Modernization in cloud financial management software solutions is driving positive change for finance teams, allowing CFOs and senior leaders in treasury and finance to improve their decision making and enhance their business outcomes, according to a new IDC MarketScape report. Organizations that have adopted modern solutions benefit from a number of improvements such as automation, integration with third party applications and a measurable-repeatable set of best-practices that enable senior finance leaders to hit their growth targets. These new operating models are set to greatly enhance status quo business operations.
Additional reading: CFO Perspective: How Corporate Finance Can Enhance Operational Execution to Meet Rising Global Threats
The development of new digital tools for working capital optimisation, FX, account management and payments has done a great deal to ease the burden on corporate treasury professionals, who are inundated with more complex demands from CFOs. In this scenario, automating functions such as cash management, cash flow, working capital, payments and internal transfers allows users to shift their focus to higher level requirements, including cash forecasting, financial risk management, FX management, compliance and more.
Selecting a treasury and risk management solution (TMS - TRM)
Treasury and risk management solutions are evolving rapidly to better serve CFOs and treasury teams. It is extremely important for end users to understand not only how vendors and their solutions are positioned currently, but also how they might be positioned over the next three to five years.
In fact, Kyriba is hosting a webinar with IDC to dive deeper into the IDC MarketScape report findings, addressing "How to Select the Right Treasury & Risk Management Vendor" on March 15, 2018, 2 pm ET. This webinar will be presented by subject matter experts Kevin Permenter, Sr. Research Analyst, Enterprise Applications at IDC and Bob Stark, Vice President of Strategy at Kyriba, and has been approved for up to 1.2 CTP and 1.2 FP&A credits from AFP for the full session attendees. Register today to reserve your seat.
Some of the factors to consider when making purchasing decisions on SaaS and cloud-enabled treasury and risk software and will be covered in the webinar include:
- Experience in successfully implementing treasury solutions
- Vendor’s knowledge of financial regulations and guidelines, both local and global
- Availability of support
- Vendor’s commitment to the market and strategic investment outlook
- Ability to integrate with existing internal and partner IT systems
The 2017-2018 IDC MarketScape Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Treasury and Risk Management Applications Vendor Assessment has placed Kyriba in the Leaders category, positioning vendors according to “Capabilities” and “Strategies”. The analysts considered a broad range of criteria including customer feedback, platform architecture and security, depth of capabilities such as reporting, bank connectivity, cash and risk management and more. It is a very in-depth and comprehensive analysis of global vendors who provide treasury and risk management solutions.
Importance of data security
The IDC report refers to security as a key strength for Kyriba, for the platform as well as within the application. The SOC2 Type II audit details the enterprise level encryption, single sign-on, and multi-factor authentication among other safeguards to protect user access and data.
Move to the cloud
A growing number of companies are moving their treasury and risk management information into the cloud. IDC estimates that the split between on-premise and public cloud software will shift from 82.2 percent and 17.8 percent in 2016 to 70.7 percent and 29.3 percent, respectively, by 2021. In other words, in the next few years, on-premise applications will decrease by 11.5 percent while, conversely, cloud solutions will increase at the same rate. Kyriba has grown at 32 percent year over year in the past years, suggesting Kyriba is taking the lion’s share of the market segment and that adoption rates may be accelerating.
Future opportunities
Adopting modern treasury and risk management applications is a smart move for treasury and finance professionals to help them deliver more strategic decision support to the CFO and also to generate positive change for their company. Looking to the future for benefits that modern finance solutions should offer, IDC concludes that leveraging business intelligence to provide more insight into cash positions and cash mobilization through working capital strategies will be a significant value in the near term.
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