“We reviewed the whole setup and were looking for a solution that would not only establish full connectivity with our huge number of banks and bank accounts, but also to our TMS. And we were looking for a provider that would be able to do this in a very tight time frame while relieving us from the virtually impossible task of having to establish and maintain everything with an internal IT team.” says Maarten Himpe. Overall, ContourGlobal’s treasury team identified four main areas, where per their evaluation they would ultimately benefit the most from a solution that took care of automation, connectivity, centralization, and straight-through processing for them. Bank Connectivity & Financial Messaging: Because ContourGlobal uses 60+ banks and 800+ underlying accounts, bank connectivity was the most critical capability in need of improvement. Ideally, the new solution would offer connectivity via any channel (SWIFT, EBICS, H2H, etc.) and be compatible with the full scope of messaging standards (ISO 20022, SWIFT MT, BAI, EDI, etc.) that the Treasury team used globally. Cloud-Based Integration: Since ContourGlobal would need their new solution to integrate seamlessly with their TMS and other back-office or banking systems, the Treasury team was intent on finding a cloud-based, fully-hosted solution. This would simultaneously relieve internal treasury and IT staff from having to manage system upgrades and patches themselves, while also removing the burden of building and sustaining integrations with other systems. Payment Processing & Cash Reporting: From an automation standpoint, payment processing and cash reporting were the areas where most of treasury’s manual effort was spent. Although optimizing bank connectivity was key to eliminating this hassle, additional tools surrounding payment generation, approvals, and cash positioning were also needed for treasury to achieve true straight-through-processing. Implementation & Customer Support: Given treasury and IT’s limited internal bandwidth, ContourGlobal realized that their chosen vendor must provide a highly adept and experienced customer support and onboarding team. They ultimately needed a vendor that could manage most of the system configuration and subsequent integrations and bank connections on their behalf. As the Treasury team evaluated potential vendors, they began exploring the platform and services offered by TIS. They noted that the 11,000+ bank connect options and 2,500+ API connections that TIS provided, coupled with their high-touch support for configuring all required connectivity channels and messaging standards, presented the ideal structure for automating ContourGlobal’s payments and reporting workflows. And because TIS’ staff were able to handle virtually the entire implementation on the team’s behalf – all within their tight 9-month window – TIS became the clear choice for his team. Beginning in Q1 2021 and lasting through Q3, TIS, FIS, and the ContourGlobal team were able to complete the full scope of their implementation on time and fully within budget. For TIS, this included connectivity to more than 60 banks and 800 accounts across 20 countries, with compatibility and support for all required messaging formats and networks. Full integration with FIS was also established so that payments and reports could flow seamlessly between ContourGlobal’s banks and other back-office systems for companywide visibility. All this was achieved in a gradual roll-out, establishing the new connectivity alongside the old connectivity still working, allowing a smooth transition. And with TIS’ team managing the bulk of the implementation, the Treasury team was able to continue focusing on their core treasury responsibilities.
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