What’s the future of treasury management systems?
Yesterday it was announced that Reval entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by ION Investment Group. Reval is a global provider of cloud-based treasury management systems (TMS).
“I’m excited for what the future holds as we continue to provide innovative automation solutions for companies that are looking to transform the way they manage treasury and risk,” said CEO of Reval Jiro Okochi. Reval, founded in 1999, was set about to provide a software-as-a-service (SAAS) product to the relateively underserved market for enterprise treasury and risk management.
“ION’s acquisition of Reval further consolidates the (already asphyxiated) TMS market. “Traditional” TMS suites (i.e., those that cater for basic cash management, liquidity, payments) are doomed to see their market shrink even further,” says Aite Group senior analyst Enrico Camerinelli.
“Since ION is adding Reval to its treasury management systems (TMS) portfolio, ION’s TMS portfolio will have two separate lines of business. The first line includes Reval, IT2, City Financials, and Treasura. The second line has Wall Street Systems as a separate product suite. Reval’s CEO will be overseeing the entire first line of business. However, the products will not be integrated and will remain as separate components in the portfolio. Still to be decided is how to arrange sales, marketing, R&D, maintenance, and services.
“Thus far, ION has proven to be opaque about how they manage their TMS business to analysts.
“ION communicates poorly and this does not help to make an informed opinion about their strategy.
I expect that the CEO of Reval, Jiro, in his new role will ensure that ION becomes more transparent and proactive about getting information out to the marketplace,” said Camerinelli.
VIDEO: As part of the Global Finance Magazine, Expert Perspectives Video Series, Jiro Okochi, CEO of Reval, discusses the evolving role of treasurers and the ways they are using next generation treasury technology to not only keep up with these changes but to continually innovate within their organizations.
