Treasury Strategies’ 2015 Treasury Benchmarking Survey found a continued reliance on Excel spreadsheets with nearly 50 percent not using any kind of treasury management system, and that more than 70 percent primarily use bank online platforms to conduct treasury activities. No wonder that TMS suppliers are experiencing a healthy demand for their products and services. They are also experiencing a major move to cloud based solutions as the following examples show.

Kyriba 

Kyriba the cloud based TMS solution provider have just reported 47% global bookings growth in annual bookings in 2014 compared to FY2013. During Q4, bookings grew at 57% vs Q4 the prior year. Some of their more notable client wins include corporations such as: global insurer Aspen Insurance; 74 year-old luxury goods designer, Coach; the parcels division of the French national postal service, GeoPost; Japanese imaging giant, Konica Minolta; and soft drinks leader, Orangina Schweppes.

Kyriba is now used by almost 1,000 companies worldwide, and is accessed in 96 countries.

Kyriba latest version (V15.0) will launch in April, featuring valuable functionality enhancements, including:

• more advanced cash forecasting
• fraud prevention with enhanced authority management and providing a more intuitive user experience. 
• ability to compare several different cash positions snapshots to better and more strategically analyze variances with cash forecasting
• more fraud prevention from linking of payment module authorities to the authorities in bank account management, as well as increasing security with new dual-factor authentication

Reval

Reval, a leading global provider of a scaleable and integrated cloud solutions for Treasury and Risk Management (TRM) finished 2014 with a record-breaking fourth quarter, growing bookings by 103% over the fourth quarter in 2013. Reval brought 63% more companies live on its all-in-one platform in 2014 than in 2013. These companies are using both cash management and risk management capabilities on the same TRM platform. Among Reval’s Q4 clients across North America, EMEA and APAC are government business enterprises (GBE’s) in Australia and a major, US-based global IT leader in cloud security. 

Another 2014 key development for Reval included setting up an office in Japan to support the treasury technology needs of the country's cash-rich multinational corporations.

Visual Risk

Over the last year Visaul Risk have set up an office in London to support their European expansion and have refined their mission is to deliver:

• modular treasury software, flexibly tailored for efficiency and connectivity
• superior risk analytics for greater insight and more effective strategy
• advanced hedge accounting and compliance to simplify complex reporting
• best-practice client Support and Service provided by expert treasury practitioners.

They also released an advanced CVA module to assist treasuries struggling to comply with IFRS 13. Similar to the models applied by banks, it utilizes a simulation-based approach to calculate an instrument’s potential future exposure and applies industry standard formulae to calculate credit adjustments.

They now service over 100 clients world-wide. 

Bloomberg TRM - the new entrant

Bloomberg’s ‘soft launch’ of their middle market treasury management system at Eurofinance last October, see, has certainly disrupted the TMS market. All suppliers are a little nervous of what impact such a huge player will have on the TMS market. The new TRM system based on the Bloomberg global cloud solution is proving popular. Its tightly focussed functionality and very short implementation cycle meets the needs of many corporate treasury departments that don’t have a TMS already. Bloomberg are having to manage the demand for their new system, so that they continue to meet the strict levels of customer service which the Bloomberg business model demands. 

Other suppliers and the future of TMS market

Other major TMS suppliers - BELLIN, Salmon, SunGard and Wall Street Systems - are also reporting healthy demand for their products and services. 

At present the future is bright for all TMS suppliers, but the full impact of the Bloomberg TRM solution has yet to be seen……… Over the next five years, it could get messy. 

More than ever, corporate treasury departments will need to understand the future viability of their TMS suppliers.