Press release | Kantox joins the treasuryXL community as Premium Partner

28-07-2021 | treasuryXL | Kantox

treasuryXL announces partnership with Kantox to strengthen dissemination of the latest trends about currency management automation technology

VENLO, The Netherlands, July 28, 2021 – treasuryXL, the community platform for everyone who is active in the world of treasury, and Kantox, the global leader in currency management automation software, today announced the signature of a premium partnership.

This partnership will create a new content resource for the treasuryXL community. Treasurers will now have access to a regular stream of insightful and practical content on currency management automation. This partnership includes:

● Collaboration on messaging, content production, and visibility
● Mutual distribution on select items of interest
● Collaboration on larger themes: event promotion, speaking and experts contribution, publications

Through this partnership, treasuryXL and Kantox are striving to ensure that treasurers are always up to date with the latest news and events in their field.

About treasuryXL

treasuryXL started in 2016 as a community platform for everyone who is active in the world of treasury. Their extensive and highly qualified network consists of experienced and aspiring treasurers. treasuryXL keeps their network updated with daily news, events and the latest treasury vacancies.

treasuryXL brings the treasury function to a higher level, both for the inner circle: corporate treasurers, bankers & consultants, as well as others that might benefit: CFO’s, business owners, other people from the CFO Team and educators.

treasuryXL offers:

● professionals the chance to publish their expertise, opinions, success stories, distribute these and stimulate dialogue.
● a labour market platform by creating an overview of vacancies, events and treasury education.
● a variety of consultancy services in collaboration with qualified treasurers.
● a broad network of highly valued partners and experts.

About Kantox

Kantox is a leader in Currency Management Automation software that enables corporates to effectively manage their FX workflow and leverage currencies for growth. Since 2011, Kantox’s expertise and solutions have allowed businesses to collect FX exposure data and automate their hedging, pricing, payment and collection processes.

The company is headquartered in London and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (reference number 580343) and Kantox European Union, S.L. is based in Barcelona and authorised by the Bank of Spain (reference number 6890) For more information, visit www.kantox.com, @Kantox LinkedIn.

 

GO TO PARTNER PROFILE

5 Post-Pandemic Trends Corporate Treasurers Should Pay Attention To

26-07-2021 | treasuryXL | Gtreasury |

Corporate treasurers have manned a vital lookout position for their enterprises throughout the pandemic, navigating oft-tumultuous and unpredictable economic shifts. As businesses now inch closer to more normal operations, expect treasury to continue to fulfill a role of heightened intra-organizational visibility while adapting to new realities for what’s required from their job.

Here are the five trends treasurers can expect to play out in 2021, as a post-pandemic world appears closer across the horizon:

Treasury must continue to deliver accurate cash visibility and forecasting.

For many businesses hit hard, a waning pandemic will – hopefully – bring sales and production back to pre-pandemic levels. Organizations will continue to require frequent and accurate-as-possible cash forecasting to guide effective decision-making throughout this period of recovery. Treasury teams may continue to be called upon to deliver forecasts as often as weekly or daily; even as conditions stabilize, I think it’s unlikely that quarterly (or monthly) forecasts will be the norm. To facilitate this increased frequency, treasurers will increasingly pursue appropriate technologies fit for rapid-fire forecasting, particularly in the area of AI-based tools.

By and large, treasurers surveyed from the pandemic’s onset proved quite accurate in foreseeing a drawn-out pandemic recovery timetable – and the lingering impacts that have indeed since occurred. The data shows they’ve also proven effective in leading their companies to make strategic preparations accordingly. Those deft approaches ought to continue through the end of the pandemic while undergoing iterations to adapt to changing circumstances as necessary. In many ways, the outcome each company can expect is rooted in the capabilities and foundation for success that treasury teams have already implemented.

If treasurers aren’t yet equipped with the automation and treasury management systems necessary to match their cash reporting workloads, their organizations will be more vulnerable to shifting circumstances. Corporate treasurers in this position face compounding limitations: spending all available bandwidth on completing manual cash reporting processes leave no resources to implement new automation. To avoid or escape this cycle, treasurers should work with software and service providers to rapidly realize the automation they require.

Treasury must become more efficient.

Many treasury teams have become leaner over the course of the pandemic. At the same time, the cash forecasting and risk assessment that treasury provides has been crucial for enabling companies to maintain vital liquidity. That function will remain essential throughout the pandemic’s aftermath.

To accomplish more with less, treasury teams should pursue solutions that increase their efficiency via broader automation and smoother integrations. The pandemic has also driven the shift to distributed workplaces, which will persist going forward. Facilitating efficient distributed workforces will require treasury systems to be able to deliver continuous remote access to information, seamlessly and in real-time. Treasury teams that have digital automation projects in development ought to expedite those efforts now, and then release new features in stages where possible. The value of optimized processes and automation cannot be understated for corporate treasury in the post-pandemic environment.

As the pandemic subsides, merger and acquisition activity will rise.

Enterprises will have low-cost access to cash and equity as the pandemic wanes, which many will tap to pursue mergers and acquisitions. Treasurers will conduct the critical work of assessing the cash positions and risk profiles of potential merger partners and acquisition targets while ensuring the necessary liquidity to complete these transactions.

Treasurers must prioritize preparedness for benchmark rate reform.

LIBOR continues to be a moving target but is due to be replaced with new benchmark rates after 2021. Corporate treasurers are well-advised to prepare for this transition sooner than later, realigning all standing loans and contracts to the new rates. Those companies that aren’t yet on pace for a smooth transition will need to accelerate their work in this area.

Well before the deadline, treasurers should review all loans, credit, and investments tied to LIBOR, and arrange replacement rates and fallback provisions with lenders and servicers. Similarly, all new contracts will need to include appropriate fallback provisions. The new benchmark rates will also require treasurers to train and become experts in their new operating environment.

Singular platforms able to seamlessly integrate data and technologies across treasury ecosystems will be all the more valuable.

Treasury and risk management systems able to integrate cash, payments, risk, fraud, ERP, BI, and additional capabilities on a single platform are crucial to eliminating friction in payments and data workflows. Treasurers can discover vast benefits by using systems that unite the universe of fintech solutions they rely upon. Treasurers should vet and select solution ecosystems able to automate bank transfers, deliver simplified connectivity to banks and accounts across the globe, and transfer information along with payments. Those able to drive accurate decision-making, ease new feature implementation, improve treasurers’ user experiences, and provide strategic enhancements also deserve treasurers’ attention. The right technology strategy will open the door for treasurers to far more easily introduce valuable new capabilities and efficiencies.

Make no mistake about it: for corporate treasurers and the systems and processes they oversee, the aftermath of the pandemic necessitates maintaining vigilance and continuing to optimize practices.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michele Marvin
Global VP, GTreasury

Michele Marvin is a VP at GTreasury, a treasury and risk management platform provider. Prior to joining GTreasury in 2019, Marvin has held leadership roles at several large technology companies, including most recently at Flexera and Zebra Technologies.

 

 

 

E-Book: ERP Migration | How to Simplify and Accelerate Bank Integration

14-07-2021 | treasuryXL | Kyriba |

ERP cloud migration is a costly and time-consuming undertaking, particularly where IT is concerned – and for many corporations, the bank integration exercise can be among the most daunting aspects of the project.

The good news is that companies can simplify and accelerate the bank integration component of ERP migration, and reduce payment connectivity and format costs by up to 80%.

In this latest ebook, you will learn about the IT challenges involved in the bank integration element of ERP cloud migration, including:

  • Following banks’ schedules
  • Navigating geographical variations
  • SWIFT certification
  • Resourcing challenges

You’ll also find out how you can reduce the need for IT resources while minimizing costs, reducing complexity and accelerating the bank integration project.

Fill out this form to get your copy of the comprehensive eBook.

 

 

Are you leaving Money on the Table with your Checkout and Payment Solution?

12-07-2021 | treasuryXL | EcomStream |

Benchmarking your checkout and Payment solution is worth the effort. There are often areas for improvement that are relatively easy to execute or implement.

In 2018, EcomStream has assisted a number of online entrepreneurs, large and small, by benchmarking and optimizing their payment solution and checkout. This results in an improved customer experience and lower costs, sometimes up to 50% cheaper.

In optimization processes the checkout and payment solution is often seen as a functionality with little or no conversion uplift opportunity. Wrongly!

Studies from Baymard Institute show why in this final phase of your sales funnel, where visitors should just go through checkout and payment, they are leaving your site. It also shows what you can do about it.

The Payment solution is often overlooked in optimization projects. “Don’t fix if it ain’t broken” you sometimes hear. Many entrepreneurs are therefore already happy when their online payment solution functions properly and provides basic functionalities. There have been many developments in this area in recent years that make it easier to migrate from a payment service provider and there are considerable savings opportunities thanks to increased competition. You can compare the payments market with the market of energy suppliers but it is far less transparent. Competition is fierce and it is worthwhile to compare, renegotiate or migrate.

Let EcomStream do a benchmark assessment of your checkout and payment solution. You will be amazed by the findings. In the area of customer experience but also with regards to contractual terms and rates. A meaningful agenda item for your next optimization meeting or contact EcomStream now

For many CFOs, the time is now to embrace AI for Cash Forecasting

05-07-2021 | treasuryXL | Gtreasury |

The chief financial officer (CFO) has never been under as much pressure to deliver more accurate Cash Forecasts – the anticipated revenue, spending, and Liquidity data that acts as the rudder for all corporate decision-making. More precise foresight is essential not only to driving profitability under normal business conditions, but has now become even more crucial as companies try to navigate the continuing wake created by COVID-19.

Read the full Article


About GTreasury

For more than 30 years, GTreasury has delivered the leading digital Treasury and Risk Management System (TRMS) to corporate treasurers across industries. With its continually innovating Software-as-a-Service platform, GTreasury provides customers with a single source of truth for all their cash, payments, and risk activities. The TRMS solution offers any combination of Cash Management, Payments, Financial Instruments, Risk Management, Accounting, Banking, and Hedge Accounting – seamlessly integrated, on-demand worldwide and fully secured. Headquartered in Chicago with offices serving EMEA (London) and APAC (Sydney and Manila), GTreasury’s global community includes more than 800 customers and 30+ industries reaching 160+ countries worldwide.

 

 

How a Treasurer can really add Value

28-06-2021 | treasuryXL | Kyriba |

”The pandemic has boosted automation in treasury departments and led to big increases in productivity. But that is only the start. The big prize is the value that treasury teams can generate with the man-hours that automation frees up”, says Bob Stark, Head of Marketing Strategy at Kyriba.

The Post-Pandemic Treasurer

The post-pandemic world will not be a return to the previous status quo. In treasury we can look at this in three ways – people, process and technology.

In terms of people, a recent survey showed that 61% of CFOs expect their teams to be working out of the office at least a day a week in future (source: fortune.com 2020). In some ways the combination of working from home and in the office will pose its own problems, with different opportunities for fraud and mistakes. At least working from home all the time provided some consistency! Furthermore, many of the changes that treasury teams had to make suddenly last year will now become permanent.

Now let’s look at processes. Fully 78% of CFOs have changed inefficient workflows during the pandemic, and 82% intend to keep the changes that they have made in terms of automation and digitisation (source: MasterCard 2020). These changes involve the standardisation, automation and streamlining of multiple processes.

Thirdly, treasurers need to digitise and have an enterprise-wide cloud platform; to leverage analytics to assess and improve decision-making; and then to innovate through Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to make treasury a better business partner.

There has also been a change in the role of treasury within companies over the past 15 months. During the pandemic, treasury’s involvement in other areas of the business has increased. A treasurer’s objectives often now include more strategic aims, and the remit is likely to expand still further. In many cases this will involve increased shared responsibilities, for example reverse factoring.

Treasurers are progressing from a simple focus on productivity to making liquidity visible and then participating in strategic decisions that really add value. All of which in turn elevates the value of treasurers within their organisations.

How Treasury can add Value

We can all agree that treasurers have the ability to add value. We regularly see our clients make significant productivity gains in terms of man-hours as they automate residual manual functions. In many cases, automating processes can save over 80% of the man-hours involved (source: Hackett Group).

But that is only part of the story. The real value comes from what the treasury team can do with all those freed-up hours. The extra time gained through improvements in productivity allows them to analyse risks (such as counterparty, liquidity and FX risk) and make better, informed decisions, based on real insight and business intelligence. Or perhaps the extra time that automation has made available can reduce the opportunity for fraud. The common aim is to leverage liquidity to drive business growth and turn treasury into a strategic business partner.

Digitisation plays a big role here, especially in areas like payments, which have remained partially manual, for example in sanctions screening. Smart contracts are also increasing, which makes for other savings.

Measuring the impact

In any such analysis it is essential to be able to measure what you are achieving. That starts with liquidity itself: how much do we have? How far forward can I forecast liquidity? How confident can I be in the accuracy of those forecasts? After all, you can only use the “excess” liquidity within your company when you are confident that you aren’t going to need it!

Digitisation is the way to improve the visibility of your liquidity. You can then test the accuracy of your information and decide how to use that asset. You can do this with a scorecard to measure your company against industry peers and assess your level of maturity, from Ad hoc, through Emerging and Standardising to Strategic. You can then highlight the opportunities for improvement

Many of our clients have done just that. For one client, an 88% improvement in cash management and forecasting – thanks to automation – saved over £1m in net interest by unlocking cash that had been lying idle. It also helped the same client to save over £100K in bank fees.

Another client reduced costs by 85% and used the newly spare man-hours to avoid £1.2m in fraud-related costs. They also accelerated ERP migration by 80%. Other savings might include generating free cashflow or protecting the business against financial loss. But all these achievements start with productivity gains that free up treasury staff to do something more valuable within their organisations.

I will leave you with three thoughts: automation and digitisation are here to stay; productivity is an opportunity, not just a saving; and if you are going to add value as a treasurer, you need to be able to measure that saving.

GTreasury Webinar | Essential Treasury Management Dashboards & Reports

24-6-2021 | treasuryXL | Gtreasury |

Join our Partner Gtreasury‘s virtual events and learn more about Essential Treasury Management Dashboards & Reports. With a large array of available reports and dashboards available to help you gain visibility into your organization’s market risk, how do you know which ones are best for helping you achieve your strategic goals?

Learn how critical TMS dashboards and reports can help you achieve your strategic goals

Join us June 29 to explore the value of strategic dashboards and reporting. During this one-hour webinar, we will discuss specific dashboards that provide deep insights to help you facilitate foreign exchange decision-making and execution. We will dig into reports that give you the ability to:

  • Analyze complex data, design superior risk mitigation strategies, and make informed decisions.
  • Gain visibility into foreign exchange exposure and hedge positions in multiple currencies at any given point in time.
  • Centrally manage complex limits scenarios and provide a real-time view of compliance over the full suite of limits throughout your organization.
  • And a whole lot more!
June 29 | 3 pm EDT; 2 pm CDT; 12 pm PDT; 8 pm BST
Complete your registration to join us here!

Does your Online payment solution generate the right value for your company?

22-06-2021 | treasuryXL | EcomStream | Ramon Helwegen

For some treasurers the world of Fintech / online payments / e-commerce doesn’t seem to have too much secrets. Some treasurers are however more distanced from it and would benefit a lot from support in this area.

As a consequence of COVID-19, many Corporates have fast-tracked their digital transformation projects to adapt to direct (online) distribution models. A key component in getting this right, is the revenue flow and the payment solution that comes with it.

The world of payments is dynamic and there is a lot of value to gain, both in performance levels as well as in cost levels. But how would you unlock access to these values in making sure you get value for money.

A few considerations that could cross your mind right now:

  • Are you in the middle of a digital transformation project and your business owners are requesting a payment set-up but you are not sure how to facilitate this at a competitive cost level?
  • Are you getting questions internally about the cost of the online payment solution and the options to save on these?
  • Do you feel that your online payment solution may be just the right area to help achieving your KPI’s around performance and cost savings?

You can consider to perform a benchmark and cost optimization of your payment solution or initiate a tender/RFP project. Both have their own pros and cons, but both deliver value to your company and will lower the TCO of the payment solution. This is where EcomStream can come in. EcomStream can take full ownership of such a project.

Think about it, you do not need this payments knowledge every day, but you would like to be able to call on it at any time. And if the costs of your payment solution would be lower, that would free up budget for growth. EcomStream often works with its clients for the longer term (yet flexible) in making sure they get value for money from their online, or omnichannel, payment solution.

The payments market is dynamic and knowledge quickly becomes obsolete. You would like to obtain the latest knowledge around online payments. That is why it is often just better to obtain payments knowledge externally. Fresh, flexible and independent. Available for you just when you need it, always. You should never again have a feeling that you could have gotten a better deal for your online payment needs, or that you are missing out on value that your business owners may ask for.

With EcomStream, you are always up to date and have access to most recent market knowledge.

Benchmarking your online checkout and payment solution is worth the effort. There are often areas for improvement that are relatively easy to execute or implement. And execution is based on a no-cure no-pay basis.

Your online payment set-up should have your primary attention. Consider to bring in an independent specialist to help you out.

About EcomStream

EcomStream is an independent consultancy and is specialized in optimization of online, omnichannel and marketplace payment solutions, and optimization of checkout flows.

The goal is to achieve much lower costs for you while creating a much better customer experience for your customers.

Thanks to its lean organisational model, EcomStream will help you to reduce the cost of ownership of your payment solution and to improve your ROI, fast.




Ramon Helwegen

 

 

 

 

 

Digital Currencies | Not Ready for Corporate Treasury

15-06-2021 | treasuryXL | Kyriba |

Bitcoin and several cryptocurrencies dropped more than $1 trillion in market value, forcing influencers and investors to walk back their advice on using private digital currencies as a reliable store of value. Kyriba’s Wolfgang Koester discussed what was driving this cryptocurrency volatility with Maria Bartiromo’s “Mornings with Maria” on Fox Business Network on May 24th. “We’re seeing increased rhetoric from the Chinese around a Central Bank Digital Currency and the United States are developing their own digital currency,” said Koester.

Big price swings for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and most recently Dogecoin are nothing new. CFOs and Treasurers have always had little appetite for cryptocurrencies, which is why examples like Tesla investing over $1 Billion USD in Bitcoin made such waves in finance circles. And while Tesla reported a quarterly net income boost of over $100 Million USD on their Bitcoin holdings, their social media savvy CEO has since suggested they will move on from their investment. This reinforces for many why cryptocurrencies are a blip on the radar screen and a bad idea for corporations to be involved with. But…are cryptos really that bad for corporates?

First, it’s more a matter of being “not ready” than bad. Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin behave like commodities due to their limited supply; the price volatility is fully explained by the supply/demand imbalance. For example, there is a hard cap of 21 Million Bitcoins and these days there is a lot of demand for Bitcoin! Demand for Bitcoin and other cryptos is driven by everything from social media to a fear of missing out (FOMO) that we are similarly seeing play out in other markets, such as residential real estate or in many tech stocks. Corporates, on the other hand, shy away from volatile assets as they require liquidity for their investments and cryptocurrencies just aren’t there yet. Selling several hundred million (or more) dollars worth of bitcoin or ethereum is a market moving transaction and is difficult to manage through the digital wallets and exchanges that are generally more designed for individuals. So, between the liquidity barriers and the unstable values, corporates still can’t rely on privately issued altcoins like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and others until these challenges are overcome.

State-sponsored digital currencies potentially have something to offer, however. As Kyriba’s Wolfgang Koester discussed on Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria”, China has made significant advancements in the rollout of the digital yuan, which has further prompted other nation states to accelerate their own digital currency programs. In theory, government-backed digital currencies are expected to offer a striking advantage over the privately issued cryptocurrencies – and that is utility. To have utility, the digital currency must be widely accessible – and be fast and secure. And this is where the Bitcoins of the world are not ready for mainstream use. They aren’t widely accessible, the blockchain “networks” supporting them remain unproven for high transaction volumes, and the value is uncertain and could easily change between the time a seller accepts a cryptocurrency and when they choose to use or exchange them.

Of course there are solutions to each of these individual problems – e.g. the use of stable coins (that are pegged to the price of a fiat currency) instead of altcoins. But each of the requirements – value, liquidity, utility, transactability – must all be met before corporates can expect to safely use crypto/digital currencies on a daily basis. This doesn’t preclude organizations wading into the cryptocurrency landscape as a means of reaching new markets or differentiating against competitors. In fact, more and more online retailers and marketplaces are accepting cryptocurrencies for payment. You can even buy a Tesla with bitcoins. Yet when it comes to corporate treasury and finance teams, they are converting holdings to fiat currencies as quickly as possible so they can still meet cash forecast projections and free cash flow targets. State-sponsored digital currencies may well offer a lifeline to transform digital currencies for mainstream use – or maybe privately issued cryptocurrencies will still rise to the opportunity – and when that day comes it will be fascinating for daily cash management nevermind cross-border payments, global cash pooling, and multilateral netting. I think all of us in treasury look forward to that!

treasuryXL announces partnership with GTreasury to strengthen dissemination of the latest corporate treasury trends, best practices, and industry analysis

14-6-2021 | treasuryXL | Gtreasury |

VENLO, The Netherlands, June 14, 2021 – treasuryXL, the community platform for everyone who is professionally active in the world of treasury, and GTreasury in the USA, the leading platform provider of integrated treasury and risk management for the twenty-first century treasurer, today announced the signature of a premium partnership.

The partnership brings a new knowledge stream to the treasuryXL community, offering treasurers a continuous flow of in-depth and timely content to help them do their jobs more efficiently and effectively. This partnership includes:

  • collaboration on messaging, content production, and visibility
  • mutual distribution on select items of interest
  • collaboration on larger themes: event promotion and speaking, and industry expert contributions and publication

Treasury management is currently experiencing a revolution as digital transformation accelerates globally and across industries. With this partnership, treasuryXL and GTreasury are striving to make sure that treasurers are always up to date with the latest news, best practices, and events in their field.

About treasuryXL

treasuryXL started in 2016 as a community platform for everyone who is active in the world of treasury. Their extensive and highly qualified network consists out of experienced and aspiring treasurers. treasuryXL keeps their network updated with daily news, events and the latest treasury vacancies.

treasuryXL brings the treasury function to a higher level, both for the inner circle: corporate treasurers, bankers & consultants, as well as others that might benefit: CFO’s, business owners, other people from the CFO Team and educators.

treasuryXL offers:

  • professionals the chance to publish their expertise, opinions, success stories, distribute these and stimulate dialogue.
  • a labour market platform by creating an overview of vacancies, events and treasury education.
  • a variety of consultancy services in collaboration with qualified treasurers.
  • a broad network of highly valued partners and experts.

About GTreasury

For more than 30 years, GTreasury has delivered the leading digital Treasury and Risk Management System (TRMS) to corporate treasurers across industries. With its continually innovating Software-as-a-Service platform, GTreasury provides customers with a single source of truth for all their cash, payments, and risk activities. The TRMS solution offers any combination of Cash Management, Payments, Financial Instruments, Risk Management, Accounting, Banking, and Hedge Accounting – seamlessly integrated, on-demand worldwide and fully secured. Headquartered in Chicago with offices serving EMEA (London) and APAC (Sydney and Manila), GTreasury’s global community includes more than 800 customers and 30+ industries reaching 160+ countries worldwide.

www.gtreasury.com