Treasury Management Systems: finding the perfect fit.
Your challenges
Your business is expanding, you are entering overseas markets, and this is exposing you to new risks that you need help identifying, recording, as well as managing.
Your existing treasury management system no longer meets your business needs or IT security standards. The current vendor has ceased adding new instruments or providing support.
You have acquired businesses that have a different, or more complex, risk environments that you needs to hedge or protect against.
The board requires more detailed and regular reporting, as well as better cash flow forecasts to meet an increased debt burden, than the current system provides.
You wish to reduce your IT systems costs and outsource back-office processing to a third party
Your TMS needs to be more integrated with your ERP & banking systems to reduce operational risk and achieve greater automation, instantaneous deal matching and confirmation
Finally, you’re looking for a solution that will enable you to exploit new developments such as liquidity portals, supply chain finance solutions, instant payments, robotic processes and advisors.
Choosing the right treasury management systems… and deploying them
Implementing a TMS requires a significant investment in time and money – so getting it right is essential to ensure you maximize the return from the system and it operates as required.
Having a partner by your side, who understands all the complexities and has the resources to devote to the project, can make the difference between having a partially implemented system that requires constant manual intervention and a successful one that is fully automated, together with reporting.
Some considerations that need to be accommodated, or taken into account, include;
- incorporate the specific challenges facing the organisation and activities of your group
- differentiate the characteristics and specific features of the many solutions offered by the market
- set a strategy for bank communication protocols (SWIFT, Host-to-Host) and message formats (CFONB, XML, MTXXX)
Access to dealing and FX confirmation services
In-source or outsource hosting of the system
Bank Account Management or Fee management modules
Each implementation is unique to the organization and it requires a tailor-made approach.
What we offer
We manage the TMS selection project on a regional or global basis from end to end. We help with the definition of requirements for the treasury users, accounting, audit and IT and system security etc. We support the implementation including loading historical or static data, design of risk management reports, and interfacing with 3rd party systems.
What added value do we bring?
We have successfully implemented numerous treasury management systems, which has given us an extensive knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of each TMS provider, as well as seeing which TMS is best suited to a particular company’s requirements and environment.
We bring our added value to bear in the following areas;
- comprehensive understanding of the challenges faced by treasury organizations;
- Identification and hedging of exposures, FX confirmations, mark to market, reporting
- group’s processes, including payments and collections, T & E expenses,
- process mapping, IT procedures and system security
- unparallel benchmarking capability, including feedback from Redbridge’s entire client community (over 400 customers).
What makes us different?
We provide objective, independent advice, in the following areas, which enables you to make fully informed decisions;
- analysis of current architecture and issues
- definition of functional and technical requirements
- identification of potential solutions
- drafting of an expression of requirements / specifications (“RFP”)
- full management of the consultation process
- analysis of proposals and recommendations about target architecture(s)
- support for drafting contracts (with software vendors, banks, SWIFT, etc.)
- implementation support (Project Management Office “PMO”)
Furthermore, your interests are fully aligned with ours and a portion of our remuneration is determined by your evaluation of the successful conclusion of the project – on time and budget.
Case studies
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Case study no. 1
- Sector: insurance
- Revenue: around €1.7 billion
- Geographic scope: ten European countries and the United States
- Year / duration of assignment: 2018–19 / five months
- Objectives and outcome of assignment:
- Recommendations for organization, tools and cash management
- Definition of budget and roadmap for the deployment of a new tool
- Selection of a TMS and banking communication tool and migration to SWIFTNet
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Case study no. 2
- Sector: commodities trader
- Revenue: around €12.5 billion
- Geographic scope: Switzerland (parent company) and around the world (subsidiaries)
- Duration of assignment: over one year
- Objectives and outcome of assignment:
- Definition of a strategy for treasury management IT systems (Target Operating Model)
- Drafting of specifications and selection of TMS and currency risk management platform IT systems
- Project Management Office for the implementation of selected treasury management tools
- 25+
- Corporates advised on their treasury management IT strategies
- 35+
- Software vendors interviewed as part an RFP
- 10+
- Consultants specializing in treasury management tools
- 25
- Tenders conducted since 2016