Treasury systems – why do implementations so often fail? Webinar series ‘IT Basics for Treasurers’.
Covering all of the aspects here would more than exceed the scope suitable for any newsletter. This is another issue on which recent survey findings confirm our impression that treasury systems frequently fail to deliver what customers expect. It would be too easy and also not appropriate to only look for the culprits on the side of the system providers. Based on our experience, two of the main reasons are often a lack of technical understanding on the part of the customer, from the treasury department to the decision-makers, as well as a lack of experience when it comes to the requirements specification, i.e. the definition of the customer's requirements in terms of the provider, system and, in particular, reports.
It is of course tempting to buy the system offered by the market leader in the hope that all of the problems will just solve themselves. After all, this is a product which is also being used by many other companies. If you consider, however, that the vast majority of these customers declare in the course of surveys that they are not fully satisfied, then the issue of market penetration becomes relative. One option would be to also appoint an external consultant who, using a hundred-question checklist, creates the impression that this can resolve the shortcomings mentioned above since this increases the sense of security enjoyed by customers.
The crux of the matter however is that, with a basic understanding of the technical issues involved (even though you won't be able to communicate on the same level as technical experts), you will be able to develop a far better understanding of the fundamental technology involved. We often see user-created Excel-based tools. These repeatedly make very clear that there is a lack of understanding about the technological basics. This is related less to the formulae, although we could also discuss that at length, and far more a question of how data are organized. But it is exactly this issue which is indispensable if you don't want to have to start from scratch again the first time you need to modify a table. "Just do it. It'll work out" is usually a very poor starting point and, in reality, the reason why it is unlikely that the second part of the claim will ever come true.
Our webinar on IT basics for treasurers will provide you with the basics which you really should have a grip of if you plan to deal with systems or repeatedly rely on Excel to get yourself out of trouble.
For more details, please drop us a line at treasury-it-basics@treamo.com and we will be in touch with proposed dates/times.