Digital Transformation in the Eyes of the Corporate User: The Treasurer

Heads of corporate treasury are crossing paths with digital transformation, a revolution that already started with the advent of the internet and one that is now shaping the world of business and the lives of individuals. Corporate treasurers are increasing their role as information stewards to company decision-makers, and one of the most difficult questions to answer is when to invest in new technology and how to choose the right solution from the many similar offerings in the marketplace.

Corporate treasurers are aware that the personal computing systems they used when they were basically responsible for handling only 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.

In a very recent report I have investigated key market trends related to corporate treasury objectives, assessing which IT solutions and services banks should adopt to help meet these needs. A first round of research with treasurers from companies of all sizes reveals their priorities, with the top priority listed first:

• Cost reduction/operations
• Strategy
• Risk management
• Funding
• Reporting/compliance/governance
• Cash/liquidity management/payments

Each priority has a set of action items that treasurers have decided to implement, and each action item has a corresponding software solution. The question is how much banks are taking advantage of these solutions in their offerings to corporate clients. If the client is at the center, banks must be able to anticipate and translate their client’s needs into solutions that, most of the time, are constituted by financial instruments and advisory embedded in sophisticated technology platforms bundles.

Conclusions

• It’s not about the technology. It is about getting the right solution for problems that each treasury might have.
• Avoid long development cycles, rigid testing procedures, and dependence on core-system capacity.
• Banks must prepare to be challenged by corporate clients to be more innovative. Respond with digital readiness and provide scalability of core digital platforms.