How to Select and Implement the Best Treasury Management System for Your Needs

While a majority of corporate treasuries still depend on spreadsheets to run their treasury related operations, more and more organizations are adopting treasury management systems (TMS). Implementing a TMS can improve the effectiveness of your treasury function, allowing treasurers to standardize processes, centralize key functions, create a straight-through processing environment, and provide a single source of truth for all financial data. In a recent webinar, Craig Chapman, Manager of Capital Markets at Actualize Consulting, and Dory Malouf, Treasury Value Operations Engineer at Kyriba, explored four key themes related to selecting and implementing a treasury management system. Here are some highlights, with the full webcast video below.

1. Making a Strong Business Case with a Compelling ROI – One of the most important factors in selecting a treasury management system – or any technology platform really – is creating a highly compelling business case that showcases the specific and tangible value the solution would deliver. This can help speed the selection and implementation process because everyone knows what’s at stake. As mentioned in the webcast, a good business case must contain two of the following objectives, if not all three. They include 1) increased productivity, usually through cloud automation of manual tasks, such as working in spreadsheets, 2) improved visibility and decision making, through more timely and accurate global cash forecasts, and 3) enhanced internal controls, through standardized processes and new capabilities, such as real-time fraud detection and prevention. If you focus on these three items, and the specific value ROI they can deliver, you will have a very compelling business case. In a recent blog, we wrote about the impact of the business case we conduct with clients, and the results were spectacular: an average of $3.9M in savings over a five-year period. – Dory Malouf 
    
2. How to Select the Right TMS for Your Needs – The process of evaluating, selecting and implementing a TMS can be a challenging and time-consuming effort. Proper preparation will help go into the project with a clear understanding of your requirements, objectives and priorities. Using a proven approach to the vendor selection process is essential to ensuring a successful outcome. The goal is to identify a vendor that can meet your current business requirements, as well as continue to support you as your needs evolve. When checking references try to align your priorities and operating environment with the provided references. For example, if you are planning to deploy a SaaS solution, be sure to talk to a SaaS client. I strongly encourage performing this step as it can help save significant time, money and frustration in the long run. The level of experience and skill of implementation consultants can vary widely so it is important to ensure the best ones are assigned to your project. – Craig Chapman
    
3. The Importance of Internal Collaboration to Optimize Value – Whether it’s creating the most compelling business case possible or selecting the right TMS, collaboration between stakeholders is key for optimizing the process. There are three pillars to consider. The first is know your internal landscape – understand who’s listening and who the impacted stakeholders are, so you can start building your army of champions. This will be critical down the stretch to getting final approval. The second is understanding what’s expected – you need to know what items to consider, including what type of analysis needed (e.g., detailed v. macro), what savings should be incorporated into the ROI (e.g., soft costs v. hard dollar), and who the business case is being delivered to. Is it a CFO, heads of purchasing, IT? It is imperative to know your audience. Finally, the third pillar is keeping in mind the project objectives we discussed earlier: increased productivity, improved visibility, and enhanced internal controls. It’s important to understand where the value lies, and these three cover it all. – Dory Malouf
    
4. The Role of Project Management in Achieving Implementation Success – Once a TMS is selected, one of the most important factors for success is comprehensive project management. Make sure you have key stakeholders identified and engaged throughout the process. If there are competing projects ongoing, make sure you have resources available for the implementation effort. It is also critical to develop functional and technical requirements before attempting to implement. There are excellent opportunities to be gained from selecting a new treasury technology partner that will meet your current business requirements and future needs. Creating a more automated and integrated solution can improve treasury’s ability to increase its long-term productivity and enhance its capabilities and visibility to senior management at your organization. – Craig Chapman 

To get more details, watch the full webcast.