| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
23 June 2005 |
Bottomline Technologies Explores Business Value of Straight-Through Payment Processes
Whitepaper Offers Corporate Clients a Strategy for Reducing Cost of Domestic and Cross-Border Payments; Better Cash Management and Reporting
READING, ENGLAND – 23rd June 2005 - Bottomline Technologies (NASDAQ: EPAY), a leading global technology provider of financial Business Process Management (fBPM) software and managed services, has released a whitepaper offering insight into improving straight-through processing (STP). The complimentary paper entitled,
Bridging the Back Office Disconnect Between Large Corporates and
Their Cash Management Banks, is available for download from the company’s Web site.
The inability of many banks to provide corporate clients with a single platform capable of supporting the entire cash management function has caused many organisations to deploy disparate systems based on proprietary formats and processes. For these organisations, the divergent makeup of their cash management function is now viewed as an impediment to process efficiency, visibility, regulatory compliance and future growth.
According to Marcus Hughes, Head of Banking for Bottomline Technologies Europe and the paper’s author, the most cost efficient and effective way to handle a corporation’s payments and cash management needs is through a portal strategy. “A Web-based payment and reporting gateway enables corporate clients to manage all of its payments from a single platform, thus reducing a reliance on disparate systems and applications. By making cash management functions available online, users can quickly and easily prepare, format, validate, approve and release clean payment instructions to the bank.”
He continues “This gateway enables corporate clients to take full advantage of the reduced rates banks offer for STP transactions, as well as improve operational risk management through more a streamlined approach to workflow and greater enterprise-wide cash reporting.”
The process of STP has been aided in recent years by the cooperative efforts of the banking community and SWIFT to raise cash management standards on a global basis. Once restricted to use by banks, SWIFT’s services are now available to corporate clients through SWIFT-endorsed Membership Administered Closed User Groups (MA-CUGs). As a result, corporations can leverage these user groups to link with each of the banks supporting its cash management functions.
“New SWIFT tools such as MA-CUGS and FileAct for improving STP are highly promising but in order to achieve the optimal benefits, corporate clients will need to leverage Web-based technology,” added Hughes. “A Web-enabled payment gateway is the key to creating secure enterprise-wide access and tying together the front- and back-end. These tools are driven by a shared goal for improved STP and lower processing costs within a secure, online environment, delivering improved bottom line results for all.”
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Bridging the Back Office Disconnect Between Large Corporates and Their Cash Management Banks by Marcus Hughes can be downloaded free of charge here: http://www.bottomline.co.uk/thought_leadership/pedd/index.html.
Marcus Hughes will be speaking at the Business Briefing The Future of Payments: Beyond BACSTEL-IP on 25 May, 2005 at the British Banker’s Association in London, where he will be discussing effective ways to meet today’s payment efficiency challenges.
To register for this event please call Julie Partridge on 0870 081 8250 or click on the link below;
http://www.bottomline.co.uk/events/register.htm.
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