NewTech Friday: TIS – Leading cloud-based payments, cashflow and liquidity

TIS (Treasury Intelligence Solutions) is a cloud-based software and service provider that helps organizations simplify and streamline their global payments and cash management operations. Their Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer Joerg Wiemer tells Qorus more about the company and shares his opinions and perspectives.


What led to the creation of TIS? 

Thinking back to my days as Global Head of Treasury at the enterprise software company SAP, I remember how a lack of transparency into company cash positions would keep me awake at night. As a treasurer, this was ultimately because I was responsible for managing billions of dollars of company cash, and it was my job to know where all of it was, all of the time. However, without sufficient technology to establish connectivity and automate the process of data collection across all of SAP’s banks, accounts and entities, this visibility component was a constant thorn in my side. 

Looking beyond pure cash visibility, similar issues can manifest themselves in a myriad of other treasury processes, including payment generation and execution as well as cash flow forecasting, working capital management, and more. In the modern ‘digital’ era of treasury and finance, the simple truth is that most pain points experienced by treasury and finance teams relate back to either the insufficient usage or deployment of technology. 

This is the main problem I sought to solve when founding TIS with my partner, Erol Bozak. Before founding TIS, Erol was a longstanding and recognized cloud expert at SAP. This was during the same period that I was serving as SVP and Global Head of Treasury. It was during this time together at SAP that Erol and I developed a shared vision regarding the future of cloud technology as the new standard for payments and cashflow management. This mutual understanding eventually led to our founding of TIS in 2010.

Drawing upon the technology prowess and subject matter expertise we had accumulated to that point, Erol and I began developing a cloud/SaaS platform capable of providing businesses with unprecedented control of, and visibility to, all their bank account information, financial transactions, cash positions and payment processes. 

Today, our vision has become reality, and the TIS solution is the embodiment of these efforts to alleviate the complexity that often comes with managing global payments and cash flows. And as we continue to innovate and grow, the benefits for our clients are proving to be transformative.

What's coming next for TIS? 

In the months and years ahead, TIS will be focused on achieving a core set of goals that are paramount for our strategic expansion. These objectives collectively present a clear roadmap for accelerating our growth, and include the following: 

• Continuing the successful execution of our core platform strategy: Over the past decade, TIS has built one of the industry’s leading platforms for corporate payments, cashflow and liquidity management. Helping companies optimize these critical functions will remain an essential component of what we strive for as a company, and we will continue to build out new capabilities to help treasury and finance professionals enhance their operations in this regard. One recent example of this involves the expansion of our ‘Banking-as-a-Service’ capabilities as evidenced through close relationships with Citi, RBI, and other leading institutions.  

• Enhancing product capabilities across the office of the CFO: Ultimately, the solutions that TIS develops must benefit stakeholders across the office of the CFO – including treasury and finance as well as accounting, AP, AR and procurement. To achieve this, TIS is working to ensure that our platform can aggregate, classify and exchange all the information needed by each working group to streamline their daily operations. The goal here is to create a solution that is mutually advantageous across each department and that serves as the orchestration layer for all data, people and processes within the office of the CFO so that our platform’s benefits can be realized by the entire corporate finance suite. 

• Expanding our geographic footprint: TIS was founded in Europe nearly 15 years ago and continues to enjoy a solid reputation in the region. Over the past 3-5 years, we’ve also made large inroads in North America and have established a strong presence there. Moving forward, we will continue building momentum in both North America and Europe while also expanding into entirely new regions, including LATAM, the Middle East, and Asia. 

• Combining our massive data lake with AI and ML smart-logic to drive payments and cash flow monetization alongside improved cash visibility and forecasting: Due to the scope of payments and cashflow activity that TIS manages for many of the world’s largest companies, we have captured a comprehensive volume of information in our data lake that can now be combined with AI, machine learning and other smart-logic tools to help companies monetize their operations on a global scale. This includes payment smart-routing capabilities to lower costs and increase efficiency within specific localities and markets, as well as cash flow optimization tools via enhanced cash positioning, forecasting and working capital insights. Additional monetization opportunities for money market investments, trade finance and FX payments are becoming possible through these tools as well. Because we’ve already seen some of our larger clients achieve millions of dollars in annual savings by deploying these solutions, the aim moving forward is to expand and democratize them so that all our clients – regardless of location, industry, size, or complexity – can benefit.