How IFAW Uses Cloud Technology to Drive Treasury Automation

• Analytics & Modeling - Predictive Analytics
• Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management
• Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Connectivity Platforms

• Business Operation

• Software Design & Engineering Services
• System Integration

From 2008 to 2018, IFAW's treasury team operated with the same technology infrastructure despite a substantial increase in global complexity and expansion. The team used a TMS, spreadsheets, bank portals, and a locally hosted ERP. The global disparity in payment standards, settlement systems, and compliance requirements across regions made collections, disbursements, and liquidity needs complex. The shared services model required various degrees of access and control over financial data and operations. Manual workarounds for non-critical accounts were time-consuming, and some relied on mailed statements. The decision was made to overhaul the treasury technology architecture due to these constraints and the upcoming move to a cloud-based ERP.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) is a global non-profit organization dedicated to helping animals and people thrive together. Operating in more than 40 countries, IFAW rescues, rehabilitates, and releases animals while also restoring and protecting their natural habitats. The organization partners with local communities, governments, nonprofits, and businesses to pioneer new ways to help all species flourish. IFAW operates under a shared services model to improve procurement, systems, and operations, providing support for approximately 20 global affiliates in a cost-effective manner. The organization is comprised of a family of global entities that operate in multiple regions, including Africa, Asia, and South America.

IFAW's primary interests revolved around unified visibility and control over global payments and liquidity for affiliates in every country. The new solution needed to manage connectivity with different bank channels, including SWIFT, host-to-host (H2H), and regional options, as well as with various 3rd party systems. The Finance department required expedited access to payments and liquidity data for all stakeholders. The upgraded treasury system would streamline the process of transmitting transaction and liquidity data to stakeholders across the organization. The solution needed to balance the needs of a semi-centralized treasury, supporting regional shared finance support centers while providing clarity around operations at each affiliate. An RFP document was drafted to identify potential solutions, and after several months of review, the RFP was issued to a half dozen TMS and payment hub providers.

• IFAW achieved daily visibility across 90%+ of their bank accounts and direct connectivity supporting 15 affiliates.
• Approximately 50 users of the payment hub operate across different departments and affiliates, with customized access and authority over certain functions.
• Payments will be generated in their ERP and securely passed to TIS, where they will be reformatted if necessary and securely transmitted to the bank.

• IFAW connected with 19 of their 20 banks and achieved 90%+ same-day visibility over all their accounts.
• Bank statements and data feeds are available to affiliates, supporting departments and systems in 1-2 days, 2x faster than their previous configuration.
• IFAW expects at least 95% of all transactions to automatically flow from their ERP to their banks, eliminating duplicate data entry.