Conextivity Group

Like many growing global businesses, Conextivity faced increasing complexity in its treasury workflows. Treasury staff had to do a lot of manual entry into Excel spreadsheets and engage in time-consuming back-and-forth communications with banks, especially when onboarding new financial institutions. And with no centralized system, it was difficult to enforce policies across subsidiaries or have a clear picture of the company’s global cash position.

Conextivity wanted to:

• Centralize global cash management and visibility
• Streamline payments
• Simplify user administration and validation workflows
• Reduce reliance on manual processes and paperwork
• Create a scalable framework for future treasury operations

• Centralized access to bank account data across multiple regions
• Real-time cash visibility to support weekly management reporting
• Standardized and enforceable group-wide payment validation processes
• Direct control and administration by HQ for international accounts
• Scalable infrastructure to onboard more banks and expand globally
• Improved independence from manual processes and external dependencies

Conextivity Group SA is a global technology group that designs and delivers high-performance connectivity solutions through its two business units: Fischer Connectors and Wearin’. With a presence across EMEA, the Americas, and Asia, Conextivity empowers innovation in industries ranging from defense and medical to robotics and AI.

Conextivity needed a way to unify treasury operations across disparate geographies and systems.

In 2021, Conextivity selected Fides as its multibanking connectivity partner. “We felt Fides was the best product on the market,” says Olivier Christen, Conextivity’s Group Treasurer and Finance Expert. “We had a great connection with the team, and we liked that it’s a Swiss company — close to us in every sense.”

Working with Fides allows Christen and his team to set up their preferred, secure processes for payment approvals and enforce governance across the organization.

Today, Conextivity uses Fides ONEHub, leveraging multiple modules:

• ONEHub as the central platform for workflows and administration
• ONEConnect for bank connectivity
• ONEReport for consolidated global cash reporting
• ONEPay for centralized payments

The treasury team currently connects to 4 banks across 24 accounts in Switzerland, France, Germany, and the U.S., with plans to scale to 14 banks and more than 30 accounts. Additional countries, including the UK, Italy, Portugal, and APAC regions, are on the roadmap. Connectivity is handled via Swift, Host-to-Host, and EBICS, based on Fides’ recommendations.

With Fides, Conextivity has near-real-time visibility into its cash, the flexibility to keep money in the accounts and currencies that make the most sense for its business operations, and the speed needed to easily move money between accounts and to subsidiaries as needed.

While technology is important, it’s the people behind the products and solutions that can take something from good to great. Christen says that one of the key benefits of working with Fides is the team assigned to the relationship. “Fides ONEHub is easy to understand and gives me all the information I need on a daily basis,” he says. “And if I have any questions or problems, I know that someone at Fides will respond quickly with the answers I need. The solution is robust, but the people are what really make it work.”

Even in the early stages of rollout, Conextivity has realized tangible benefits:

• Centralization: HQ can now directly manage approval rights and payment validations across entities.
• Visibility: Real-time access to multiple banks and accounts via a single platform makes transfers and weekly cash reporting fast and consistent.
• Better control: Consolidated reporting and standardized processes help enforce group-wide treasury policies.
• Scalability: With Fides, Conextivity is building a treasury infrastructure ready to grow as fast as the business.

Looking ahead, the team plans to extend its use of Fides connectivity to onboard additional banks faster. They are also evaluating the ONEPool solution as a future possibility once full bank onboarding is complete.

Fides is the world leader in multibank connectivity, payments and transaction communications. A market leader for more than a century, Fides is committed to making financial operations as efficient, transparent and secure as possible for all organizations. More than 4,000 clients rely on Fides for efficient cash and liquidity management, through connectivity to more than 13,000 banks and comprehensive workflow, reporting, conversion, validation and security services. Whether you access via the secure Fides ONEHub or leverage our seamless integration with third-party ERP, TMS and other backend systems, Fides is the only platform you need.