Treasury management officers (TMOs) are often asked by clients to join meetings with new payroll providers, ERP providers, and other similar vendors to give the bank’s perspective on best practices. In a world where technology is rapidly changing, we understand the need to feel supported, encouraged, and advised on what solutions might be best. The best bankers and TMOs excel by understanding the entire sphere of treasury technology offerings and translating it for you as your key advisor. This is essential as you consider bank solutions versus third-party solutions. There are advantages and disadvantages, and both need to be uniquely assessed. Some key questions include: Who will service this solution, someone familiar or an unproven face? Who’s on my side when things don’t go as sold? Who best understands the breadth of my operations?

One of the major business lessons of the pandemic is the importance of growth in your digital journey, throughout all areas of your business. Remote workplaces, security, and a more efficient use of human capital are just some of the factors. Here are just a few of the ways application programming interface (API) banking can help your business connect directly to Wintrust’s secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) for account balance and activity reporting, payment files, and data translation services.

Use technology to streamline daily tasks, including:

• Account reconciliation.
  Move from monthly or weekly, to daily account reconciliation with files dropped in your SFTP.
• Bulk file transfers (Positive Pay, ACH, wires, EDI, and lockbox).
  Use one SFTP connection to communicate to and from the bank with most of your files.
• Automated payables (Invoice to payment or payment only).
  The bank can cut checks, send ACHs, and complete credit card payments on your behalf.

Take advantage of technology that can improve control, security, and workflow:

• File translations can help improve your efforts and workflow.
  The bank is able to translate your CSV file of ACH items into a NACHA format; other translations include EDI 820s, TXT files, and BAI2.
• Utilize the bank’s dual control and best practices to mitigate fraud risk.
  Examples include APP based tokenization, dual administration, dual control, dual template edits, and out of band authentication texts and call back.
• Secure digital payments through automating your payables, and cut out the paper and pens.
  Automate and streamline the end-to-end accounts payable process, including invoice payment (which is where manual time is squandered) via Wintrust’s Winvoice solution. Winvoice effortlessly captures and codes invoice data, centralizes and digitalizes invoice approval, and streamlines payment approval and execution. It also increases payment security with segregation of duties, and enhances visibility into the entire accounts payable function.

Reimagine your processes, and manage and embrace change:

• Though the world has changed, we are still by your side, working to get your team onboard with change. Implementation of a new process is hard work. TMOs understand there are many steps to uncovering the right product and automation recommendations. TMOs will do as much of the heavy lifting on the front end of the product and process exploration as possible. But, we do need your IT team’s buy-in to uncover the full potential for automation; it’s a “one team” approach!
• TMOs will bring new ideas to you, not the other way around. We are committed to staying forward thinking, keeping up on the latest trends in business, and building trust through education about new technology. 

A note from Tom Ormseth, Wintrust’s executive vice president of digital channels and transaction banking: Wintrust has made significant investments in technology over the past two years to support our commercial activities. We have developed an infrastructure that allows us to roll out product at a faster pace through APIs.

At Wintrust, we are trusted advisors for our clients in making decisions about vendor and technology enhancements. With the investment we’ve made in technology, Wintrust Treasury Management can provide best-in-class service to our customers, while remaining highly competitive in the market. TMOs are empowered to be innovative and take the time to explore new digital processes with clients and prospects. In short, we’re ready to be your partner. If you’re interested in any of the technology tools and services listed above, please contact: 

Lauren P. Hess
Vice President, Treasury Management

To learn more about Wintrust Treasury Management, click here.