Treasury departments hold a critical role in driving success for companies. Between financial planning, managing payments, and mitigating future risk, treasury departments must stay apprised of the latest technology developments to manage these responsibilities well.
Understanding how to leverage the newest technologies can not only streamline current operations, but reduce costs, improve security, and enhance the end-user experience in payments.
We’ll explore some of the biggest trends that you need to know about as we move into the last quarter of the year.
Treasury in the Cloud
On-premise servers are quickly becoming a thing of the past for many organizations. Cloud technology is the preferred deployment method over on-site software installations. Treasury departments can choose between different types of cloud platforms, including software-as-a-service (SaaS) or the Application Service Provider (ASP) model.
Cloud enables software to be accessible to all users and easy to update. That means IT departments don’t need to spend endless resources on updating individual systems. Most SaaS providers roll out automatic updates, keeping your systems functioning and ready to use at all times.
Deep Reporting & Analytics
Hand-in-hand with cloud technology are cutting-edge analytics and reporting tools. Many of these tools are cloud-based and offer crystal clear, highly-visual dashboards that provide the information you need at a glance. They also offer the ability to drill down into the finest of details when necessary, providing deep reporting capabilities on things like cash, liquidity, key metrics, financial data, and more.
In the modern era, reporting is about more than just closing the books or running month-end reports alone. Treasury departments must become more strategic, which requires deeper analysis of financial data to garner decision-ready insights. Cloud plays a big role in enabling these modern analytics tools. Many offer drag-and-drop functionality that makes it easy for tech-savvy and beginners alike to use. What’s more, many of these reports and dashboards can be accessed from mobile devices, making it simple to get information anytime and anywhere.
Payments Transformation
In addition to in-house technology changes, treasurers must stay at the forefront of changes within the industry, including real-time payments (RTP) and ISO 20022. These industry-wide technologies and standards impact how the treasury functions in its day-to-day operations.
Central banks will have adopted the ISO 20022 standard by next year, empowering instant domestic and cross-border payments across all currencies for payment providers, banks, clearinghouses, and card schemes. Without an eye toward this transformation, those that fall behind may risk exclusion from these powerful systems.
As other payment trends emerge and gain momentum – like RTP – treasurers must understand how they work and how they impact the business. Adopting new technologies may require some level of transformation, and treasurers don’t want to be caught off guard.
As the cloud and emerging standards and payments technologies continue to evolve, treasury departments should do their homework to understand imminent changes and how those changes could impact business and operations. Beyond the risk of operating on outdated technology, treasurers could miss out on great opportunities to improve efficiency, collaboration, and strategic initiatives.
Arrow Payments excels at helping clients stay one step ahead of industry changes. Our team of payments technology experts can help you understand how to streamline operations while navigating the sometimes complex web of compliance requirements. Contact us today for a free consultation.