RFP. The acronym that can send shivers down the spine of even the most seasoned corporate professional. Embarking on the RFP process often means signing up for a long, painful process of sorting through proposals that outline every possible feature, security standard, and integration capability.
And sure, the RFP process makes sense. You want to make sure you get the right system, so you cast a wide net, collect responses, and compare vendors against a checklist.
The problem? That checklist doesn’t tell the full story.
Treasury tech has changed. The best solutions today aren’t necessarily the ones with the longest feature lists. They’re the ones that integrate seamlessly, are easy to use, and deliver ROI fast. And yet most treasury RFPs are still designed with a traditional, all-encompassing, legacy TMS (treasury management system) in mind, leading companies to select a system that looks great on paper but fails in execution.
Getting the right level of features and capabilities for your business requirements is important. But features don’t matter if you don’t need them. Features don’t matter if they’re not user-friendly enough to use.
So, before you submit that treasury software RFP, it’s worth stepping back and asking a more fundamental question: what kind of user experience do you actually want?
A Tale of Two Treasury Tech Implementations
Let’s start with a story. Everyone loves a good ‘hero’s journey’, but it’s not every day we find that kind of character arc in the treasury space. The protagonist of this tale is the treasury team at Park Place Technologies, a global leader in IT infrastructure solutions, facing growing challenges managing cash across its extensive international operations.
With 100 bank accounts spanning 25 countries and 15 different banking relationships, the company’s treasury team needed a solution to improve transparency and efficiency.
But as we’ve already touched on, not all treasury software is created equal. Some legacy TMS platforms promise the world but leave treasury teams drowning in complexity, clunky interfaces, and locked into lengthy, expensive implementations. Others strip away the noise, prioritize usability, and get teams up and running fast.
Park Place Technologies learned this firsthand.
They started with a legacy TMS, a platform marketed as a liquidity performance solution. The decision made sense at the time. On paper, the system checked all the boxes. But once implementation began, the reality was anything but smooth.
A Legacy TMS that Missed the Mark
Park Place spent eight months trying to integrate the legacy TMS with their banks. They ran into constant roadblocks:
Bank connectivity issues – The system claimed to offer universal multibank access, but the connections were unreliable. Getting accounts linked required costly external consultants.
Hidden fees for basic features – Essential functions like currency conversion and transaction reporting turned out to be paid add-ons.
Clunky, outdated system – The interface felt like something out of the 1990s. Running reports was slow and cumbersome.
Lack of support – When connections failed, there was no help. The treasury team had to troubleshoot on their own.
Despite months of effort and a major financial investment, Park Place never achieved full visibility into their cash. The system was unusable, and the team needed a better solution.
The Switch to Modern Treasury Tech Offered Simplicity, Speed, and Savings
After scrapping the legacy system, Park Place turned to a modern, API-first treasury platform designed for real-time cash visibility and automation (that’s us – Trovata!).
What changed? Everything.
Fast, direct bank connectivity – Instead of struggling with unreliable connections, Trovata integrated all of Park Place’s bank accounts in just three months.
“While other companies might say that bank connectivity is their thing—we’ve had such an easier time doing that with Trovata. They got all our accounts—including challenging ones like Mizuho in Japan—fully connected. When there were delays, they were always on the banks’ side, not Trovata’s… You guys have completely blown it out of the water.”
– Megan McLaughlan, Treasury Manager, Park Place
No consultants needed – The Trovata team handled the entire onboarding process. No third-party consultants. No unnecessary meetings.
Full functionality as standard – The features Park Place needed, like real-time reporting, currency exchange, forecasting, were built into the platform. No surprise costs.
Modern, intuitive interface – Reporting that once took hours was now instant. Filtering, tagging, and exporting data became effortless.
For Park Place, the switch to Trovata wasn’t just about better technology, it was about getting their time back and finally achieving the cash visibility they needed.
Does any of this sound familiar? Are you struggling with many of the same issues or had problems with integration technology that was supposed to make life easier? Read on, we’re going to cover exactly what questions you need to consider to make sure your next RFP gets you the tech you need to truly improve your processes and capabilities.
When a Legacy TMS is More Than What You Need
Treasury teams have been trained to think that a legacy TMS is the ultimate solution. But in many cases, these systems introduce new layers of complexity that make treasury operations harder, not easier.
It starts right from implementation. Regarding bank connectivity, you can’t plug in and start using a legacy TMS. It requires months of configuration, ongoing IT support, and external consultants to ensure everything runs smoothly. The costs don’t stop at subscription fees. You’re also committing to the hidden costs of maintenance, training, and customization.
And then there’s usability. Many legacy TMS platforms were built decades ago and designed for a different era of treasury operations. They’re clunky, rigid, and require specialized training. When teams struggle to navigate the system, adoption suffers, and the treasury function ends up stuck in the very inefficiencies it was trying to eliminate.
That’s not to say that no one should ever use a legacy TMS. For example, a traditional system might be necessary if you have ultra-specific requirements or intricate regulatory needs. But for most lean and fast-scaling treasury teams, the goal isn’t to over-engineer; it’s to simplify.
Define Your Treasury Tech Needs Before Submitting an RFP
Given all of these innovations in the treasury tech space, what does it mean for the traditional RFP process? Well, before you get started, take a step back.
What are you actually looking for? Too often, companies set out to find ‘treasury management software’ without clearly defining their goals. This leads to bloated feature lists, RFPs full of irrelevant requirements, and, ultimately, a solution that doesn’t fit.
Instead of starting with software categories, start with outcomes.
What do you need your treasury tech to do? Are you looking for simplified data aggregation, advanced analytics, or a fully loaded system with every possible function? Your answer will help determine which path to take.
Four Approaches to Treasury Technology
To help guide these questions, we’ve outlined four of the most common approaches treasurers take when buying a new tech platform.
1. A Centralized Data Lake and Reporting Platform
For companies that primarily need cash visibility, a data lake and reporting platform will be the simplest and most effective approach. If your primary pain point is consolidating bank data across multiple accounts and banks, this is your go-to.
For example, with Trovata, your secure, multibank data lake may be set up in just two or three calls and be fully operational within a few weeks. No lengthy implementation. No consultants. Just real-time multibank visibility and automated reporting to give finance teams the insights they need.
Best for:
- Treasury teams that primarily need centralized, real-time cash visibility
- Organizations that don’t need advanced payment workflows, hedge accounting, or complex intercompany transactions
- Treasurers and CFOs who want faster insights without a heavy IT burden
2. Modern, AI-enhanced Analysis Functionality
If you’re looking to do more than just track balances, you’ll want to integrate features that analyze your data, rather than just consolidate it. This is the next layer atop the data lake and reporting platform in option 1, going beyond basic visibility and incorporating AI, automation, and machine learning to optimize financial operations.
Here, you’re not just collecting data, you’re using it to generate forecasts, scenario plans, and trend analysis without manual spreadsheet work. This infrastructure is built for agility, not rigid legacy workflows.
Best for:
- Treasury teams that want to leverage AI and automation
- Companies looking for predictive cash forecasting and analytics
- Treasurers and CFOs who need on-demand insights without waiting for manual reports
3. The Full, Modern Treasury Tech Stack
Some companies want to modernize, automate and streamline their treasury operations as much as they possibly can. Here, you’re adding an operational component to the platform to take advantage of the data consolidation and analysis functionality unlocked in options 1 and 2.
These features are built on top of a data lake, adding specific treasury workflows for both analysis and operations. We’re talking automated data aggregation and reconciliation, forecasting and scenario planning, payment centralization and more, all in one place.
Best for:
- Treasury teams that want to modernize and automate their workflows as much as possible
- Companies that want scalable treasury tech that can grow with them
- Finance leaders who want automation but still value customization
Read the full story: SunOpta Streamlines Journal Entries and Month-End Reconciliation with Trovata
4. The Legacy TMS
There are cases where a full-fledged, legacy TMS is the right call. If you have highly specialized requirements such as complex derivatives hedging, regulatory-driven workflows, or intricate intercompany funding structures, a legacy TMS might be unavoidable.
That comes at a cost. User experience, ease of implementation, and long-term flexibility all take a hit because the underlying technology is decades old, which means it cannot compete with systems that were natively built with modern cloud architecture.
Best for:
- Companies with extremely complex treasury workflows or legacy technical debt that can’t be avoided
- Organizations that need extensive regulatory or compliance functions
- Businesses willing to sacrifice speed and flexibility for full customization
To Recap, Before You Submit That Treasury Management RFP…
Before committing to a treasury solution, ask yourself:
- What specific problems are we trying to solve?
- Are we choosing features over usability?
- Will this system actually make treasury operations easier?
Technology should work for you, not the other way around. If your treasury software feels like more of a burden than a benefit, it’s time to rethink your approach. Trovata makes it simple. With fast implementation, real-time cash visibility, and built-in automation, we help finance teams move faster and work smarter.
Curious to see how fast and easy it can be to get started with cutting-edge treasury tech? Watch a Trovata demo today.
