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The IDC White Paper commissioned by Kyriba validates the emergence of a new practice area in Enterprise IT that includes risk management, payments, real-time connectivity, treasury management and working capital optimization. Download this report...

The IDC White Paper commissioned by Kyriba validates the emergence of a new practice area in Enterprise IT that includes risk management, payments, real-time connectivity, treasury management and working capital optimization. Download this report to understand more about the emerging trends and critical areas of practice that define how leading companies can outperform in operational efficiency, technology adoption, and process maturity. Enterprise Liquidity Management: 51% of leaders can produce a consolidated view of cash and liquidity in under one hour compared to 8% of the less equipped companies; Risk Reduction: 79% of leaders have implemented very effective payment fraud prevention and 69% of them effectively hedge to protect their liquidity; Real-Time Decisions: 93% of leaders leverage real-time insights, while 85% of them have integrated data from partners and third-party members into their enterprise platforms. Situation Overview For CFOs, treasurers, and corporate boards, the COVID-19 pandemic represented a moment of clarity. Seemingly overnight, CFOs were faced with a crisis bigger in many ways than the 2008 financial crisis. In the space of days, treasurers had to shift from managing long-term strategic initiatives of the business to ensuring immediate access to cash to fund basic business operations. Corporate finance leaders long burdened by dwindling IT budgets and limited head count were forced to lean heavily on their treasury and cash management tools. Unfortunately, some treasurers were hampered greatly by their legacy software packages, thwarted by a lack of agility and visibility with their legacy software. Yet, as with all major events, CFOs are often the powerful catalyst for change. The role of the CFO was already changing, but now, because of the past year, the CFO’s environment has changed as well. Corporate finance leaders long burdened by dwindling IT budgets and limited head count were forced to lean heavily on their treasury and cash management tools. Key Pain Points for Today’s Liquidity Management Teams To better understand these changes, IDC conducted a survey of more than 800 corporate finance leaders and practitioners in August 20211 to explore the emerging importance corporate finance leaders are assigning to liquidity management, both during times of crisis and to leverage opportunities for growth. The results of the survey were compelling in many aspects including findings that strongly indicate urgency for CFOs, treasurers, and other financial leaders to design and deploy strategic initiatives to manage liquidity holistically. Effective and efficient liquidity management is among the top priorities for survey respondents2. Here are a few reasons driving increased urgency for liquidity management for treasurers and other financial leaders: Ineffective communication of key treasury/financial metrics to key stakeholders through the company. Many financial leaders struggle to gather the data needed to effectively surface the key metrics to the executive teams and board members. A major part of this issue is the relative lack of real-time access to liquidity data. The survey shows that less than 30% of treasurers can leverage treasury insights in real time. Managing points of revenue leakage including fraud and payment optimization. Given the current environment of uncertainty, financial leaders are doubling their focus on areas of revenue leakage including bank fees/changes and fraud management issues. Only 42% of leaders would characterize their ability to protect their cash/liquidity against fraud as very effective. Given the average company will experience 5–10 fraud incidents per year, the impact on liquidity/cash is immense. Fraud is not the only source of revenue leakage, according to the survey; the reduction of transaction costs and fees paid to third-party payment providers was among the top 5 priorities for treasurers seeking to improve their ability to move cash and liquidity. Managing constant regulatory changes. The regulatory landscape is in constant flux for treasury operations including VAT changes, open banking implementation, and upcoming LIBOR changes. The CFO must have the tools to cope with these regulatory shifts. It seems that CFOs understand the urgency around this as the survey shows that increasing the budget for treasury technology and tools is the number 1 priority over the next two to three years. Liquidity Management Emerges as a Practice Area The events of 2020 have forced CFOs to prioritize business resiliency and continuity by optimizing liquidity management. This will mean a greater focus on working capital management3 including sourcing external funding and providing financing for critical suppliers efficiently. Given the current economic uncertainty, cash and liquidity management have been top of mind for financial leaders. The pressure to maintain liquidity is tremendous as companies of all sizes fight to retain market position and, in some cases, simply stay alive. As a result, businesses have found themselves needing to reforecast their liquidity and cash flow more frequently (weekly or even daily). However, this is a difficult proposition for any company considering the following survey data points, according to the IDC survey of more than 800 corporate finance leaders: Enterprise liquidity management is a “practice area” for 15% of the organizations. Survey leaders are well underway to operationalizing the building blocks of enterprisewide liquidity management (see Figure 1). Only one in eight companies has extensive visibility into the company’s current cash positions (i.e., real-time view of more than 90% of cash). Less than 5% of organizations can reliably forecast cash beyond three months, with most companies being able to only reliably forecast their company’s cash position out to four weeks. Further, less than 20% of organizations can forecast their company’s liquidity beyond one month. Only half (51%) of the businesses were able to build a consolidated view of their cash and liquidity within the same day of the request. In addition to being able to forecast and reforecast quickly and efficiently, financial leaders found that they desperately needed the ability to simulate future what-if scenarios and to create plans based on those what-if scenarios4. The benefit of this capability is that business leaders can remain in lockstep around core business objectives even as the business environment changes rapidly. Unfortunately, many financial leaders don’t have the tools to support scenario planning for liquidity, and as such, they must cope with limited visibility for decision making. The most prominent area of impact is in decision making for treasurers and their executive teams. CFOs with limited visibility are slower to make decisions regarding money movement, internal funding of projects, or M&A activity. Furthermore, a lack of visibility can even impact the bottom line as companies may choose to be less aggressive in moving money into/out of the exchange markets and may opt for expensive external funding sources unnecessarily. Managing Liquidity Enterprisewide Requires Unification More and more, organizations are coming to the realization that liquidity management is not only a critical aspect of functioning in this “new normal” but also a team sport. Organizations must have a unified approach to all data, processes, and human capital related to liquidity management5. Here are the key characteristics of an enterprisewide unified liquidity management process: Centralized liquidity / cash data The centralization of liquidity data streamlines financial operation, allowing for better control for financial leaders. Centralization provides financial leaders with the opportunity to standardize cash management across all legal entities, reduce the number of bank accounts in use, and provide a more holistic view of bank or FX exposures. Deep liquidity analytics Having access to deep analytics provides users with the ability to better predict future liquidity. More importantly, it allows them the chance to find patterns or overlooked items that have business significance (e.g., identifying cash as a revenue-generating asset and monitoring bank fees and deposit rates). Partnering environment Financial line-of-business professionals are often left on an island. This is often the case for finance directors, controllers, and heads of accounting. In fact, only 20% of survey respondents have their CEO as their champion who initiates unified liquidity management initiatives. The key to executive participation goes beyond simply getting the CEO involved in liquidity management decisions. The key here is to develop a partnering environment for all operational decision makers and stakeholders. This can be exceedingly difficult without the proper tools to support partnering and collaboration across business leaders. Dedicated tools to quickly expose key liquidity metrics to all stakeholders within the business are essential. Seamless integration Data must flow between all the relevant cash functions, including treasury, accounts payable, accounts receivable, FP&A, order management, and procurement6. In addition, the data must flow outside of the finance teams as well including investors and lenders, certain government agencies, credit rating organizations, and evens to certain customers and suppliers7. Only then will financial leaders be able to gain a holistic view of the organization’s current cash/liquidity position. Real-time massive data Finance leaders need real-time information to optimize decision making, but often they must wait till the end of day/period/quarter to get an accurate and holistic view of the current state of enterprise liquidity. Today’s liquidity managers need real-time data to build accurate forecasts and market simulations8. Real time is also essential in effective communication of the business cash position between stakeholders. Follow the Leader The process of managing treasury at the corporate level is complex and ever changing. In these cases, it is not unusual for CFOs and their treasury managers to reach out to gather advice from trusted sources. Leader companies, as defined by the survey, are more likely to reach out to their fintech partners and their accounting/audit partners for guidance than their laggard counterparts9. This is an example of how leader companies create a road map for other companies to follow. Here are a few other areas where leaders are blazing a trail for other companies: Involvement of the top management: A unified liquidity management strategy, when done properly, incorporates feedback from all departments. In short, a unified liquidity management strategy demands a unified approach from top finance leaders and even from the broader business leaders. For example, sales and supply chain have a massive impact on liquidity. As such, the leadership in these areas must also move in a coordinated fashion regarding liquidity management for the business. Visibility for financial leaders and decision makers: Leaders are significantly more aware of their real-time cash availability. Over 79% of leaders were able to get >75% visibility of past liquidity compared with <20% of laggards. Over 75% of all firms can predict their cash up to four weeks reliably; however, beyond four weeks is a struggle for all firms. The logistics of cash and liquidity: All (100%) leaders are very efficient at using pooling and sweeping to manage cash and liquidity; almost no laggards are. Leaders are focused on increasing the adoption of new and existing payment systems. Keeping cash and liquidity protected: Close to 100% of leaders are effective at using business continuity and contingency planning, payment fraud protection, and hedging compared with 35–55% of laggards. Leaders are focused on greater digitalization of end-to-end payment authorization. Setting financial operation up to grow cash and liquidity: Nearly all (99%) leaders have adopted business intelligence techniques to make better decisions regarding liquidity compared with 25% of laggards. Close to 100% of leaders are effective at using business continuity and contingency planning, payment fraud protection, and hedging compared with 35–55% of laggards. Benefits of Enterprise Liquidity Management Liquidity and cash management will be important to adapt to the rapidly changing business environment going forward. Importantly, liquidity management is essential amid any rapidly changing business environment, whether it is a global crisis, supply chain disruption, shifts in a competitive environment, or rapid internal growth as seen with many technology companies. Here are the key benefits of a cohesive and unified enterprise liquidity management strategy: Improved visibility: During the height of the pandemic, business decisions needed to be made within a matter of hours. Unfortunately, in the survey, IDC found that about 50% of organizations need more than one full day to build a consolidated view of their cash and liquidity. Decisions like layoffs and supplier payments had to be made quickly, and in nearly half the cases, according to the survey data, decisions were made without a consolidated current view of cash and liquidity. Companies can’t see upcoming shortfalls or dips in cash flow, which limits their ability to invest in long-term business initiatives like digital transformation, expand into a new geographic market, migrate to a new technology platform, or broaden product and service offerings. Better risk management: Today’s financial leaders are swimming in data and are finding FX, with all its moving parts, to be particularly difficult. Speed is another area of concern for treasurers that desire the ability to move money around the clock and in real time into and out of currency markets. However, with increased speed comes the need for more powerful real-time risk management capabilities. To highlight this, liquidity risk and fraud risk, collectively, were the most important strategic commitments, for financial leaders, to pursue over the next two to three years. More effective compliance: The tax and regulatory environment is constantly changing directly and significantly impacting treasury management processes. Today’s liquidity management professionals must be proactive to understand how these will impact treasury and other financial operations today and how they may impact these operations in the future. Greater process efficiency: The role of the average liquidity management professional is rapidly changing. While cash management and cash forecasting continue to be strategic priorities, liquidity managers and CFOs must also now focus on supply chain finance, insurance, and commodities. Even amid a period of expanding roles and responsibilities, many liquidity managers find themselves working with the same number of resources. The need to do “more with less” among financial professionals represents an opportunity for financial management technology vendors. According to the IDC survey, currently, 77% of financial leaders felt they lack either skills, head count, or budget to modernize their financial operation. Greater flexibility in financing: Businesses with an enterprise liquidity operation are better able to take advantage of a wider spectrum of asset-backed debt solutions including invoice financing, lines of credit, and demand loans. The visibility and control provided by unified coordinated liquidity management allow financial leaders greater working capital options. Further, this financing flexibility also provides a boost in business resilience, which is essential in times of uncertainty. As a result, establishing a receivables financing program was the top priority to improve cash and liquidity enterprisewide. The visibility and control provided by unified coordinated liquidity management allow financial leaders greater working capital options. APIs Unify the Practice of Holistic Liquidity Management The benefits listed previously and the road map laid out in the Follow the Leader section are all predicated on the smooth and rapid flow of data between various stakeholders and their corresponding applications. Specifically, unified liquidity management demands that the data from back-office applications be made available for processing and analysis. In many ways, topics such as cash management, liquidity forecasting, and treasury management efficiency all stem from robust data management practices and tools. The importance of data management has put the spotlight on application programming interfaces (APIs) and the promise they hold when deployed properly. The survey reveals that nearly 88% of respondents consider the adoption of APIs as important or very important. Liquidity management applications exist within a spiderweb of adjacent back-office applications and external data sources. Also, the liquidity/cash management process is a collection point for data from other multiple back-office systems/processes. Working capital management is an example of a process where data must be gathered from multiple systems/processes (e.g., ERP, procurement, accounts payable, reconciliation, and inventory). This interdependency places heightened importance on the smooth flow of data between these systems. This is where application programming interfaces become essential for liquidity management teams. The value of APIs can potentially extend beyond the four walls of the organization. APIs can be leveraged to incorporate external data sources to sharpen financial agility in areas such as FX, banking payments data, credit decisioning data, and even geopolitical factors that may impact the global flow of goods. Yet, according to the survey, just three of five companies are using APIs to integrate and optimize their internal system infrastructure (e.g., ERP, TMS). Further, a similar percentage uses APIs to extract/analyze internal data for reporting/management (e.g., dashboards). Leaders are always looking to adopt technology to support efficiency and agility in treasury operations. It is one of the essential differences between leaders and their laggard counterparts. For leaders, APIs are a core element of liquidity management operation. For example, 92% of leaders consider the adoption of APIs important or very important compared with 58% of laggards. APIs from a Global Perspective Major technology and economic hubs in Europe are significantly lagging behind the global average in terms of API adoption, according to the survey data. This represents hesitancy among major European Union (EU) players to adopt APIs (see Figure 2). Data residency and data privacy initiatives within Europe have tempered the demand slightly for cloud-native financial applications. However, this is changing rapidly as initiatives like the EU-funded project Open Clouds for Research Environments (OCRE) continue to grow and aid in accelerating cloud adoption in Europe. APIs Are Only the Beginning APIs, while important, are only the beginning. They are simply pipes that allow data to flow between systems, but it is not until this flow of data is harnessed that the real power of APIs emerges. APIs can potentially form the foundation of a platform where liquidity analysis and insights are harvested and shared with key stakeholders in real time. As such, the API layer must be paired with an additional layer of software that allows for data to be analyzed and structured into actionable insights. In a sense, APIs move financial data to a larger financial operating system where financial leaders get the business-critical information they need to make liquidity management decisions in real time. Future Outlook Liquidity Management Has Changed Permanently in the Past 24 Months CFOs and treasury managers suddenly find themselves facing a new reality where liquidity management is more strategic and more critical to the business than ever before. As a result, there will be permanent changes to the finance department going forward, including: The velocity of liquidity flow data will increase. Over 50 countries have adopted some form of real-time payment schemes in the past few years, with more to come. This has dramatically increased the speed at which treasury payments can move. This increases the need for improved security and enhanced reporting tools to manage enriched data sets from real-time payment platforms. Liquidity management becomes more essential. The pandemic will force treasurers to prioritize business resiliency and continuity by optimizing liquidity management. This will mean a greater focus on working capital management including sourcing external funding and providing financing for critical suppliers efficiently. The role of the CFO continues to expand. The role of today’s CFO is rapidly changing and expanding. While cash management and cash forecasting continue to be strategic priorities, CFOs are also increasing their focus on supply chain finance, insurance, and commodities. However, many financial leaders find themselves working with the same number of resources. Today’s financial management professionals require more advanced and innovative technology to keep up with the challenge. There will be a greater focus on advanced technology. To keep pace with rapidly changing market dynamics, treasurers will require their tools to be powered/enabled by cutting-edge technologies such as machine learning (ML), big data and analytics, microservices, and enhanced application programming interfaces. Digital banking / payments will be a focus area. Payment management was critically important during the pandemic and will remain so in the post-pandemic treasury world. As a result, digital banking platforms and bank connectivity will be a strong focus area for treasurers going forward. Finance departments long burdened by dwindling IT budgets and limited head count were forced to lean heavily on their treasury and cash management tools during the recent uncertainty. Unfortunately, some finance departments were hampered greatly by their legacy technology. But the survey data reveals that this is set to change (see Figure 3). Here are a few key future technology trends that will shape enterprise liquidity management going forward: Artificial intelligence (AI) is highlighted. Financial leaders for product-centric companies often must move quickly to secure supply chain obligations and financing. Many turned to advanced technologies such as machine learning and advanced analytics to help lower the data analysis/management burden and allow for more accurate decisions regarding financial management at speed. Cloud is leading the way. The most obvious takeaway is that organizations are planning on spending more on SaaS versus traditional (on-premises, single-tenant, and managed hosted) software. IDC research shows that organizations are already seeing a shift toward the public cloud for treasury, FP&A, and accounting software, but the survey results also suggest that this trend is accelerating considering recent disruptions. Aim to bridge the gap between finance and IT: For finance leaders, the top hurdle to digital transformation is the friction between often restrictive IT/security policies and the desire of the finance department to move quickly and be more agile. In IDC’s December 2020 Worldwide C-Suite (CXO) Survey, the most common hurdle for finance leaders to effective digital transformation agenda was the IT and security leaders slowing them down. The data reveals that financial leaders feel hampered by an inability to gather and disseminate that business-critical information to the necessary stakeholders at speed. As a result, financial leaders need more tools and features geared toward agility so that they can more quickly respond to rapid market shifts. Rapid payment technologies / initiatives see growth: For liquidity management professionals, time is of the essence when it comes to making payments. As a result, there has been growing momentum around faster payment programs. Recently, several payment initiatives were introduced/expanded, including SWIFT gpi, SEPA instant payment, and same-day ACH. Enterprisewide Liquidity Key Aspect of New Normal In the past, much of the financial leader’s role was to manage rear-facing details like closing the period, reconciling GL transactions, invoice matching, or cash application. While these will always be important, the uncertainty of 2020 put more of a focus on forward-looking activities like forecast, budgeting, and planning. With the pace of change in overdrive post-2020, financial leaders are investing a large amount of time trying to anticipate and plan for the next major change in business dynamics. A larger amount of the CFO’s time must be devoted to trying to develop a financial strategy to anticipate future shifts in market dynamics. For example, prior to the event of 2020, many CFOs and financial leaders would update their cash flow and liquidity plans quarterly or on a halfyearly basis. However, the financial and regulatory landscape is shifting so quickly, due to the shock of the pandemic, that many CFOs and their teams are now updating their cash flow and liquidity plans weekly or even, in some cases, daily. This new normal requires/demands a more unified approach to financial operations to cope with the new hyperspeed pace of economic change. It is more important than ever that financial data flow freely and quickly between key departments and key financial applications. Businesses on the leading edge have heard the call and are already making the necessary changes to thrive within this new normal. In fact, the survey shows that 15% of survey leaders are already operationalizing the enterprisewide management of liquidity as a practice area cross-functionally. Prior to the event of 2020, many CFOs and financial leaders would update their cash flow and liquidity plans quarterly or on a half-yearly basis. Emerging Need of a Chief Liquidity Officer As stated previously, the importance of liquidity has increased dramatically, and the need for an enterprise liquidity management approach has grown in importance as well. When taken together, they reveal the growing need for a dedicated chief liquidity officer. This position will act as a central point of authority and accountability for a unified liquidity management approach. This position would develop, manage, and optimize a holistic liquidity management strategy to ensure alignment with overall business objectives — especially as those objectives change/evolve/shift over time. However, a business looking to add this position must also invest in the tools, skills, and resources to manage liquidity at an enterprise level including forecasting/simulation, data visualization, and dashboarding tools as well as an API-driven platform that leverages automation and artificial intelligence to quickly gather and disseminate business-critical financial data. As the demand for business resiliency and proactive liquidity management continues to grow, so too will the demand for a dedicated chief liquidity officer. As the demand for business resiliency and proactive liquidity management continues to grow, so too will the demand for a dedicated chief liquidity officer. Challenges / Opportunities Ecosystems that must be curated: Liquidity management operations require data flows from many internal and external data sources. These data sources must be constantly curated to make sure that the financial leadership has access to the latest information and cutting-edge technology advancements. Curating ecosystems around the liquidity management solution takes effort and resources from a department that is often lacking in resources. Getting buy-in: Data shows that many line-of-business financial managers (e.g., controllers, accounting managers, and treasurers) don’t have support for liquidity management operation transformation. While this was the case for line-of-business financial managers prior to the pandemic, according to the survey data, this phenomenon is still a reality for many line-of-business financial managers. Data security risks: While APIs have tremendous promise for data integration, they also have the potential to expose sensitive data when not managed properly. API keys, for example, must be handled with great care or risk giving unlimited read/write access to financial information. Conclusion The CFO’s role has evolved into a strategic business partner for the rest of the organization, and the capability that’s required to deliver actionable intelligence downstream to the decision makers at the edge of the business or the lines-of-business leaders is evolving as well. For context, IDC believes the total available market for an enterprise liquidity management software (e.g., treasury, B2B payments, corporate payments, supply chain, and receivables financing) approached $30 billion in 2020. This is a massive opportunity for vendors to step in and help the CFO as their role changes. To access data is just the beginning of the journey to enterprise liquidity management. The ever-evolving remit of the office of the CFO is to be the lightning rod for data within the business and users of that data to power coordinated, data-driven financial business decisions throughout all facets of the organization. This demands a system that is built to aggregate, analyze, and disseminate data. This need is driving the emergence of centralized intelligent financial data platforms built upon APIs and strong data management principles. This new liquidity management platform may also necessitate the emergence of a chief liquidity officer to sit at its helm. In any case, the world of liquidity management is changing rapidly, and a unified enterprisewide liquidity management approach is no longer a luxury — it is a must for today’s business environment. References n = 440 European organizations, $100mil+ revenue. Enterprise Liquidity Management Is a Focus Area for Senior Execs Among Leader Organizations: CFO, CEO, Board of Directors. In 23% of the most advanced corporates, Liquidity Management is a focus area for CEOs, whereas it mainly remains a in the hands of the treasurers for the laggards (23%) Leaders Are Focused More on Integrating Working Capital Data, While Laggards Target Transitioning to Real-time Visibility And Improving Quality of Data Common Priority. They are more focused on integrating working capital data (43% against 27% of the less equipped companies). 80% of Leaders have adopted business intelligence techniques to make better decisions regarding liquidity. Survey Readout slide 40–48% of Leaders Encounter Greater Disconnected Priorities Between Finance and IT Departments. Most Leaders (75%) have transparent and well-connected corporate finance and treasury teams compared to ~30% of Laggards. This is visibly reflected in the adoption rates across APIs for different purposes: • To integrate and optimize their internal system infrastructure – 80% Leaders vs 10% Laggards. • To leverage internal data for reporting – 90% Leaders vs 15% Laggards • To send data to partners and others – 80% Leaders vs 27% Laggards • To receive data from partners and third-party members – 85% Leaders vs 10% Laggards >90% of Corporate finance and treasury teams of Leaders can effectively leverage real-time insights compared to only 33% of Laggards. 39% of Leaders Have a Wider Set of Fintech Partners to Support Enterprise Liquidity Management Initiatives Compared to just 7% of Laggards. Source: IDC Enterprise Liquidity Management Study, sponsored by Kyriba, August 2021. Want to learn more about Enterprise Liquidity Management? You are welcome to join Kyriba's upcoming monthly live demo sessions to see the Kyriba ELM platform in action. An on-demand demo session is available here.

Enterprise Liquidity Management (ELM) has emerged as a new practice area within the CFO’s and treasury professional’s remit to manage and execute the entire lifecycle of corporate liquidity—a specialized capability traditional Treasury Management Systems...

Enterprise Liquidity Management (ELM) has emerged as a new practice area within the CFO’s and treasury professional’s remit to manage and execute the entire lifecycle of corporate liquidity—a specialized capability traditional Treasury Management Systems and ERPs are not able to deliver. The ELM concept a purpose-built, dedicated Enterprise Liquidity Platform has emerged as the software solution suite required to do so. Key takeaways from the study include the following: From a corporate finance perspective, liquidity is the strategic resource necessary to deliver value and growth under any circumstance, including but not limited to maintaining solvency. Enterprise Liquidity Management provides diagnostic decision support intelligence on all liquidity transactions, then enables indispensable actionability and operational interconnectivity between internal and external systems. ELM is powered by the Enterprise Liquidity Platform, a fully integrated software suite (e.g., Treasury and Risk Management, a comprehensive Payments Hub, and Working Capital Finance solution sets) all of which are connected, integrated, and networked through Open APIs that provide indispensable, secure machine-to-machine automation between software applications. The result is that all cash and liquidity-related data and process workflows within the organization and its external finance ecosystem are unified into a “Golden Source” of intelligence and, then within the same system, made actionable as a strategic decision-making support system. Managing cash and liquidity across large enterprise ecosystems demands the support of a dedicated infrastructure engineered to overcome one of the most significant burdens to corporate finance: the proliferation of disjointed software applications. An ELM platform differentiates from traditional treasury management systems, extending visibility, security, and actionability across all of finance internally and externally beyond cash positioning and forecasting: the treasurer can understand multiple liquidity management scenarios and—directly from the platform—move and optimize liquidity to or from the right location at the right time. The goal of this paper is to inform the market that ELM has become a strategic practice area for CFOs, Treasurers, and other corporate finance leaders who understand the newfound urgency to leverage new technologies and techniques to capture opportunities and eliminate risks. Introduction Liquidity is the strategic resource necessary to deliver value and growth under any circumstance, including but not limited to maintaining solvency. The speed and complexities required of corporate finance leaders to manage cash and liquidity in realtime, however, and especially during market shocks such as the 2008 and Covid-19 crises, has surpassed the ability of humans to build better and better spreadsheets. Even the largest ERP and treasury management system providers struggle to deliver value in the new world where comprehensive, cross-functional liquidity management has become a board-level mandate. Aite-Novarica Group’s view is that emerging leaders in the space are thinking differently and developing new technologies to enable liquidity to be managed holistically as a new practice area within the CFOs purview. While from a conventional liquidity management standpoint almost every global and regional bank has the technology in place in the form of a web-banking portal, enterprise users expect to consume decision support data through transaction banking cockpits and portals developed according to standard business process flows and practices. These cockpits must be interoperable and interchangeable. Finance and treasury executives and managers don’t want any longer multiple web-banking user interfaces that require system experts to cut and paste highly-valuable financial data into “software soups”. Fintech players must develop and present technology solutions and software applications that support their corporate clients’ internal, strategic liquidity management objectives and, at the same time, allow the enterprise to meet external client needs. This thought leadership paper introduces the concept of enterprise liquidity management as a formalized practice area for corporate finance; it further analyzes the technological, process architecture, and execution workflow capabilities required to make it happen. Following, this paper develops the concept that corporations of all sizes and complexity aim to have all their subsidiaries on a central repository for cash and liquidity-related operations rather than on individual web-banking portals. The concept is similar to the idea of a self-contained infrastructure to manage liquidity, as if it were an “ERP for liquidity management”. The paper introduces Enterprise Liquidity Management as a new financial technology category. Methodology This thought leadership paper is based on desktop analysis and extensive examinations of various solutions used by treasurers to manage corporate liquidity. Using the life cycle steps of liquidity management operations as a benchmark, Aite-Novarica Group’s groundwork also included analyzing the limitations of currently available solutions. To validate the conclusions of the research, Aite-Novarica Group will refer to the findings of an analysis conducted on Kyriba’s Enterprise Liquidity Platform and on its impact on the corporate organization culture, business processes, IT performance, and its alignment with management’s goals1. The Liquidity Management Lifecycle and the Need to Unify Fragmented Systems Enterprise liquidity is the lifeblood of every business of any size. Considering the numerous definitions used to describe it, liquidity confirms to be a strategic resource for corporate chief finance officers (CFOs) to deliver value and growth under any circumstances including but not limited to insolvency. Enterprise executives know that information technology permeates business operations and is the most powerful tool for change. Corporate finance business units, however, appear not to be the most technically mature in the organization, so only enlightened corporate CFOs are at the forefront of corporate finance digitization to transform the way they leverage cash and liquidity to build resiliency, earn growth, and generate strategic value to customers, shareholders, and boards. If resiliency, growth, and value are the targets for corporate finance, the task is now for the CFO and his teams to practically meet such targets. To his/her rescue comes liquidity management: in times of crisis a proper management of the company sources and destinations of liquidity contributes to make the organization more resilient. At the same time the ability to manage corporate liquidity not only helps the company to survive but also sustains the value of the company through growth: value is generated when the company has proper funding to distribute dividends, buy back shares, and grow by investing in other avenues and controlling capital expenditures. Liquidity is the organization’s lifeblood, irrigating all internal functions and lines of business; as blood needs to be enriched with oxygen, liquidity needs to be enhanced by a complex external ecosystem, including banks, financial data suppliers and market places, and fintech players. Liquidity is also typically managed along different time dimensions. In long-term vision, CFOs grow and protect cash availability by operating financial transactions with multiple settlements. The most iconic of such transaction is drawing down a debt for cash. This triggers the long-term need to repay the debt at the end of maturity up until the final settlement. Another transaction with long-term financial repercussion is a hedge transaction that will take the company to enter in a swap with multiple settlements, maybe for the next two or three years. On the short-term execution, the corporate treasury office generates or consumes liquidity with cash transactions. Examples of cash transactions are one-off payments to a supplier, an employee, or an FX spot transaction. Between long-term financial transactions and short-term cash operations should stand strategic planning. Financial Planning and analysis (FP&A) that the CFO uses to understand what will be the budget for next rarely translates in terms of liquidity requirements and usually lacks critical data to ensure there is enough money: Should it be borrowed? How to hedge the risk? The budget fixed at the beginning of the year will inevitably move as time goes by. The necessary adjustments swing the pendulum from the very short-term treasury operations to the long-term forecasting of the outcoming liquidity. A bank that negotiates with a CFO will always ask the company’s liquidity plan for the next year, sometimes even several years ahead depending on the market segment the company operates in. This demands the treasury department and financial manager of each subsidiary to integrate their figures, usually on a monthly basis, into the centralized corporate FP&A view that gives the CFO the most updated and reliable liquidity profile of the company. Enterprise Liquidity Management - A New Practice Area in the CFO Suite Beyond closing accounts, the CFO’s constant focus is- hence- to know where liquidity comes from and where it can be allocated, and, with that intelligence, ensure its protection (from fraud and over-exposure) throughout. This requires more than a mindset shift towards prioritizing the strategic value of liquidity--it requires a purposebuilt layer of software to make it happen. We believe this combination constitutes the design and deployment of a new Practice Area. To start, Aite-Novarica Group suggests to measure the value of liquidity beyond the ordinary ‘cash and cash equivalents’ balance sheet item. This indicator may in fact be deceptive if not depurated from the component of the uncommitted drawn facilities. There is a possible risk that the lender may ask for the repayment anytime, and this scenario will vaporize the value of the borrower’s assets. On the other side, the value of cash and cash equivalents must be increased for the total value of the undrawn committed facilities the company can still access. These represent reliable and immediately accessible liquidity because the time to draw down such facilities in general is very fast, usually in the order of a couple of days. The example of the metric to gauge the real potential value of available liquidity is yet one of the many key capabilities a CFO should have available in the ELM Practice Area, a decision support system. At the back of these capabilities the CFO and the treasurer need a system that unifies the data scattered across a landscape of IT systems totally fragmented, the more disjointed the larger and complex the organization. Historically, the CFO suite has been an installed on-premise (almost monolithic) ERP sometimes combined with an equally monolithic treasury management system (TMS), now morphing into a composed set of a core solution (e.g., SAP, Oracle) and connected mission critical best-of-breed solutions such as payroll and benefits, budgeting and planning, order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, and risk management. The most recent trend sees companies shifting their IT infrastructure to the cloud with multiple objectives: constant innovation, business continuity for critical functions, or real-time flow of information while lowering the total cost of ownership of the underlying software and hardware infrastructure. A New Category: ELM Enterprise users expect to consume decision support data through interoperable and interchangeable cockpits and portals, developed according to standard business process flows and practices, typically provided by banks – or, through monolithic ERPs combined with an ever-increasing portfolio of specialized point solutions. Today, as we see the emergence of “composable” ERPs capable of providing value beyond simply recording transactions, there remains a major void in the marketplace. Corporations aim to have all their subsidiaries on a central repository for cash and liquidity-related operations rather than on individual and separated web-banking portals. The concept is similar to a self-contained infrastructure to manage liquidity and introduces to a new financial technology category: Enterprise Liquidity Management. Treasury has evolved from account management staff duties (e.g., reconciling cash every morning and putting cash in the right accounts) to a more strategic, cross-functional role, so corporate finance decision makers are receptive to ELM as the suite that enables companies with long-term vision to work with multiple liquidity structures and make autonomous and simultaneous decisions across use cases, particularly treasury. The next sections will provide detailed descriptions of the modules that constitute the ELM construct. At this point is important to capture the possible ELM use cases. As an example, the ELM construct allows the corporate user to drawdown from a credit line directly from their liquidity cockpit. Or, to recommend the corporate decision maker at what point does it make sense to go back to market and refinance. This makes it possible to look at external debt in a completely new way. Users don't want just to model cash, they want to make sure they can model all their cash flow deadlines. The ELM tools model and not just showcase. They are part of a set of open and scalable intelligent systems to come to decisions. From a conceptual standpoint, the ELM is a platform composed of three layers (Figure 1). FIGURE 1: THE THREE LAYERS OF THE ELM PLATFORM The first- the operations layer- groups the application modules to run treasury, payments, risk management, and working capital optimization. The connectivity layer is the second layer- and the raison d'être of ELM- that takes a standalone suite of rich software features to a system open to the world, thanks to the development and use of connectivity APIs. The composed infrastructure of two or three large ERPs that most large enterprises have today generates a portfolio of point solutions that can be best connected through an API architecture. This architecture enables not just the visibility of data, but the unification of that data, enabling the user to leverage AI for decision support. The third layer- the execution layer- makes it possible to analyze and understand the data exchanged between the connected systems, take the best decision using business intelligence capabilities, and leverage machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to turn information into decisions and- this is key- to execute directly from the corporate treasurer’s enterprise system.

Are you a treasury professional working in or planning to expand into the Asia-Pacific region? With 12 chapters on topics such as liquidity management, short-term borrowing and financial risk management, this handbook gives guidance...

Are you a treasury professional working in or planning to expand into the Asia-Pacific region? With 12 chapters on topics such as liquidity management, short-term borrowing and financial risk management, this handbook gives guidance on the core tasks of a regional treasury center and explores the topics and emerging trends that shape the Asia-Pacific region.

Digital treasury tools, such as robotic process automation (RPA), machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) are already being used to facilitate treasury automation. The use of treasury technology leads to better decision-making and also...

Digital treasury tools, such as robotic process automation (RPA), machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) are already being used to facilitate treasury automation. The use of treasury technology leads to better decision-making and also frees time for skilled treasury practitioners to focus on strategic development. This guide outlines how RPA, ML and AI can–and are–being used to improve treasury management processes for receivables finance, payments, fraud detection and more. The guide also explores how to build a business case for a new automation project. The Need for Technology to Maintain Effective Operations Corporate treasury departments rely on technology to maintain effective operations. The technology varies and is constantly improving, offering ever more sophisticated solutions and functionality. Treasury uses a wide range of different technologies, from spreadsheets developed in-house to manage a specific process to highly sophisticated treasury management systems. Technology is also an enabler as treasury evolves from an operational department to a strategic partner to the whole of the business, with automation playing an increasingly important role. While technology is critical to improving operational efficiency, that efficiency is only achievable if the technology is deployed to perform suitable tasks, which requires accurate expectations of what each type of technology can and, just as importantly, cannot deliver. Treasurers must be able to do two things: Identify key inefficiencies, or “pain” points, within their operations. Match each activity to an appropriate technology with the potential to solve them. Pain points manifest themselves in different ways, whether as errors, such as missed investment opportunities or unhedged exposures, or as timeconsuming manual processes, such as the preparation of the cash position. While the root causes and associated operational weakness are relatively simple to identify, the challenge lies in selecting appropriate solutions to solve those problems. All companies have these pain points and, if left unchecked, they are only going to get worse. With the increased use of real-time payments, we are moving ever nearer to a world of real-time finance, an environment of constantly changing data. Without more automation, treasury practitioners simply will not be able to make decisions quickly enough. On a positive note, digital treasury tools, notably Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and machine learning, are already being used to facilitate treasury automation. The use of these tools can be shown to lead to better decision-making; it also frees time for skilled treasury practitioners to focus on strategic development. This guide outlines how RPA and machine learning can, and is, being used, and shows how to build a business case for a new automation project. Robotic Process Automation, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence In this section, RPA and machine learning/artificial intelligence (AI) are defined and explained along with the potential benefits of their use. The next section includes three use cases to highlight how different companies have already deployed digital technologies to streamline operations. Robotic Process Automation Robotic Process Automation is a rules-based technology enabling users to automate repetitive tasks. It effectively uses a software “bot” to replicate a series of manual processes performed by a person. Unlike a standard workflow process that operates within a single system, an RPA bot can be set up to capture data from multiple systems, as it mirrors a human treasury team member by sitting above existing systems. Because of this, RPA processes can often be implemented quickly and without major disruption to existing operations. RPA is typically used to replicate a manual, repetitive task, or series of tasks, that can be tightly defined. Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the use of a computer or machine to mimic certain elements of human intelligence. Machine learning (ML) is a branch of AI, in which a machine learns how to identify patterns in data. Unlike RPA, which simply replicates a series of repetitive processes, machine learning can be used to analyze data to identify trends or patterns, via the use of algorithms. This goes to the heart of many companies’ problems with data analysis: companies generally hold, or amass vast stores of data, but they do not convert it into meaningful information. As with RPA, data analysis via machine learning is faster than human computation; once set up, machine learning can operate any time (constantly, overnight or according to a customized schedule), enabling decisions to be made with the optimal, latest available data. However, implementation is more complex than typical RPA scenarios. Machines can learn, or be taught via amendments to the underlying algorithms, patterns over time, but they are reliant on access to multiple data to perform meaningful calculations. Companies need to be prepared to make the investment in technology and data cleansing or preparation before any machine learning would be effective, both from a results and a cost perspective. The Potential Benefits of RPA and Machine Learning Although the use cases vary, the use of RPA and machine learning offer similar potential advantages, including: Improved accuracy. With RPA, as long as the process is set up correctly, the bot will perform the same tasks in the same way every time. The risk of human processing errors is eliminated and, if any variance between RPA outcome and actual outcome is identified, the RPA process can be adjusted. In the case of machine learning, accuracy will improve over time, as the machine learns and the algorithms are adjusted. Significantly reduced processing time. Bots and machines can perform typical tasks in a fraction of the time it takes a person to complete. This means that activities can be performed faster, so decisions can be made on the most recent available data. Results available, globally, when needed. Machine learning and RPA technology can operate at any time, so calculations can be performed overnight or on desired schedules to meet operational requirements. So, for example, in the case of cash positioning in a multinational organization, results can be available when teams in each location start their respective days, rather than two or more hours into them. Time management. Eliminating mundane processing from a treasury professional’s day frees that time to devote to more value-added activities, whether that is engaging with additional timesaving activities, supporting the wider business or focusing on strategic decisions. Improved morale. Although some treasury staff will be concerned about the impact of RPA and machine learning on their own jobs, for most organizations the technology will be an additional process that will improve team members’ experiences by eliminating the stress of calculating positions under time pressure or reducing the risk of error. Team members will also have time to spend on more interesting and personally rewarding activities. How Emerging Technologies Are Being Used This section outlines three ways RPA and machine learning are being used to solve particular problems faced by individual treasury departments. Case Study: Automating Time-Consuming Tasks via RPA One insurance company’s treasury department used to spend hundreds of hours a year processing internal customer requests for check images. While critical for the business as a whole, these requests were timeconsuming to complete and added no value within finance. The treasury team developed an internal RPA process via bot to automate the process. While the team had to spend some time training their internal customers on the new process so that requests were made in a standardized format to enable bot processing, the system is now operational and running three times a day. Using the bot has improved the response time for treasury’s internal customers, while releasing time back to treasury to devote to more value-added activities. It is now a task that treasury no longer has to perform. In addition, the customer experience and SLA have improved, as treasury can now typically respond to a customer’s request in a matter of hours, rather than weeks. Case Study: Improving Cash Flow Forecasts One of the key benefits of RPA is that it can be used to process data from a number of different company systems. This makes RPA a useful tool to improve cash flow forecasts, as they are built on data sourced from banks, treasury management and ERP systems and from other company departments, including payment teams. Séverine Le Blevennec, senior director of EMEA Treasury at Honeywell has led the development of an RPA process to improve the accuracy and timeliness of the in-house bank’s cash flow forecasts. She identified RPA as a technology that might have the capability to enhance the existing forecast, and then took time to fully understand whether RPA could work by examining the technology in some detail. Convinced that RPA was the potential solution, Le Blevennec then engaged with internal and external stakeholders to communicate her vision. She worked with Honeywell’s technology providers and banking partners to see whether data could be supplied in a more accessible way, wanting her colleagues to view the bot as a useful colleague, not as a threat to their jobs. Critically, Le Blevennec knew the bot needed to have a significant positive impact from the start, as she wanted the project to energize her colleagues toward future digitization projects. In other words, the new process had to deliver the expected returns. Ensuring this required a review of the current process and a strict testing program. Le Blevennec learned that “rule-based programming [like RPA] requires detailed documentation.” She revisited all existing processes and created seven workflows for seven different activities, from maturing time deposits to intraday payments and collections. She emphasized the importance of testing. Tests were performed in a mindset in which it was expected that “things could go wrong.” Then, before going live, the team used the new spreadsheet alongside the old process to make sure everything worked as expected. Since going live, Honeywell has seen some significant benefits. The new system is more efficient: Two hours a day have been saved. It is more accurate: The old manual system could only include data from about 40 Honeywell bank accounts. Today, data from over 160 accounts are included in the forecast, and any new accounts can be included easily. Enhanced visibility has resulted in improved counterparty risk management, reduced levels of un-invested cash and, as a result, increased investment returns. Most importantly, Honeywell’s treasury team has seen the benefits. They are less stressed, and more engaged for the next stage in Honeywell’s digitization journey. Case Study: Receivables Management A steady growth in sales, resulting in increased receivables, is usually good news. But it might not be for an AR team, over-reliant on expensive lockbox processing. With over 2,500 monthly checks all needing some form of human intervention coupled with increased sales, a technology company’s AR team suffered from low morale, leading to delays in receivables processing and reduced confidence in the accuracy of AR data in the ERP. As a result, the treasury team was so busy processing payments, they didn’t have time to convince customers to transition to more efficient, less costly electronic payment formats. The team recognized they needed a solution that could be scaled and that would allow them to react in the ever-changing B2B payment environment. It is one thing to recognize the need for change; it is another to understand how to bring it about. The team did their research and spoke to their banking partners. One discussion started with an enquiry on how to implement a more modern lockbox, utilizing the OCR codes; it ended with the team realizing that machine learning could be used to automate some of the processes. They were able to design a solution that would get machines to do much of the previously manual work. However, there were hurdles to overcome. For example, in one division, clients tended to pay by claim, rather than by invoice, and the ERP system didn’t hold the claim line item information. The team realized bridging the gap between the system holding the claim information and the ERP was well-suited to machine learning. Once the solution was operational, it freed time for the team to manage exceptions and also to improve the quality of the data on which the AI system relied. The time savings enabled the team to work with customers to send and enhance information coming into the system, so the machine learning tool could better consolidate and match the data, and constantly learn to improve. The result was dramatic. By replacing the manual gathering, consolidation and formatting that was required every morning, the AI-enabled receivables solution allows the company to quickly improve the time taken to process a payment. Most payments are processed within two days. This was achieved because of the consolidation of information. The payments are now standardized. Reconciliation is simpler, with the team confident all the information is there. Three months later, with even more time available as the machine continues to learn from manual exception management actions, the team can spend more time with collections and customers to help them provide better remittance information, further improving matching. The team can now build electronic adoption, with the AI bringing together remittance and payment automatically. Now, every time a match is confirmed, the system can see it and learn from it. The team can respond quickly to queries. Information is tracked immediately, so there is no need for time-consuming searches for data. The team has confidence in the data, and morale is high as they can focus on more value-added activities. Making the Business Case to Implement As with any technology project, it is critical to build a strong business case when seeking to adopt RPA or machine learning. This means getting buy-in from a project sponsor, and approval from all required stakeholders. Setting and achieving key success metrics will give credibility to the project, which in turn will help treasury practitioners introduce more digital finance initiatives. To help make a compelling business case and ensure the objectives are well defined, there are a number of key considerations. Understand the technology to maximize the potential benefits. As outlined above, different technologies are better suited to solving particular problems. The project owner needs to understand the nature of the problem and how the proposed technology will solve it. Some proposals may appear to be a standalone solution to a particular problem with limited impact across the wider business, yet when examined further, are either extendible into other functions and/or require change to operations within those functions. Optimize processes before automating. If there is an existing process, map it and review whether it can be made more efficient. Many manual processes incorporate separate checks and approvals to protect against error and fraud. While some may need to be migrated into an automated process, for example if a transaction exceeds a certain pre-set limit, it may not be necessary to migrate all of them, as long as the rules are tightly written. A machine learning project may require improvements to data management to enable automated data analysis. Communicate and educate stakeholders on the proposed solution. Communication is central to the success of any project. Senior management will have to approve the project. If IT input is required, they will need to be engaged early in the planning process to secure resources. Banks, technology providers and other data suppliers should also be approached early to plan how they can support the project. Treasury team members will want to understand the implications for them. Identify potential returns. One of the key benefits of automating a process, whether by RPA or ML, is to remove layers of human involvement in either mundane, standardized processing or time-consuming data collation and analysis. So, although there will be some clearly measurable costs and benefits, many will be “softer” benefits in the form of released time and reduced risk of error and fraud. Establish and monitor success metrics. It can be helpful to identify some clear targets to serve as measurements of the success of the project, such as how much time an RPA project has saved. It may be possible to illustrate consequential benefits too, such as improved investment returns due to more accurate cash forecasts. If possible, use these measurements to refine the bot or machine to achieve further efficiencies. Scale the solution; look for the next step. Measuring the outcome of one project will help build support and momentum for others. As technology develops, there will always be further ways it can be adopted to improve treasury operations. Greater Automation Is the Future As this guide has indicated, technology is enabling corporate treasury departments to operate more efficiently by automating processes and taking advantage of more advanced data analytics. In turn, these changes further enable transformation and evolution of treasury departments from laborintensive operational, tactical departments into strategic partners to the wider business. The adoption of new treasury technologies continues to accelerate, driven by multiple factors. Two stand out: the evolution of the “internet of things,” and the move toward “real-time” finance. While the catalysts for the development of these two trends is different, the implications for treasury and finance are closely linked. The Internet of Things The value of the internet of things comes from the way data can be shared between billions of different devices being connected via the internet. It allows individuals to control their personal environment (e.g., smart lighting and heating) and companies to manage a whole range of processes from stock ordering to logistics management. For treasury and finance, the value will come from being able to link the physical and financial supply chains and gain better insight into cash. To do so effectively, data sent out by these connected devices needs to be analyzed by artificial intelligence; the devices simply produce too much data to be analyzed in any other way. The Implications of Real-Time Finance There is a clear trend toward more real-time activity in treasury and finance, with real-time payments being just one, albeit significant, step. Notably, the move toward real-time processing is also a shift to 24/7/365, always on operations. Treasury will need to consider how to manage this change and, particularly, how to manage risks that will emerge overnight, including between the Friday close and the Monday restart. The growth of e-commerce has already provided a sense of changes to come. Consumers who pay online expect to see their order status updated in real time and, in some sectors, the service or product available in real time too. With the adoption of real-time payments, actions not limited to fraud prevention have to take place in real time as part of the payment initiation process, as real-time payments are generally irrevocable, with no opportunity to stop or amend payments. But managing payment processes is just one part of a much wider change that the adoption of realtime payments will bring to finance and treasury. If payments are being made in real time, treasury departments will need to manage their liquidity in real time too and they will rely on a level of automation and artificial intelligence to do so. And before long, the foreign exchange and money markets will move toward real time, profoundly affecting the treasury departmental day, which is currently structured by cut-off times. For these reasons, it seems inevitable that both RPA and artificial intelligence, including machine learning, will play a more prominent role in the management of corporate treasury departments in the coming years. Conclusion Although RPA and AI are seen as cutting edge, in reality many companies are benefiting from these technologies through solutions provided by their banks and technology partners. For organizations yet to implement the technology, doing so successfully requires three key steps: Identify a pain point to be solved. RPA and AI/machine learning both work best when implemented to solve particular problems. Don’t start using RPA; start using RPA to automate a process. Match the technology to the task. Different types of technology solve different problems. If you want to automate a process, RPA is likely to be the more suitable solution. If you want to analyze data, investigate AI, including machine learning. Build a business case. RPA and AI/ ML are likely to become even more important in the future, so a successful first project is important. Make sure your chosen technology can do what you want it to do, then build support for your solution among stakeholders including, critically, the treasury team. You can then use your successful first project as the springboard for future development.

Based on ratings collected in IDC’s 2020 SaaSPath Survey (IDC #US46933620), Kyriba placed in the highest-scoring group of vendors serving the SaaS Treasury Management (TM) application market and has been awarded IDC’s 2020 SaaS...

Based on ratings collected in IDC’s 2020 SaaSPath Survey (IDC #US46933620), Kyriba placed in the highest-scoring group of vendors serving the SaaS Treasury Management (TM) application market and has been awarded IDC’s 2020 SaaS TM Customer Satisfaction Award.

Please see the Appendix for detailed methodology, market definition, and scoring criteria. In This Excerpt The content for this excerpt was taken directly from IDC MarketScape: Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Enterprise Treasury and Risk...

Please see the Appendix for detailed methodology, market definition, and scoring criteria. In This Excerpt The content for this excerpt was taken directly from IDC MarketScape: Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Enterprise Treasury and Risk Management Applications 2019–2020 Vendor Assessment (Doc # US45685819). All or parts of the following sections are included in this excerpt: IDC Opinion, IDC MarketScape Vendor Inclusion Criteria, Essential Guidance, Vendor Summary Profile, Appendix and Learn More. Also included is Figure 1. IDC Opinion The role of today's treasury professional is rapidly changing and expanding. While cash management and cash forecasting continue to be strategic priorities, treasurers are also increasing their focus on supply chain finance, insurance, and commodities. However, many treasurers find themselves working with the same amount of resources. Today's treasury professionals require more advanced and innovative technology to keep up with the challenge. This is driving the digital transformation that culminates in the intelligent treasury. What Are Some of the Benefits to the Intelligent Treasury? Cash visibility: Treasurers are asked to cope with the expanding complexities related to increasingly global business environments. Dealing with globalization demands that treasurers can manage and track far-flung operations and fund flows. Scalability: Treasury professionals must be able to efficiently manage complex financial transactions at pace and at scale. Analytics are quickly moving from a nice to have to a must-have for today's treasury professional. Treasury professionals are turning to advanced analytics and intelligence to assist in the process of remittance advice, cash forecasting, and monitoring cyberfraud-like account takeovers and check fraud. Streamlined financial controls: Organizations are reviewing procedures across business units and geographic boundaries and must work to find a way to streamline their regulatory compliance and mitigate compliance risks. Treasury departments must devote resources to understand the impact of these regulations and adjust their processes/systems to comply with them. Intelligence allows for tighter, real-time financial controls. Digital Tools Supporting the Intelligent Treasury As organizations move into the digital economy, focused on digital transformation initiatives, the functions of finance and treasury are turning to advanced technologies to enable the evolution. Fueled by the enormous amount of waste and inefficiency within the treasury workstreams, the CFO requires more advanced and innovative technology. Vendors are supporting digital transformation with new use cases that treasury applications can leverage with technologies such as big data and analytics and machine learning (ML) to perform efficiently. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) cloud: Treasury and risk management is one of the slower-moving application groups to the cloud. Customers making new purchase decisions for treasury solutions are overwhelmingly choosing public cloud offerings over on-premises/other software offerings. The ability to configure, upgrade, and add more functionality from the 3rd Platform and innovation accelerators is driving organizations to purchase cloud-based solutions. Artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning: Machine learning has the potential to deeply transform the daily activities of treasury managers. The impact of this technology will be felt first in the areas of cash forecasting, cash positioning, and netting, where the technologies' ability to analyze data and make recommendations will be essential. Rise of APIs: Treasurers interact with many different external entities (e.g., banks, suppliers, and agencies) to manage company treasury assets. The answer to this issue is to allow treasury application software to connect directly with banking systems, so that information flows seamlessly between end users and their banking partners. The potential of APIs within treasury is significant. Predictive analytics: Businesses are interested in analytics as part of their travel and expense applications. Business intelligence and analytics improve visibility into liquidity patterns. The Enterprise Difference IDC defines the enterprise treasury market as any customer with 1,000+ employees. Among the largest businesses, treasury becomes less about the basics of treasury accounting, bank relationship management, and cash management and much more about moving money efficiently into and out of the financial markets. Financial risks management becomes highlighted among treasury departments within very large businesses. As a result, data management becomes critically important among enterprise treasury departments. Further: Finding business insights: Treasury professionals must be able to accurately account for and provide detailed information on millions of transactions. Treasury professionals need to both verify and analyze these transactions for relevant reporting metrics, business insights, and compliance. This information may come in a variety of formats and sources, and the amount of this type of information is increasing daily, rapidly making finding relevant business insights an extremely daunting task. Preserving treasury data security: Security has become a multifaceted issue because of the rise of cybersecurity threats and cyberfraud. Treasury professionals must now be vigilant against cases of traditional fraud (e.g., suspicious accounting records or corporate account misuse) and more modern cyberthreats. Treasury resources are now devoted to monitoring potential weak points in banking structure, supplier management, treasury systems, and payment files. Enhancing foreign exchange (FX): Today's treasurer is swimming in data and is finding FX with all its moving parts to be particularly difficult. Speed is another area of concern for treasurers, who desire the ability to move money around the clock and in real time into and out of the currency markets. However, with increased speed comes the need for more powerful real-time risk management capabilities. Complying and reporting: Treasury compliance is a rule-based process, often manual, that is handled on an exception basis from a historical transactional perspective. Without real-time treasury compliance, organizations are at risk for noncompliant employees and have an increased opportunity of fraud. IDC Marketscape Vendor Inclusion Criteria The vendor inclusion list for this document was selected to accurately depict the vendors that are representative of any given treasury management functional buyer's selection list. Vendors were further investigated to ensure that their offerings qualified as "SaaS or cloud enabled" and the vendor had won recent deals. Also, the treasury software must be available for purchase and implementation separate from other associated financial/ERP software. Advice for Technology Buyers The process of transitioning treasury management from a manual model to an intelligent model can be a challenging one. It is important to structure your treasury department to be more efficient and agile to cope with the ever-changing compliance/regulatory/liquidity demands. Here are a few key steps in the journey toward optimizing your treasury management department through the addition of an advanced software package like the ones listed in this document: Begin by looking inward: Before you choose your treasury management software (TMS) vendor or even whether dedicated TMS is a good investment for your organization, first you should take the opportunity to do some self-reflection. Here are some key questions to ask regarding the internal resources and processes: What are some of the issues I would like to resolve with this new system? Are the issues technology related? What are my internal support resources and capabilities? How should we define success for this implementation? Which internal stakeholders should we include in the evaluations processes? Select the right partners (internal and external): The first step in the journey to TMS is developing a strategy and plan for the implementation. This includes doing the due diligence in finding the right TMS vendor. Here are a few key questions to ask regarding the TMS vendor: Does the vendor have experience with my type of product, service, and company size? Can the vendor show me a hands-on demo with our organization's "live/real" data to show the benefit to the business? Does the vendor understand the regulations that will impact my business? How are these regulations reflected in my current product, and how will it change in the future? What is the vendor's strategic investment outlook for the next three to five years? Why? How will that change and enhance my business? Take ownership of the implementation: For the best results, organizations must take a very active role in the actual implementation of the software. TMS touches upon a lot of other back-office systems (e.g., ERP, finance, accounts receivable, supply chain, and inventory). As a result, extreme attention must be given to how the TMS system is set up and how it interacts with other systems within your organization. Here are some key questions to ask regarding a TMS implementation: What levels of support are available, and are they geographically available for my business? How should I set up the service-level agreement (SLA) before signing any contracts? Can the TMS integrate with my company's other IT systems and those of my partners? Which IT system needs to be integrated and to what degree? How are we set up to deal with frequent product updates? Realize that post-implementation is critical: In many ways, the success of any SaaS implementation hinges on what happens after the implementation is up and running. This is where change management takes center stage and the people side of treasury management becomes essential. Here are a few key questions to ask regarding the post-go-live phase of TMS implementations: Do we have a strategy to encourage rapid adoption among treasury employees? Do we have the right amount of training for employees to master the new features within the TMS system? Are we communicating the purpose and benefits of the system change to the treasury employees? Have we aligned existing policies and procedures to enable the adoption of the new workflows? This IDC MarketScape assists in answering the aforementioned questions and others. The goal of this document is to provide potential software customers with a list of treasury software companies that have taken great strides to incorporate the previously listed capabilities. We have profiled and assessed their capabilities to support the complicated area of treasury management software. Vendor Summary Profiles This section briefly explains IDC's key observations resulting in a vendor's position in the IDC MarketScape. While every vendor is evaluated against each of the criteria outlined in the Appendix, the description here provides a summary of each vendor's strengths and challenges. Kyriba After a thorough evaluation of Kyriba's strategies and capabilities, IDC has positioned the company in the Leaders category in the 2019 IDC MarketScape for worldwide SaaS and cloud-enabled enterprise treasury and risk management applications. Kyriba is a provider of cloud treasury and financial management solutions. Kyriba's product portfolio includes solutions for treasury and finance management, payments, supply chain finance, and FX risk management. Kyriba provides secure connectivity, real-time payments fraud detection, and end-to-end currency risk management in one platform. Kyriba is headquartered in New York, with offices in San Diego, Paris, London, Dubai, and Tokyo. Quick facts about Kyriba are: Employees: 750+ Total number of clients: 2,000+ Globalization: 12 global offices; supports 15 languages in 100+ countries Industry focus: Retail, telecom, consumer packaged goods, and manufacturing Ideal customer size: Upper midmarket and above SaaS: Multitenant SaaS platform Pricing model: Subscription based on number of active users Partner ecosystem: 100+ partners including Accenture, Deloitte, Infor, and Oracle NetSuite Strengths Connectivity: Kyriba offers "connectivity as a service" featuring seven different connectivity options to financial institutions, including APIs, MT Concentrator, and multiple SWIFTNet options. Kyriba connects to an extensive set of banks. Focus on cash forecasting: Kyriba offers a large array of modeling capabilities to drive predictive forecasting, including complex extrapolation algorithms and more recently artificial intelligence to project transaction clear dates. Kyriba's business intelligence forecast versioning enables more detailed forecast variance analysis and confidence in forecast performance Payments capabilities: Kyriba offers a complete payment hub to support complex treasury payments, ERP-to-bank connectivity, a library for 40,000 payment format scenarios, sanctions list screening, and real-time payment fraud detection. These are critical for customers seeking resilience and control against fraud and cybercrime. FX risk management capabilities: Kyriba offers an end-to-end FX risk management allowing users to identify, extract, and analyze balance sheet and cash flow exposures to understand the impact of currency volatility on earnings and mitigate FX risk through natural and intentional risk management. Challenges Changing perception of SaaS: Kyriba targets midmarket and large enterprise companies. Although the SaaS model offers more price elasticity for less complex organizations, some CFOs are still opening their minds to SaaS for treasury and, as result, may still be reluctant to deploy SaaS treasury. Small, inexpensive niche providers: There are several providers that provide partial functionality (e.g., only cash management) but offer inexpensive offerings and the promise of interfacing with other best-of-breed providers to deliver a complete solution Consider Kyriba When If you are an upper midmarket or large enterprise company looking for a suite of treasury or FX risk management capabilities, consider Kyriba. Appendix Reading an IDC MarketScape Graph For the purposes of this analysis, IDC divided potential key measures for success into two primary categories: capabilities and strategies. Positioning on the y-axis reflects the vendor's current capabilities and menu of services and how well aligned the vendor is to customer needs. The capabilities category focuses on the capabilities of the company and product today, here and now. Under this category, IDC analysts will look at how well a vendor is building/delivering capabilities that enable it to execute its chosen strategy in the market. Positioning on the x-axis, or strategies axis, indicates how well the vendor's future strategy aligns with what customers will require in three to five years. The strategies category focuses on high-level decisions and underlying assumptions about offerings, customer segments, and business and go-to-market plans for the next three to five years. The size of the individual vendor markers in this IDC MarketScape represents the market share of each individual vendor within the specific market segment being assessed. IDC MarketScape Methodology IDC MarketScape criteria selection, weightings, and vendor scores represent well-researched IDC judgment about the market and specific vendors. IDC analysts tailor the range of standard characteristics by which vendors are measured through structured discussions, surveys, and interviews with market leaders, participants, and end users. Market weightings are based on user interviews, buyer surveys, and the input of IDC experts in each market. IDC analysts base individual vendor scores, and ultimately vendor positions on the IDC MarketScape, on detailed surveys and interviews with the vendors, publicly available information, and end-user experiences in an effort to provide an accurate and consistent assessment of each vendor's characteristics, behavior, and capability. Market Definition Treasury and risk management applications support corporate treasury operations (including the treasuries of financial services enterprises) with the corresponding financial institution functionality and optimize related cash management, deal management, and risk management functions, as follows: Cash management automation includes several treasury processes involving electronic payment authorization, bank relationship management, and cash forecasting. Deal management automation includes processes for the implementation of trading controls, the creation of new instruments, and market data interface from manual or third-party sources. Risk management automation includes performance analysis, Financial Accounting Standards (FAS) 133 compliance, calculation of various metrics used in fixed-income portfolio analysis, and market-to-market valuations. Learn More Related Research Worldwide Treasury and Risk Management Applications Forecast, 2018-2022: Combating Fraud Through Advanced Technology (IDC #US43267118, June 2018) Worldwide Treasury and Risk Management Applications Market Shares, 2017: Treasury Manager Emerging as Trusted Advisor (IDC #US43267218, June 2018) IDC TechScape: Worldwide Intelligent Treasury and Cash Management, 2019 (IDC #US45024119, May 2019) IDC Market Glance: Treasury and Risk, 1Q19 (IDC #US44646619, March 2019) Synopsis This IDC study provides an assessment of the leading SaaS and cloud-enabled treasury and risk management applications and discusses the criteria that are most important for companies to consider when selecting a system. "The world of treasury and risk management is rapidly evolving and becoming more and more complex. So, too, has the role of treasurer manager evolved from simply being a steward of cash to a trusted advisor to the executive board," says Kevin M. Permenter, research manager, Enterprise Applications.

INTRODUCTION Corporate treasurers are aware that the personal computing systems used for handling administrative and repetitive tasks are quickly becoming unfit to deal with frequent market changes and to manage complex data transactions between...

INTRODUCTION Corporate treasurers are aware that the personal computing systems used for handling administrative and repetitive tasks are quickly becoming unfit to deal with frequent market changes and to manage complex data transactions between multiple parties and institutions. Therefore, corporate treasurers (especially in small and midsize enterprises [SMEs]) are replacing their basic personal accounting system with a more robust TMS and are in the process of learning how to select the right solution. It is not so infrequent that corporate treasury officers are put in front of myriad alternative solutions that only confound their selection process, as treasurers remain entangled in product demos and features-and-functions “fireworks” that make the short-listing decision harder. Aite Group is fully aware of this and proposes an evaluation approach that factors in all the key elements for a successful selection and, more important, an ongoing positive business relationship with the chosen vendor. This Aite Matrix evaluation report explores some of the key trends within the TMS market and discusses the ways in which technology is evolving to address new market needs and challenges. This report compares and contrasts the leading vendors’ offerings and strategies, and it highlights their primary strengths and challenges. In particular, it assesses each vendor’s readiness to offer product functionalities that Aite Group expects will become mainstream in the next two years. Finally, to help corporate executives make more informed decisions as they select new technology partners, this report recognizes specific vendors for their strengths in critical areas. METHODOLOGY Leveraging the Aite Matrix, a proprietary Aite Group vendor assessment framework, this report evaluates the overall competitive position of each vendor, focusing on vendor stability, client strength, product features, and client services. The following criteria were applied to develop a list of vendors for participation: International presence Functional coverage for corporate treasuries, assessing the vendors’ capabilities to offer a portfolio beyond the “basic” functionalities of a TMS: cash and liquidity management, payments initiation, bank account management, and cash forecasting Focus on companies with annual revenue over US$500 million Participating vendors were required to complete a detailed product RFI composed of both qualitative and quantitative questions, conduct a minimum 60-minute product demo, and provide active client references. THE PLAYERS This section presents comparative data and profiles for the individual vendors that participated in the Aite Matrix evaluation. This is by no means an exhaustive list of vendors, and firms looking to undergo a vendor selection process should conduct initial due diligence prior to assembling a list of vendors appropriate for their own unique needs. Table A presents basic vendor information for the participating solutions. THE MARKET The following market trends are shaping the present and future of the TMS market (Table B). KEY STATISTICS This section provides information and analysis on key market statistics as well as projected IT spending related to the vendor market. ANNUAL REVENUE ESTIMATES ANALYSIS The market presence of TMS vendors is evenly distributed among various revenue tranches (Figure 1). The consolidation of the largest players has opened space for lower-tier vendors that have improved their international presence and enlarged the scope of their product portfolio. PROFITABILITY ANALYSIS Although TMS vendors still find some resistance to change by corporate treasurers who prefer to remain loyal to their proprietary electronic spreadsheet tables, the demand for robust treasury software applications is strong. TMS vendors that are capable of corresponding to purchasing requirements (i.e., features and service) of their corporate prospects enjoy healthy returns (Figure 2). GROWTH RATE ANALYSIS The positive results of vendor profitability are reflected in the breakdown of the assessed vendors’ growth (Figure 3). A consistent majority (63%) experienced a double-digit growth over 15%. Only a relative minority (12%) had limited—yet still positive—business success. The results were lower than expected in only one case. CLIENT BREAKDOWN BY TYPE An analysis of the distribution of number of clients among TMS vendors (Figure 4) suggests a form of correlation with the vendors’ business profitability (Figure 2); the more clients served (a client is a registered company—multiple installations at same registered company count as one), the higher the profitability. As soon as the client base diminishes, the profitability drops significantly, only to increase again when there are fewer than 100 clients. The explanation may reside in the fact that profitable clients are large or very large corporations with budgets that recognize the value of the software and services combination and are ready to pay for it. With such a group of clients, TMS vendors are ready to expand their sales campaigns and are confident of two important elements: They have a good set of client references to leverage, and the profitable returns can subsidize the costs for extended sales programs that conclude with an increase in the market share and new client acquisitions. As soon as the resources to invest diminish, however, the client base is reduced, and this may create a vicious circle. Only by focusing on a limited—yet more controllable—pool of clients, the TMS vendors can generate efficiencies and offer standardized solutions that allow them to see their returns increase again. AITE MATRIX EVALUATION This section will break down the individual Aite Matrix components, drawing out the vendors that are strong in each area and how they are differentiated in the market. THE AITE MATRIX COMPONENTS ANALYSIS Figure 5 overviews how each vendor scored in the various areas of importance. Each vendor is rated, in part, based on its own data provided when responding to the RFI distributed by Aite Group as well as on product demos and follow-up discussions as part of the Aite Matrix process. Ratings are also driven by the reference customers of the examined vendors to support a multidimensional rating. VENDOR STABILITY Kyriba leverages its long-lasting presence in the market and global geographical presence. It also has a robust workforce with significant treasury management experience. CLIENT STRENGTH All vendors serve clients in multiple geographies and in a diversity of industry segments. Kyriba, in particular, received high scores from client reference checks for vendor reputation. CLIENT SERVICE Kyriba stands out from the competition. This must not induce in error believing that the other vendors are not careful to their clients. They all offer global and localized support as a standard service with no additional fees. They also measure their performance by contractualizing service-level agreements. The elements that differentiate Kyriba are relative to client reference feedback for service and support, as well as the low implementation costs relative to its pure Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering. PRODUCT FEATURES All analyzed vendors deliver fundamental treasury management features of cash and liquidity management, cash forecasting, risk management, payments, investments, funds trading, and debt and equity deal management. The analysis for this report has gone deeper in assessing the vendors’ capabilities to deliver product features closer to the needs of the evolving role of the corporate treasurer: artificial intelligence (AI)-based application that suggests course of action based on the standards being followed in the country of reference, alerts from supply chain events that impact treasury operations (e.g., large purchase order will require funding, delivery delay to client requires cash inflows rescheduling, peak in production requires liquidity to pay extra working hours and temporary staff), and direct integration with major supply chain finance (SCF) platforms via APIs. The above are the specific features that Kyriba displays alongside an already robust TMS applications portfolio. THE AITE MATRIX RECOGNITION To recap, the final results of the Aite Matrix recognition are driven by three major factors: Vendor-provided information based on Aite Group’s detailed Aite Matrix RFI document Participating vendors’ client reference feedback and/or feedback sourced independently by Aite Group Analysis based on market knowledge and product demos provided by participating vendors Figure 6 represents the final Aite Matrix evaluation. BEST-IN-CLASS VENDOR: KYRIBA Kyriba emerges as the clear winner among the examined contenders. Aite group appreciates the vendor’s extended product footprint to cover a large portion of a treasurers’ daily routine operations—namely, supply chain, trade finance, and bank account operations management from the corporate ERP or TMS. Kyriba excelled in the following: Vendor strength: Kyriba has a clear vision of corporate treasury’s needs and expectations. Its out-of-the-box thinking led the vendor to anticipate the benefits of integrating a supply chain finance engine as part of its core product’s stack. Its attention to leveraging APIs to create ERP and bank plug-ins is a further testament of this continuous attention. Product performance: Of particular relevance are cash forecasting tools, bank connectivity interfaces, and ease of use and implementation due to its native SaaS construct.   BEST IN CLASS: KYRIBA Kyriba began operations in France in 2000 as a spin-off from Sage XRT (now part of Aritmos). The headquarters was relocated to the U.S. in 2004. Private equity firm Bridgepoint Capital became a majority shareholder in April 2019 and added a US$160 million growth investment to help Kyriba continue its product innovation and growth strategy. Kyriba delivers an in-house-developed pure SaaS finance software platform with integrated bank connectivity. Through its fully virtualized, multitenant treasury cloud, Kyriba offers a suite of solutions for corporate treasury and finance: treasury, payments, risk management, and working capital. The SaaS nature of the solution allows the firm to keep implementation time typically between six and nine months. Smaller, less complex projects can be rolled out in weeks. Kyriba is a SWIFT-certified application for cash management and an authorized reseller of SWIFT Alliance Lite2 for business applications. Kyriba’s SWIFT Service Bureau offers clients their own SWIFT BIC, fully managed by Kyriba, alongside an outsourced MT Concentrator model that allows organizations to utilize a SWIFT BIC specifically provisioned for Kyriba clients, instead of becoming a SWIFT member. The bank or corporate subsidiary data is consolidated, normalized, and integrated into a portal that provides liquidity dashboards, cash flow forecasting, daily cash positioning, and zero-balance account structure, as well as intercompany loan balance and transaction data, FX capture, tracking, and revaluation. After the injection of fresh funds from Bridgepoint Capital, Kyriba is focused on product development and continued customer support while expanding its partnership ecosystem. While the full list of implementation partners cannot be disclosed, the vendor employs an extensive partner program spread across regions, ranging from large partners such as Accenture to smaller domestic treasury-specific associates. Kyriba’s SaaS cloud-based solutions automate an “on-demand” collection of data from multiple banks and company subsidiaries, leveraging connectivity channels for both treasury and ERP that reach over 100 international banks with a prebuilt inventory of bank formats. Kyriba supports over 125 payment formats with over 45,000 different payment scenarios (e.g., by type, geography, bank). Relevant attention and investment are dedicated to APIs. The API integration builds upon Kyriba’s leading connectivity options, considering that recently published figures tell that the vendor processes more than 83 million bank transactions, 30 million payments, and 530 million ERP transactions on behalf of its clients each month through its global connectivity hub. Kyriba’s main target is to be recognized as the treasury management and payments hub solution provider that offers real-time payments to its bank partners’ corporate customers. In February 2019, Kyriba announced an API-based integration with Citi.1 Later in May, it announced a real-time payments feature using JP Morgan’s API that will enable joint Kyriba and JP Morgan clients to send real-time corporate payments in the U.S. through The Clearing House’s RTP network.2 Commenting on how the competitive environment will evolve over the next two years, Kyriba representatives believe that there is a possibility for further consolidation, as some competitors are challenged financially. It is unlikely that more competition will emerge, as recent entrants have struggled. As new technologies such as RPA and AI become mainstay requirements for treasury, the vendor expects a divergence between platforms that can evolve their technology and those that cannot. Another variable is the broadening of treasury responsibilities into areas such as risk management and procure to pay. Competitors that cannot extend their functionality to meet these additional requirements will find themselves uncompetitive. Kyriba is predicting growth across all sizes of organizations, including smaller midmarket businesses, with the Americas and the Asia-Pacific representing the highest growth markets. AITE GROUP’S TAKE Kyriba’s strong tradition of long-term partnerships and its one platform that blends typical treasury and risk management functionalities, with additional features for payments and working capital optimization, create unique selling points that set a benchmark in the TMS market. Reference clients told Aite Group that the deciding factors to select Kyriba were the vendor’s company viability, its history of long-term well-established partnerships, the richness of treasury functionalities, and Kyriba’s value engineering support during the final evaluation process that provided the corporate decision-makers with the right elements to build the business case. An element that still creates a barrier to further adoption by prospective clients is the price of the TMS that may discourage companies with smaller treasury budgets than those traditionally served by Kyriba. Other business challenges are represented by the continuous demand from corporate treasurers to have immediate TMS solutions to manage unexpected FX volatility, adapt to innovative cash optimization techniques (e.g., dynamic discounting, real-time invoice discounting), and apply data intelligence algorithms to unstructured data sources (e.g., website transactions, social media data flows). Aite Group finds that Kyriba is well poised to exert and maintain competitive leadership by further investing monetary and intellectual resources to leverage the top technology trends that impact its corporate clients’ business: APIs, open banking, data visualization, real-time data analysis, RPA, and AI. BASIC FIRM AND PRODUCT INFORMATION Headquarters: San Diego, California Founded: 2000 Number of employees: 700 Key financial information: Annual revenue US$110 million (estimated 2018) Key products and services: Kyriba (with modules that can be sold separately: Treasury, Payments, Risk Management, and Working Capital) Target customer base: Large and midsize corporations Number of clients: 2,000 Average client tenure: 10 years Global footprint: Global Implementation options: Pure SaaS Pricing structure: Based on module use, complexity, and number of users KEY FEATURES AND FUNCTIONALITY BASED ON PRODUCT DEMO AI-based application that pops up relevant KPIs based on business event triggers (e.g., bank change of price conditions, change in insurance premium) Cost accounting structure for treasury managed costs (e.g., staff, bank accounts, commissions) Alerts from supply chain events that impact treasury operations Alerts relative to political events in countries in which the client company does business—these alerts pop up any time the treasury office is executing operations related to that country What-if scenario planning triggered by financial event Integrate directly with major SCF platforms (e.g., Premium technology, Taulia, C2FO) via APIs TOP THREE STRATEGIC PRODUCT INITIATIVES OVER LAST THREE YEARS Real-time fraud detection for treasury and supplier payments End-to-end risk management from exposure identification and analysis to hedge accounting and compliance Data warehousing, business intelligence, and data visualization TOP THREE STRATEGIC PRODUCT INITIATIVES IN THE NEXT 12 TO 18 MONTHS Standardize API development across the entire banking and ERP community Further introduction of AI and machine learning throughout the platform Working capital management and analysis CLIENT FEEDBACK Interviewed clients appreciate Kyriba's commitment to security and risk prevention. By improving efficiency and automation with the TMS, clients recognize they have made substantial time and resource savings. TMS-enabled cash pools and in-house banks have enabled corporate treasury departments to reduce bank charges, lower borrowing costs, and achieve tax efficiencies. Clients like Kyriba’s SaaS architecture, as it gives them access to a mission-critical platform from any location, without any hardware investment and without the headache of upgrades. Alongside the cloud-based structure, corporate users enjoy more basic, yet important for the daily routine, gained efficiencies of their cash operations. The TMS provides the tools to forecast cash more accurately and effectively, especially when accompanied by efficient implementation and support teams. Totally cloud-based software may be seen by customers in different ways. Large multinational treasury departments prefer a standardized set of modules that do not require (nor are designed for) customization. Smaller firm clients may expect the possibility to change the software features to adapt to their preferences. Over time, though, these users appreciate the opportunity to use software modules continuously adapted and upgraded based on the input of thousands of users that run the same software. The requests to change and adapt the software to every specific requirement significantly diminish, although some form of parametrization (i.e., configuration) is expected for functionalities that have natively high levels of personalization, such as FX exposure management, business intelligence, data visualization, and connectivity APIs. Table C displays the vendor’s strengths and challenges. CONCLUSION Buyers: Evaluate the overall competitive position of each TMS vendor by focusing on multiple selection criteria: vendor stability, client strength, product features, and client services. Don’t ask for continual customizations; rather, rely on the vendor’s acquired experience of working with numerous corporate clients and leverage the offered solutions that bear the fruits of industry best practices and techniques. Look for TMS vendors that don’t require a total transformation of your treasury operations but that allow for a smooth transition that blends your current information systems with the newly introduced treasury software. ABOUT AITE GROUP Aite Group is a global research and advisory firm delivering comprehensive, actionable advice on business, technology, and regulatory issues and their impact on the financial services industry. With expertise in banking, payments, insurance, wealth management, and the capital markets, we guide financial institutions, technology providers, and consulting firms worldwide. We partner with our clients, revealing their blind spots and delivering insights to make their businesses smarter and stronger. Visit us on the web and connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn. AUTHOR INFORMATION Enrico Camerinelli +39.039.21.00.137 [email protected] CONTACT For more information on research and consulting services, please contact: Aite Group Sales +1.617.338.6050 [email protected] For all press and conference inquiries, please contact: Aite Group PR +1.617.398.5048 [email protected] For all other inquiries, please contact: [email protected] 1. “Kyriba Unveils API Integration With Citi,” Finextra, February 26, 2019, accessed July 18, 2019, https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/77412/kyriba-unveils-api-integration-with-citi. 2. David Heun, “JPMorgan, Kyriba Turn to Open Development for Real-Time Corporate Payments,” Kyriba, May 23, 2019, accessed July 24, 2019, https://www.kyriba.com/company/media-coverage/jpmorgan-kyriba-turn-open-development-real-time-corporate-payments.

The ever-shifting regulatory landscape and growing geopolitical uncertainty have forced companies to look inward more than ever to fund business growth. The treasurer must take the lead in finding and mobilizing internal sources of...

The ever-shifting regulatory landscape and growing geopolitical uncertainty have forced companies to look inward more than ever to fund business growth. The treasurer must take the lead in finding and mobilizing internal sources of funding. However, treasurers, especially those in multinational companies, often run into the problem of “trapped” liquidity.

Who are the biggest players in treasury and risk management, and how are cloud-based solutions driving transformation? IDC, one of the largest technology analyst firms in the world, tackles these questions and more in...

Who are the biggest players in treasury and risk management, and how are cloud-based solutions driving transformation? IDC, one of the largest technology analyst firms in the world, tackles these questions and more in its new MarketScape report: “Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Treasury and Risk Management Applications 2017–2018 Vendor Assessment.”