The need to formulate a treasury technology roadmap for your organization has never been more critical.
This is particularly relevant for large complex organizations that are running SAP. The SAP S/4HANA move is complex and presents great opportunities and challenges. For the treasury within these large complex organizations it does not make sense to wait for the enterprise to formulate a roadmap as then the likelihood of the treasury requirements not being properly prioritized are high.
It is in this context that Zanders provides the option to help your organization formulate a treasury technology roadmap. Driven by 27 years of experience we have built a best practice framework for treasury transformation projects. The approach we have formulated for the treasury technology roadmap ensures that we start by focusing efforts on establishing a clear set of requirements for the treasury organization and processes. Here too we have built up a sound catalogue of strategic treasury requirements which are mapped to a solid treasury business process framework, and it is against this foundation that we engage with the treasury organization to ensure we emerge with an accurate view of the specific treasury requirements. In the process we ensure these requirements are categorized according to priority and evaluated relative to current available functionality.
Enablers for core treasury activities We also establish a clear scope for the roadmap based on the activities to be covered which in effect defines the processes in scope. The Zanders framework uses three core treasury activities being Treasury Operations, Risk Management and Enterprise Funding with the associated 15 underlying sub-processes that support these.
The Zanders framework then has four enablers that support these core treasury activities. These are:
Strategy and organization
Banking Infrastructure
Processes and systems
Governance and controls
Typically for a treasury technology roadmap engagement, the focus is on the processes and systems enabler, but we will also take into the strategy and organization in formulating the scope of the assessment here the geographic and organizational scope is established and confirmed. For banking infrastructure, the banks, bank accounts and payment type scope is established.
Figure 1: Treasury Roadmap; Driven by 27 years of experience we have built a best practice framework for Treasury Transformation projects. Based on this framework and considering what has been requested by clients, we propose the following approach to build a well-defined Treasury Technology Roadmap.
Figure 2 – Treasury scope; The starting point for kicking off the roadmap is defining the functional scope in line with the three core Treasury activities (Treasury Operations, Risk Management, Enterprise Funding) and the relevant underlying 15 sub-activities.
Fit-gap analysis of requirement The next step in the process is solution design where we perform a fit-gap analysis of requirement and compare this to the existing and proposed treasury technology platforms. This analysis can be tailored to exclusively focus on SAP treasury solutions or include suitable alternative technology platforms. In addition, with the increase in available add-on solutions in the market this analysis can also be expanded to explore and expose the relevant technology solutions that fit the unique treasury requirements based on the prioritization established.
Where the first step of the process ensured an accurate understanding of the organization’s treasury requirements, this step ensures that the treasury organization is exposed to a focused set of relevant solutions that meet these requirements.
A further important consideration is on which SAP system within the organization the treasury requirements will be implemented. Here the many available deployment options need to be considered and evaluated including S/4 HANA side car options (Cloud or On Premise), deployment in a single central instance and the likes of Central Finance architecture and approach.
Meeting all objectives Finally, the roadmap step is where the analysis is brought together to settle on relevant alternative options that meet both treasury and the broader enterprise’s strategic long-term objectives. For these viable technology options realistic implementation timeframes are estimated and a framework for total cost of ownership is established. This ensures that the basis for the business case is established and the parameters for the various options are clearly articulated.
In such a way the treasury organization is able to help lead rather than follow at this crucial time and hence ensure that the treasury technology requirements are included in the overall enterprise technology roadmap and a measure of order and clarity is brought into the formulation of the enterprise transformation plans.
In the stress test methodology, participating banks are required to evaluate the impact of a cyber attack. They must communicate their response and recovery efforts by completing a
In this report, biodiversity loss ranks as the fourth most pressing concern after climate change adaptation, mitigation failure, and natural disasters. For financial institutions (FIs), it
Carbon offset processes are currently dominated by private actors providing legitimacy for the market. The two largest of these, Verra and Gold Standard, provide auditing services, carbon
Early October, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) published a report[1] on the 2023 banking turmoil that involved the failure of several US banks as well as Credit Suisse. The
Today, we engage in a conversation with Brecht van den Driessche, a new addition to the Zanders team, to explore his motivations for joining Zanders and his vision for the future of risk
SWIFT now supports the exchange of ISO 20022 XML or MX message via the so-called FINplus network. In parallel, the legacy MT format messages remain to be exchanged over the ‘regular’ FIN
As the first conference in the US since its 4-year hiatus, there was good attendance among corporates and partners. The SAP Treasury conference is an excellent opportunity for customers to see
Of the many attending corporates and partners were offered the opportunity to hear the latest ins and outs of treasury transformation with S/4HANA.
Next to the enhancements in
The SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) is not just a standalone product or a conventional module within SAP's suite of ERP systems; rather, it serves as a strategic platform from SAP,
Yet, the ongoing dilemma lies in achieving optimal returns on these investments. In this intricate financial landscape, the importance of delivering robust financial performance not only at
Treasurers dealing with multiple jurisdictions, scattered banking landscape, and local requirements face many challenges in this regard. Japan is one of the markets where bank connectivity
The EMIR Refit was originally introduced with the goal of simplifying regulations, and these new requirements took effect in 2019. Following the EMIR Refit, there has been a subsequent round
First and foremost, the long period of low and even negative swap rates was followed by strongly rising rates and a volatile market, which impacted the behavior of both customers and banks
On Thursday 15 June 2023, Zanders hosted a roundtable on ‘Climate Scenario Design & Stress Testing’. In our head office in Utrecht, we welcomed risk managers from several Dutch banks.
Seventy banks have been considered, which is an increase of twenty banks compared to the previous exercise. The portfolios of the participating banks contain around three quarters of all EU
The CSP helps reinforce the controls protecting participants from cyberattack and ensures their effectivity and that they adhere to the current Swift security requirements.
*Swift does not
Machine learning (ML) models have proven to be highly effective in the field of credit risk,outperforming traditional regression models in their predictive power. Thanks to the exponential
In this third article in the ISO 20022 series, Zanders experts Eliane Eysackers and Mark Sutton take a focused look at the Common Global Implementation Market Practice Group (CGI-MP).
As a result of the growing importance of this transformative technology and its applications, various regulatory initiatives and frameworks have emerged, such as Markets in Crypto-Assets
However, possibly the most important point for corporates to be aware of is the planned move towards explicit use of the structured address block. In this second article in the ISO 20022