutions, which was not only inefficient but resulted in the business having an incomplete record of its payment transactions. Meanwhile, the growth in its overseas business highlighted some shortcomings in group-wide treasury management. As a result, Wanhua wanted to adopt a treasury solution that would serve to unify its domestic and international operations. "By optimizing, integrating and automating our systems to achieve the end-to-end processing of domestic and international payments, we have laid the foundation or the eventual consolidation of all financial data across the group. The solution has also helped Wanhua to more easily adapt to unpredictable economic changes, meet global regulatory standards and support China’s globalization strategy with a view to overseas expansion.” Zhang Shoujun General Manager, Finance Department Wanhua Chemical Group Unifying International Operations Finance IT Manager Feng Yongjin wanted to deploy a treasury management solution that would enable Wanhua to enhance and “futureproof” its ‘super e-banking’ capabilities. The solution, which needed to be expandable and scalable, had to provide an automated, centralized and global view of the company’s financial position. This would allow the company to improve internal security and controls, and reduce the risk of payment fraud. The solution also needed to enable intelligent processing in order to improve customer and supplier satisfaction. Establish transaction data maintenance requirements for each overseas entity and create a processing template that was in line with corporate business standards. Achieve global data integration with all of the company’s supplier banks with the objective to meet current and future language and policy requirements of each entity. Build a globally-unified processing platform for automated, smart payment routing based on big data analysis from international bank accounts. Supporting Overseas Payments During the implementation process, Wanhua fully mobilized the global resources of Kyriba and its partner banks. It undertook manual inspections, as well as multiple rounds and combinations of stresstesting. Kyriba designed standard payment templates to meet Wanhua’s current and future business needs and established a standard for the maintenance of transaction data. Kyriba’s cloud-based treasury management solution integrates data from Wanhua’s enterprise resource planning system with data provided by its supplier banks. As a result, the solution supports Wanhua’s banking activities, including international and Chinese wire transfers, electronic acceptances, e-commerce business, letters of credit and different payment types. Additionally, Wanhua was able to automate 98 percent of its payments and cut their accounting entries in half thanks to the streamlined settlement and accounting rules brought on by Kyriba that adhere to the requirements of each local jurisdiction. Intelligence and Visibility With the help of Kyriba, Wanhua Chemical Group has established a global data standard for its supplier banks, achieved integrated and automated payments processing, and connected 13 overseas banks in five countries. The company has also been able to unify and standardize payment templates, reduce the cost and extent of manual operations, and gain greater intelligence and visibility in terms of global treasury management.

Funding has historically been an issue for small and medium-sized suppliers of research services in the preclinical outsourcing sector. These companies are often forced to accept 120-day payment terms, which are set by large pharmaceutical organizations.

The Need for Accessible Supply Chain Finance Funding has historically been an issue for small and medium-sized suppliers of research services in the preclinical outsourcing sector. These companies are often forced to accept 120-day payment terms, which are set by large pharmaceutical organizations. As a result, suppliers struggle to access the necessary funding that would allow them to bid for projects in competition with larger rivals. Quantitative Results $4M Early Payments to suppliers in the first six months of the program 50% Reduction of the procurement process lifecycle 95% of Payments made on time $45.5K Revenue earned in three months 130% Increase in suppliers’ gross merchandise value 24.3% Increase in volume of purchase orders (PO) issued to suppliers 60-day reduction in payment terms 75.5% GMV average supplier gross merchandise volume (GMV) growth rate Unifying International Operations   "Finance is the heart of an organization. If there are limitations or constraints, you cut off the oxygen, or energy, to fuel the operational functionality of the organization – new innovation, R&D and day-to-day operations." Kris Kagan, Senior Vice President of Finance/HR Scientist.com   While major pharmaceutical companies do utilize supply chain finance (SCF) programs, they are often not accessible to smaller suppliers. For example, a program may only onboard suppliers that complete millions of dollars in spend. And even if suppliers meet this criterion, the onboarding process can then take months to complete and prove expensive for the program provider since large suppliers tend to have high operational costs. SciPay<supTM: Scientist.com’s Life-saving Early Payment Program Scientist.com recognized that if an early payment option was made available to suppliers of all sizes through an SCF program, more companies would be able to focus on innovation, rather than on solely covering their operational costs. Ultimately this would drive drug discovery. Scientist.com also identified the potential for its own business to gain a new, fast-growing revenue stream by providing finance to suppliers. Scientist.com launched SciPayTM, a working capital solution by Kyriba that features early payment options, rapid onboarding, invoice management and dynamic discounting to help fund research for any organization regardless of size. In doing so, research suppliers have access to the funding they need to bid on projects that were previously blocked due to a lack of resources. Putting SciPay into Play – Reducing Risk and Creating Opportunity To find the best candidates for SciPay, Scientist.com leveraged its long-established relationships with clients from large pharmaceutical and biotech companies, as well as its portfolio of more than 3,100 suppliers. Within just a few months, 45 self-designated small business suppliers signed up for the program. By joining the program, risk is reduced for both suppliers and buyers. For buyers, SciPay keeps business consistent, ensuring work is completed before an invoice is paid and allowing for extended payment terms that won’t disrupt supply chains since Scientist.com takes on the burden of the payment. For suppliers, early payments translate to growth, allowing them to bid on projects they were previously unable to now that they have the working capital to cover operational costs. Scientist.com believes that SciPay’s success is the result both of its strong internal commitment to the initiative and its strategic partnership with Kyriba. Working together, finance and development teams integrated Kyriba’s SCF platform with Scientist.com’s existing operating systems, as well as its bank, to ensure that SciPay payments and data flowed securely and smoothly. “We chose Kyriba for two main reasons,” said Kris Kagan, Scientist.com Senior Vice President of Finance/HR. ”It provided us with an opportunity for an early payment program and we were able to utilize the early payment program and join it up with the TMS modules that Kyriba has. The second reason is that we were looking for partners in the industry that could scale with our business, and Kyriba has been an amazing partner.” Speeding Up the Innovation Process Scientific innovation can now happen faster than ever thanks to SciPay. Overall, the entire lifecycle of the procurement process has been reduced by 50 percent, and the source-to-settle process has been sped up by 80 percent. As a result, researchers can run projects and expand their product lines more quickly. The innovation process has also become more cost-effective for buyers of research services. When there are more suppliers with working capital to bid on projects, the price of the project can be driven down. SciPay has brought some significant commercial benefits to Scientist.com as well. Firstly, it is a competitive advantage when it comes to attracting research suppliers to its marketplace. The fact that suppliers only need to sign up for one SCF program, rather than multiple programs, with no barriers to entry, is a major draw. In addition, buyers of research services are able to easily reach more than 3,100 registered suppliers across the globe in a one-stop shop manner. Finally, since Scientist.com uses its own working capital to finance the suppliers, it has boosted revenue through the implementation of SciPay. Ultimately, SciPay serves a greater purpose beyond being a finance platform. By fostering greater competition in the research marketplace and enabling suppliers to more rapidly discover lifesaving medications, SciPay is supporting Scientist.com’s ambitious mission of helping to cure all human disease by 2050.

French retail group Auchan uses reverse factoring to pay suppliers sooner without negative impact to working capital. After the global financial crisis, Auchan Group’s suppliers began asking whether their invoices could be paid sooner,...

French retail group Auchan uses reverse factoring to pay suppliers sooner without negative impact to working capital. After the global financial crisis, Auchan Group’s suppliers began asking whether their invoices could be paid sooner, as they were struggling to secure bank financing on acceptable terms. When some of these suppliers began to have difficulty fulfilling orders placed by Auchan, it was clear that action was needed. The group began exploring how reverse factoring programs could be used to pay suppliers faster and at favorable terms, without adversely affecting Auchan’s working capital. These programs would need to be supported by a supplier portal in order to keep suppliers informed about the status of their invoices. Auchan therefore decided to set up ASAP (Auchan Supplier Advanced Platform), a wholly owned subsidiary, which would provide the group’s entities with reverse factoring programs. Another goal of the project was to modernize the group’s payment methods, thereby improving security and reducing costs. "The feedback from suppliers that joined the program has been unanimously positive. We have met their expectations in terms of visibility, simplicity, transparency, independence and attractiveness." François Verrodde, CEO of ASAP, Auchan Group Getting started Once management had given the project the green light, the company rapidly assembled the affected teams: purchasing, IT, legal and the financial department. “This was a company-wide project in response to highly strategic challenges,” said François Verrodde, CEO of ASAP and head of the Group's Reverse Factoring programs. “It was therefore important to have powerful sponsors within the company, and the involvement of all players.” Where technology was concerned, Auchan was looking for a bank-independent solution which could cover multiple laws, languages, banks, IT systems, repositories and currencies. “Only a solution independent from the banks, such as that offered by Kyriba, could natively integrate all of these requirements,” said Verrodde. He notes that the decision to adopt Kyriba’s platform was also driven by the need for a modern, flexible and customizable solution. The implementation began with a pilot phase incorporating four group entities and three banking partners. “We approved some of the decisions made, such as the financing arrangements offered to our suppliers,” said Verrodde. Thereafter, the focus was on onboarding as many suppliers as possible to the platform using a range of communication methods, from an e-mail campaign to in-person discussions at conventions. Quantitative Results 15,500 Suppliers Paticipating 5 Auchan group entities covered 47% Increase in financing requests. Dec. 2016-2017 Surpassing the original goals Three years after the project began, the program has already exceeded the company’s original goals with over 15,500 suppliers on the platform. ASAP currently tracks reverse factoring programs on behalf of five different group entities: Hypermarkets France, Supermarkets France, Auchan Poland, Auchan Romania and Auchan Portugal. Suppliers can use Kyriba’s portal to access information about the status of their invoices and can finance their invoices on attractive terms with a few clicks. “The feedback from suppliers that joined the program has been unanimously positive,” said Verrodde. “We have met their expectations in terms of visibility, simplicity, transparency, independence and attractiveness.” In some countries, the company has also been able to move from paper-based payments to electronic transfers. For other companies looking to adopt a similar program, Verrodde emphasizes the importance of working with multiple banks, adding this was “essential” to the success of Auchan’s project. He also notes the importance of addressing legal considerations thoroughly: “In our multinational environment, with its wide array of legislation, any legal impact must be approved by our internal teams, with the support of an outside firm that specializes in international finance.” Future plans Looking ahead, it is likely that the reverse factoring programs will be expanded into additional countries. “Our primary mission is to support the growth of Auchan Group, so naturally we will respond to requests from other countries that face significant challenges in this area,” said Verrodde. The company also hopes to develop existing tools further in order to provide greater agility and flexibility. Future developments could include the use of techniques such as purchase order-based financing or dynamic discounting. “Of course, we are working on these issues in close cooperation with our partner Kyriba, which has effectively supported us from the start of this project, and continues to provide us with appropriate solutions,” Verrodde concludes.

Graff Diamonds has been expanding its network of overseas stores since the first one opened in Monaco in 2000. It now has 45 of its own stores across Europe, Asia, the United States and...

Graff Diamonds has been expanding its network of overseas stores since the first one opened in Monaco in 2000. It now has 45 of its own stores across Europe, Asia, the United States and South Africa with 6 local finance teams whose core responsibility was originally to validate fund clearance for sales. Monthly accounting was always done on a cash rather than accrual basis with too many banks and multiple currency accounts for every entity across 15 different countries. With a new senior finance team in place in 2013, Graff had treasury-based aspirations to achieve solid monthly accrual accounting, better cash management and stronger controls and visibility with less reliance on spreadsheets. When he first came aboard in 2013, one of CFO Andrew Nicholson's first decisions was to implement Kyriba. The greatest value he now sees is the improved visibility and control. Here he tells us more about the benefits of a TMS from the C-level perspective. Why and how did you select Kyriba over other providers? When I joined Graff I made the decision almost immediately to deploy a TMS. We undertook a rigorous selection process and found that Kyriba best met both our current and expected needs without any unnecessary extra functionality. Of course, integration with our ERP was crucial, as was the centralisation and standardisation of cash and payments and the ability to drawdown and track credit facilities. In the end, the fact that Kyriba is a hosted web-based platform and could provide real-time access to consolidated bank reports was the real determining factor in my decision. The payments and connectivity functionality of Kyriba is particularly important. Can you explain why? It was simply unsustainable to continue logging into each individual e-banking platform in order to approve payments. Having rationalised our bank relationships and selected one leading local commercial bank in each country, it was then key for us that Kyriba could offer a single, consolidated point of access across all our bank accounts. We also needed the ability to set up payments, to define different payment types, to receive notification of pending approvals and we needed a robust security framework with dual-factor authentication and dual authorisation. "From one single, low maintenance and user-friendly platform, we have greater visibility of current and future cash positions, solid controls and less reliance on error prone spreadsheets." — Andrew Nicholson, CFO of Graff How do you measure the success of your Treasury operation? We don’t formally measure the success of our treasury and finance operation in terms of KPIs. What the owners do recognise is that with Kyriba we have shared visibility of accurate data coming from different sources into one format. From one single, low maintenance and user-friendly platform, we have greater visibility of current and future cash positions, solid controls and less reliance on error-prone spreadsheets. This in turn has led to improvements in operational efficiency, the ability to make more informed and strategic decisions and cost savings, which in turn is contributing to overall productivity and growth of the company. Quantitative Results 15 Countries of operation 11 Different currencies 5/1 Reduction in number of finance teams As CFO, what do you get out of a Treasury Management System? The main benefit I personally get from Kyriba is risk mitigation through much greater confidence in my treasury. I receive meaningful data to analyse, including automated standardised reports and accurate cash forecasts. I can also authorise transactions remotely. We can access real-time, centralised bank statements first thing in the morning. Finally, we can source and analyse historical data for bank queries and we have centralised and secure payments control. What is next for Graff Diamonds and Kyriba? Well, we have actually purchased some additional functionality that we have yet to start using for FX exposure management and GL reconciliation. I think the plan for 2018 is to focus on rolling these out and we are also exploring the adoption of Kyriba’s newly released Payments Fraud Detection module, which, considering our business is high value luxury-based retail, is critical in the current climate.

Consumer goods company, Newell Brands, has leveraged technology to complete a major treasury modernization project. In 2016, Newell Rubbermaid purchased Jarden Corporation to form a new $16 billion consumer goods company, Newell Brands. While...

Consumer goods company, Newell Brands, has leveraged technology to complete a major treasury modernization project. In 2016, Newell Rubbermaid purchased Jarden Corporation to form a new $16 billion consumer goods company, Newell Brands. While the deal brought considerable business benefits, it also resulted in a number of challenges where treasury was concerned. Need to innovate Before the acquisition, both teams spent a lot of time on manual processes—so opportunities to undertake value adding activities were limited. Newell’s treasury had under-invested in technology, which meant that the combined team had to take on numerous additional tasks without increasing headcount. Spreadsheets were being used for daily cash management, giving the company limited global cash visibility. Daily cash positions were manual and took two employees over 20 hours per week to complete, while global cash reporting was only available once a month. Automation was also needed where hedging was concerned. Despite large FX transaction net losses, process inefficiencies meant the company had not implemented a balance sheet hedging program and was only hedging one-off intercompany loans. A standalone software solution was used to manage cash flow hedges, but this lacked automation. "Gathering and assimilating data was the biggest challenge–and that is where we are seeing the greatest benefits." Amit Singh, SVP & Treasurer, Newell Brands Seeking a solution It was clear that technology and automation was essential if the treasury team was to achieve its goal of becoming more strategic and unlocking value for the organization. Following the acquisition, Newell’s newly appointed SVP and Treasurer, Amit Singh, put a plan in place to integrate and modernize the combined treasury organization. Crucial to Singh’s plans was the introduction of a cloud-based treasury management solution (TMS) and currency analytics solution that could automate manual tasks, mitigate risk and free up time for strategic data analysis. Following a formal RFP process, Kyriba was chosen as the TMS for cash and liquidity management, payment management, bank connectivity, hedge accounting and interest rate derivatives. Newell also selected a cloud-based currency management platform, FiREapps, for its data collection, exposure consolidation, currency analysis and reporting and hedge recommendations. The company also relied on trading support from FXall, which was integrated with the Kyriba and FiREapps solution in order to automate the hedging process. The benefits The project resulted in a complete treasury transformation. The new process pulls data from 38 legacy ERP systems and 25 different business units. As a result of the treasury management automation, modernized workflow, and more timely and accurate cash forecasting, the size of the balance sheet hedging program has grown from $800M in 2015 to $2B in 2016. The biggest benefit was the massive reduction of P&L noise due to the new workflow efficiencies from Kyriba, FiREapps and FXall, which reduced FX transaction net losses from $90M between 2013-2015 down to $2M in 2016. Quantitative Results 95% cash visibility $25M+ reduction in FX transaction net losses per year $120K technology cost savings 38 Legacy ERP systems included $1.3M Reduction in trading fees 4 Cash processing hours saved per day Also, with the implementation of the robust hedge accounting and trading solution, Newell realized $1.3M in trading savings with the FiREapps and FXall integration. Treasury processes overall have become considerably more efficient, with an automated workflow freeing up more time for value-adding activities. Cash visibility has increased from under 50 percent to 95 percent, while the consolidation of technology platforms has also resulted in savings of $120,000 per year. In addition to the existing benefits, the project lays the groundwork for future improvements. These could include adding in-house banking and currency netting functionalities in Kyriba, as well as expanding cash flow exposure forecasting processes in FiREapps. Celebrating teamwork The project has completely modernized Newell’s treasury processes—an achievement that Singh attributes to two factors. The first is the use of innovative technology. The second is the support of a dedicated and ambitious in-house treasury team, undeterred by the upheaval of a significant merger. “It is one thing to have ideas, but quite another to implement them,” Singh said. “I am fortunate to have a team that believed in the merits of technology in the treasury arena, and that worked so hard to put these solutions in place.” ABOUT NEWELL BRANDS Newell Brands is an American worldwide marketer of consumer and commercial products with a portfolio of over 200 brands with operations in 16 countries.

Innovation - Sound Treasury Management In alignment with the company’s truly innovative approach to technology, and in support of the challenges associated with managing the exponential growth of a world class digital music service,...

Innovation - Sound Treasury Management In alignment with the company’s truly innovative approach to technology, and in support of the challenges associated with managing the exponential growth of a world class digital music service, Spotify’s treasury team planned an ambitious transformation project in 2014 centered around the Kyriba platform. It started with a review and rationalisation of the company’s banking relationships. Project visionary Johan Bergqvist’s strategy to select and work with a core number of banks was totally unconventional and yielded significant returns on relationships and time. Instead of a traditional RFP for banking services, Spotify with support from an external consultancy firm, analysed data to identify which banks that in earlier RFP processes had won in the areas that were relevant for Spotify. These banks were invited to a collaborative workshop to learn about the business and to discuss Spotify’s strategic requirements and how the bank and its products could support those needs. Once the banks understood Spotify’s business and pain points they could dedicate their time to analyse how they could remove operational friction, instead of answering a five page questionnaire of things someone else already vetted. Once selected, it was imperative from the outset for Spotify to maximise global bank connectivity and scalability with the utmost efficiency. The innovative and strategic leadership from Bergqvist looked to Software-as-a-Service models to accommodate the fast-paced growth of his own Saas music product. The transformation project was then initiated following Spotify’s decision to join the SWIFT network. "Our goal was to create a solution oriented and agile treasury to support short and long term business expansion. As a small team, we needed a secure, robust and scalable solution that integrated well with our systems, and although innovation comes from both internal drive and external collaboration, we found that among other technology partners, Kyriba was best aligned to support our needs." Johan Bergqvist, VP, Corporate Finance & Treasury, Spotify Collaboration - Sharing the Vision Key to successful deployment was the collaborative approach of a dynamic team who understood the vision and shared a common goal. Delivery of the broad scope within a challenging timeline meant the project was split into two phases. The first phase - run by a cohesive team of solution experts from Kyriba and external consultancy Covarius - focused on building the bank reporting architecture via Kyriba’s integrated SWIFT Service Bureau, setting up the Spotify entities to align with the cash pools set-up within the Spotify Group. A payment import from, and General Ledger (GL) export to the main Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution were set-up, as well as a market data feed and online trading platform interface. With engagement and close involvement from Spotify’s IT team, the interfaces were designed and built within a month, enabling the business users to concentrate on the task of end-to-end payment and statement import testing with the banks. Quantitative Results 5x Estimated reduction in operational risk 2x Increase in treasury productivity $65k Annual bank fee savings During onsite workshops in Stockholm, the consulting team worked closely with Spotify to design and test workflows built around the SWIFT automation for cash positioning and payments processing. Legacy spreadsheet-based cash positioning processes were quickly decommissioned once automated bank feeds were reconciled to the new process. Segregation of duties built into the approval workflows were shared between the treasury team and accounting department centrally within Kyriba. This enhanced central visibility and security of payments, while reducing reliance on bank-specific software. Finally, the prior day reconciliation workflow with cash categorisation and transaction matching, allowed Spotify to post GL journals for all bank activity to the ERP system on a daily basis. Risk Mitigation - Treasury and Beyond In parallel to the global rollout of Kyriba to support Bergqvist’s vision of a centralised payment factory for enhanced security and visibility of cash, the second phase of the project extended the functional scope. In order to mitigate the challenges faced by any global organisation working in multiple geographies and currencies, Spotify and one of its banking partners built a cloudbased algo-driven FX solution, thus removing manual work and shifting focus towards more strategic and analytic work. Spotify’s Treasury is utilising the Hedge Accounting functionality in Kyriba to ensure a correct and efficient accounting for the derivatives used for hedging the FX exposure. Expansion - Growing with Intent Reflecting the effort and vision of its treasury team combined with the agile implementation of Kyriba, Spotify is now fully equipped to perform its function in a rapidly expanding environment. Enhancing visibility through improved cash management and accounting, while mitigating the risk of fraud and human error through a centralised payments factory, the added financial controls, standardised workflows and treasurywide audit trails have strategically positioned Spotify for its next phase of growth and helped realise Bergqvist’s vision of achieving a cutting-edge treasury.

The fraud attempt started with an email from the CEO. Fortunately, the treasury team at a leading real estate developer had worked diligently to establish effective payment processes that would reduce the risk of...

The fraud attempt started with an email from the CEO. Fortunately, the treasury team at a leading real estate developer had worked diligently to establish effective payment processes that would reduce the risk of fraudulent or inaccurate payments. These policies included internal controls, information technology and dissemination, corporate culture and monitoring/compliance. A Credible Request The assistant treasurer received an email from the CEO requesting an $8 million wire to execute an acquisition of a UK target company. Given the confidential nature of the transaction, the email indicated that the assistant treasurer should not discuss the wire with anyone else. To top it off, the treasurer happened to be on vacation. The transaction appeared credible and the email accurately mimicked the writing style of the CEO. As the assistant treasurer began to take action on the CEO’s request, he realized that for a number of reasons he would be unable to execute the wire. Policy Meets Reality via Kyriba Thanks to the controls established by the company and held in place by Kyriba: The payment could not be processed by a single person. This company had configured Kyriba so that every payment must have at least three separate employees involved before it can be processed. One employee requests the payment, one employee processes the payment and a final employee approves/releases the payment. The $8 million amount exceeded the assistant treasurer’s authority in Kyriba. Kyriba’s platform enforces authority limits that give each employee a specific maximum on the payment amount they can approve. He would need to gain approval from someone with a higher limit in order to execute the wire. Fraud Stopped in its Tracks When the assistant treasurer walked down to the CEO’s office to discuss these questions, it quickly became apparent that this wire request was fraudulent. The company’s use of Kyriba to enforce its internal fraud prevention policies was critical to preventing this fraud attempt. Other ways that Kyriba helps this company identify and protect against fraud includes the rapid dissemination of information in order to ensure that all transactions are widely communicated to accounting and other key departments. The platform distributes key reports, including a list of payments being processed, several times a day. Daily report dissemination allows their accounting group to perform timely accounting reconciliations which highlights fraudulent or inaccurate payments and prevent them from occurring in the future. Thanks to Kyriba’s ability to support segregation of duties, payment authorization limits, and bank controls, this leading real estate developer avoided an $8 million loss.

The benefits of centralized Treasury operations – and of in-house banks – are today of increasing interest to more and more successful corporations in the Middle East.

Based on an interview with James Adams, Group Treasurer, and Shiban Patel, Treasury Analyst, Chalhoub Group The benefits of centralized Treasury operations – and of in-house banks – are today of increasing interest to more and more successful corporations in the Middle East. This case study explains why the Chalhoub Group built a new Treasury department, outlines how it was set up and automated, and summarizes the benefits which are now being achieved. It concludes with a few recommendations for others who are considering similar developments. Why Build a Group Treasury? About two years ago, the Dubai based Chalhoub Group’s sustained business success and growth caused the CFO and CEO to decide to establish a Group Treasury department. The primary reasons for doing so were to take advantage of the economies of scale in the management of Foreign Exchange risk and of cash, and to improve the visibility and mobilization of cash, in what was a typically decentralized corporate structure. At the time, there was no centralized Treasury function at the Chalhoub Group. Chalhoub’s management team did not have clear, up-to- date visibility of the organization’s overall cash balances, or of the group’s financial risk due to the rapid pace of growth. Some entities were running cash surpluses, whilst others were overdrawn. Accordingly, the senior management team decided to initiate a project to create a new central Treasury operation, at the corporate head office in Dubai. Initiating the Group Treasury Project The internal resources for establishing a professional Treasury operation from scratch were limited, so Chalhoub commissioned one of the Big Four consulting firms to perform the necessary research and analysis. The firm reviewed the ‘as is’ situation, and proposed a target operating model for Treasury. Chalhoub then built a team to establish the new department under these parameters. A key feature of the model was the implementation of a modern Treasury Management System (‘TMS’) to underpin operations, and to provide automated support for core activities, with the required security, control and transparency, and with high grade audit quality. The project team consisted of a cross-functional panel from the consulting firm and the Chalhoub Group. For the system selection and implementation processes, this also included Chalhoub IT and Legal specialists. There was a full time project manager to drive things forward, and senior management were actively involved in monitoring the direction and progress of the project, and to ensure that it was fully supported throughout the organization. The Target Operating Model The target operating model identified four key business objectives for the new Group Treasury: Centralized cash management. Centralized FX risk management. Establishing best practice governance. Achieving the operating benefits of automation. The structure of the new department that was created now consists of seven professionals, including legal, IT and accounting. The Technology Investment The team built the business case for the technology investment to secure a budget for the project. The business case needed to demonstrate a tangible return on the investment, as well as the intangible benefits of enhanced control and financial risk visibility. The business case was based upon the benefits of the better use of cash through pooling and cash concentration, and of improved FX transaction pricing. Chalhoub’s Banking Network At an early stage, Chalhoub reviewed and updated its banking relationships, to implement the quite complex cash pooling arrangements needed, and to set up the required credit facilities and structures. The Chalhoub Group now works with 19 different banks, operating about 200 bank accounts in 15 different currencies. Chalhoub has three core Partner Banks, and also works with local banks that can provide multiple branches to service the Group’s retail business. Robust SWIFT bank communications are outsourced to Kyriba, who are a SWIFT bureau. Cash Management Benefits The centralized structure gives Treasury real-time visibility over the Group’s network of bank accounts. Chalhoub has successfully set up cash pooling arrangements wherever permitted, meaning that they are now effectively using cash surpluses in some parts of the Group to finance shortfalls in others. This innovation has generated valuable interest savings, by minimizing external borrowings, and by enabling surpluses to be aggregated for investment at the best available rates. FX Benefits The central Treasury now has full visibility of the Group’s Foreign Exchange exposures. Treasury Analyst Shiban Patel elaborates: ‘we are now able to net many exposures internally, wherever feasible eliminating the need to buy and/or sell in the FX markets - and thus avoiding the related costs. We can easily identify the remaining exposures, and we hedge them in the markets in compliance with Treasury policy. As we aggregate individual exposures internally, we need less frequent market interventions, and we are able to command finer prices for our transactions.’ Treasury Control The Kyriba TMS provides the required automation support for Treasury’s STP workflows, ensuring that bank connectivity and treasury management work together seamlessly, in compliance with treasury policy. The system’s security and control facilities will ensure that system access rights are fully controlled, to protect the use and reporting of sensitive Treasury information. In-House Banking "Chalhoub Group Treasury has established an active in-house bank function to automate the organization’s key cash and FX management functions - which is quite a change from the highly decentralized situation of just two years ago." — James Adams, Group Treasurer of Chalhoub Group James Adams continued, "In-house banking is quite a new concept among corporations in the Gulf Region and the Middle East in general, where decentralized business models have generally been the norm. The Chalhoub Group's senior management team initiated and drove through the Treasury project to enable the Group to enjoy the benefits and efficiencies of international best practice Treasury operations." Future Growth Plans There are numerous possibilities for Chalhoub Treasury to extend its use of the TMS, subject of course to a positive cost/benefit analysis for each alternative. These include automated bank account management (‘BAM’), reconciliation, payments management and financial accounting. Summary There are many private companies in the Middle East that have grown rapidly over the past decade, but lack a clear approach to Treasury management. In some instances, this has created inefficiencies and several challenges for financial risk management, particularly in the current environment in which greater levels of automation and control are increasingly accepted as best practice. Chalhoub has taken the initiative by successfully creating a value-adding central treasury operation. James Adams adds: ‘If your senior management team decides that establishing a new Group Treasury is the best way forward, I offer the following recommendations to those responsible for the project: Take the time to research, define and document all the business requirements from the outset, so that the project can be accurately planned, measured and managed. This should minimize delays and errors. Do not underestimate the human resources needed for success! Work with your team to identify the necessary resources to complete the project as planned. Consider using an external advisor to provide the expertise you do not have in-house, to validate your planning, and to add value as specifically needed. Ensure that your detailed planning includes clearly defined targets and deadlines, so that you can measure progress accurately, can identify potential problems and delays, and can define and initiate any necessary adjustments and corrections. Ensure that you organize sufficient resources (including legal) to complete the demanding administrative processes required for setting up cash pools and borrowing facilities without delaying the project. Secure the backing and participation of senior management, to provide authority for the significant process change involved in implementing a new central Treasury.’ About James Adams James is the Group Treasurer at the Chalhoub Group, a leading partner for luxury across the Middle East, expert in retail, distribution and marketing services. He is responsible for all aspects of Treasury, and has recently led several projects to establish the new function within the firm. Prior to joining Chalhoub in 2014, James was a Senior Manager in the Deloitte Treasury Advisory team based in London. He has worked with Group Treasurers and CFOs at a variety of companies in the UK, Europe, Middle East, North America, Russia and Asia. His particular areas of interest are Treasury Systems, Risk Management and Treasury Strategy. James is a Full Member of the Association of Corporate Treasurers (MCT) and a Chartered Management Accountant. About Shiban Patel Shiban is currently a Treasury Analyst at the Chalhoub Group. He has worked closely with the Group Treasurer to set up the new, centralized Treasury department within the Group. Whilst primarily looking after Front and Middle Office activities, he has also been involved in managing several projects ranging from implementing systems, to advising on Treasury best practice policy and governance. Prior to joining the Chalhoub Group in 2014, Shiban worked at ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66 in London, where he played an integral role in setting up the downstream company’s Treasury team as the oil and energy giant went through a demerger. Shiban is also a member of the Association of Corporate Treasurers and has completed the certificate in International Treasury Management (CertITM). ABOUT THE CHALHOUB GROUP The Chalhoub Group has been the leading partner for luxury across the Middle East since 1955. As an expert in retail, distribution and marketing services based in Dubai, the Group has become a major player in the beauty, fashion and gift sectors regionally. With a growing workforce of more than 12,000 people, implemented in 14 countries, and a network of over 650 retail stores, the Group’s success is attributed to its most valued asset: highly skilled and dedicated teams. By demonstrating commitment to sustainable business, the Chalhoub Group was awarded in 2015, for the third consecutive year, the CSR Label from the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and has been accepted as a new member of the United Nations Global Compact Community.

Over the next five years, there will be a seismic move in the enterprise software space. By the end of the decade, the majority of companies will be running their ERP in the cloud....

Over the next five years, there will be a seismic move in the enterprise software space. By the end of the decade, the majority of companies will be running their ERP in the cloud. This will surely create a surge in revenue for the ERP firms and many of the system integrators poised to capitalize on this massive undertaking and reap the benefits of years of migration project work – many of which will be global in nature and need to tackle the complexity of global banking integrations.