A treasury tech stack includes the integrated systems and tools that support your organization’s cash management, payments, investments and financial risk-management operations.

Why treasury tech stacks need modernization

Tech stacks often require modernization because of tech debt. Tech debt accumulates over time, particularly when platforms are not maintained or updated with newly available technology. Increasingly, more time and resources become necessary to complete tasks that might be easier to accomplish with newer capabilities. The longer legacy systems remain in use while falling behind industry standards, the more they require constant upkeep and specialized expertise—which can be hard to find as technology evolves. 

Operational inefficiencies that result from treasury tech debt impact the entire enterprise. For example, legacy payment systems resist automation, requiring manual workarounds and costly customizations. When these systems can’t communicate effectively—for example, with your business’s banking partners—data reconciliation becomes labor-intensive and error-prone. In addition, data can end up scattered in multiple locations without a single source of truth—which could reduce reporting accuracy and cloud decision-making. Over time, transaction processing and data analysis can grow incrementally slower and more difficult, and risk management complexity can increase. 

The end result: Treasury infrastructure that sits on a shaky foundation, potentially resulting in tenuous day-to-day operations, new initiatives that are more complicated to implement and strategic relationships that strain under poor integration and unreliable data sharing. This makes maintaining outdated systems unsustainable or unscalable for finance organizations.

How does tech debt impact treasury?

Tech debt significantly hinders treasury’s ability to manage cash flow, make timely decisions and adapt to market conditions. It creates hidden costs by limiting flexibility and increasing effort for essential tasks, with these costs increasing over time as the infrastructure falls further behind in functionality. Identifying, measuring and remedying these issues helps treasurers modernize and optimize operations.

Streamlining your treasury tech stack

The keys to managing treasury tech debt include awareness of treasury needs, collaboration across the enterprise and continual investment in new technology. Here are the essential steps: 

Assessment, audit and rationalization

Begin by auditing internal systems and identifying all technologies in use. Map business-critical functions and their supporting technologies by category, such as payment processing or risk management. Prioritize potential upgrades or consolidations based on value-add. Include a cybersecurity audit to identify gaps in processes and determine which systems are essential versus optional.

Consider both hard and soft costs when comparing current systems to a new infrastructure. Key factors include operational efficiencies from automation and streamlined processes, plus improved reporting quality. Also consider internal costs of maintaining IT resources to support the platforms. External consultants can often provide valuable expertise based on experience with other organizations.

Defining a new infrastructure

After the assessment stage, create a blueprint for future-state infrastructure aligned with your organization’s goals. Secure IT and key stakeholder buy-in. Evaluate technology providers who can service multiple business needs through: 

• Redundant system elimination
• Cloud-based solutions across business lines
• Global visibility and transparency
• Ease of system integration, internally and with partners

Implement modern technologies

Incorporate artificial intelligence and robotic process automation to automate operational tasks and enhance processes. Banking partners can augment your tech stack with cash flow forecasting tools and reconciliation modules.