Treasury Management System Consolidation

You may have read that treasury management software provider Kyriba may be up for sale, and payment provider TIS just announced the acquisition of Cashforce. It’s no secret that industry consolidation is a growing trend within the fintech world. In the past few years, Treasury Xpress was acquired by Bottomline Technologies. ION acquired Reval. Bellin was acquired by business spend management platform provider Coupa. FIS acquired payments provider WorldPay. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Volatility leads to uncertainty. There’s no way for customers to know what will happen if their TMS provider is acquired. In some cases, business continues as usual — at least for a certain period of time. In other cases, service levels may drop, product updates may be delayed and certain offerings may merged with others or even be sunsetted. Even positive changes may come with a higher price tag.

So what do you do if your TMS provider is acquired, and may no longer provide the service you need? Or you don’t know if the product strategy will continue to fit your business requirements? Working with an independent connectivity provider that provides the pipe and rails behind a TMS or ERP gives you much more flexibility to make those decisions without risking operational disruption.

Often, the trickiest part of changing core systems like TMS and ERPs is business disruption. Cash management, visibility and payments are core to business operations — and businesses can’t afford to have these processes out of commission for any length of time. Data migration alone can cause immense issues, but the biggest challenge with TMS changes tends to be bank connectivity.

Bank connections can take months to set up, with significant back-and-forth communications between the business and the bank. Even with the advent of APIs, connectivity isn’t easy. Add to that complexity any required format conversions needed to match up the message formats used by the TMS or ERP with that of each of the corporation’s banks.

Some businesses take care of their bank connectivity on their own. But most rely on their TMS or ERP provider to handle the bulk of the work, operating under the assumption that connectivity is a core competency of every TMS vendor. Some TMS vendors do handle connections with financial institutions on their own, others partner behind the scenes with a third-party multibank connectivity provider like Fides. The problem of portability only arises in a scenario where the corporation wants to change TMS or ERP providers.

For treasurers who want to keep their options open, engaging directly with a third-party bank connectivity provider — also sometimes known as a treasury aggregator — is an easy win. In some cases, a multibank connectivity provider with a SaaS portal can eliminate the need for a TMS or ERP altogether. In others, they work in harmony with any TMS or ERP, providing that back-end functionality.

Working directly with one of these providers allows you to expand your options for connection channels, messaging formats, conversions, sanction screening, and validation. These solutions also are scalable, enabling you to add more banks, accounts, and payment providers as needed.

“Having a TMS doesn’t necessarily mean you have connectivity to all your banks. And even when you do have connectivity, the information contained in bank transmissions, and the language used for transmissions is not always the same. That is where a provider like Fides adds so much value.” — Christian Azzopardi, Group Treasurer and Commercial Finance Manager, Hästens

Fides ONEHub makes it easy to send messages and payments in any format to any financial institution anywhere in the world. Fides validation and conversion services ensure that you’re sending and receiving the information in the right format, significantly reducing the need for manual intervention. We work with clients to figure out the best channels for connectivity and take care of as much of the process as each client prefers. And, we connect to the leading TMS and ERP solutions. Fides ONEHub can even connect to multiple treasury management and enterprise resource planning systems at the same time, providing the flexibility and portability you need to support change.

Fides is the world leader in multibank connectivity, payments and transaction communications. A market leader for more than a century, Fides is committed to the principles of Open Banking, making treasury and financial operations as efficient, transparent and secure as possible for all organizations.

Fides provides everything organizations need for efficient cash and liquidity management, all through a single platform — along with connectivity to more than 13,000 financial institutions through an unmatched range of methods and channels. Thousands of companies around the globe rely on Fides’ connectivity capabilities and comprehensive workflow, reporting, conversion, validation and security services, for their own businesses and for extending services to their clients.

Whether you access via the secure Fides ONEHub or take advantage of our seamless integration with third-party ERP, TMS and other backend systems, Fides is the only platform you need.