STEP 3 - DEFINE THE PROJECT REQUIREMENTS

Step 3 – Define the Project Requirements  (Build Your Wish List!)

Correctly defining the Project Requirements is critical to the project's success.  This can take anywhere from a week to a few months to complete depending on the complexities involved.  It is important to draw up the requirements before any vendor presentations are given.  This way you will stick to defining the core features needed by your company and not get caught up in the bells and whistles of the vendor presentations.  Also, through defining your requirements in this manner, you may find that all you need is an additional module or change in process rather than a new Treasury Management System. This process will also help you highlight the weaknesses in the existing system in relation to the required core functionality.  Properly documented requirements facilitate the creation of a benchmark by which a comparison to proposed solutions may be evaluated.  This document must describe in sufficient detail the treasury features and the environment in which it will operate.  There are many ways to obtain the requirements but I suggest the following steps:

1-     Capture What You Know.  This step must be provided by the users of the system.  Review your current system and detail each feature you use.  Define the weaknesses if any.  Note the functionality and features you want to retain from your old system as well as the required improvements from the new system.  Add this to your list.

2-     Automation.  Analyze the treasury processes.  Break them down into step-by-step tasks to identify where a new system could improve efficiency through automation.  Add this to your list of requirements.

3-     Dependencies and Integrations.  In detail, list out how your old system integrates with other systems, i.e., banking, general ledger, reporting and market data.  What dependencies do you have and what is the timing of those dependencies?  Are there other departments that utilize your old system for balances or transaction information?  Does investor reporting utilize the BAI download for transaction information that you were not aware of?  Add this to your list of requirements.

4-     What Is The Plan.  Understand your company’s strategic plan.  The selection of your Treasury Management System must be in harmony with the plans of the company.  Is your company going from a decentralized to a centralized treasury group next year?  Is there significant growth planned for the future?  Is your company diversifying into other product categories?  This will help you in the selection process as to whether you need a moduler (scalable, flexible, deployable) solution or a canned solution (one that will not change over time). 

5-     Your Wish List.  List all the treasury features you would have in a perfect world.  In addition to balance reporting, cash positioning, and payment processing this may include:

a.       Real-time information consolidation

b.      Elimination of multiple banking cash management systems

c.       Fraud detection

d.      Bank Fee Analysis

e.       Market updates

f.        System interface with A/R, G/L, A/P

g.       Intracompany

h.       FAS 133 compliance

i.        Timely and accurate exposure identification and reporting

j.        SOX Compliance

k.    Forecasting

l.    Remote Access

By correctly defining the project requirements you will be able to quickly appraise the value of the future vendor presentations.  If nothing else, you have defined the core features that are required by your treasury group, created a wish list, eliminated any inefficiencies, and understood the true need (or lack thereof) for a Treasury Management System.