The future of digital transformation - Q & A with Aaron Bach
During the month of February, Accounts Receivable and Treasury software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider, HighRadius, invited thousands of treasury professionals to Dallas, Texas for three days of hands-on learning and peer-led treasury transformation sessions at Radiance 2020.
With over 100 speaking sessions, attendees had the opportunity witness emerging payment technologies, participate in digital transformation workshops, attend career development courses and more.
In a session titled, Banks 2020: Partnering with Treasury & Receivables Leaders for Digital Transformation, Aaron Bach, Vice President and Treasury Solutions Product Manager at Commerce Bank, provided attendees with insight into the growing world of digital payments:As Millennials are no longer writing checks, usage is on the decline. How is Commerce Bank adapting to the idea that paper-based payments may no longer be around in the future?
BACH: A year ago we started thinking about how we could better handle incoming checks for commercial clients. As we look towards the future, we have begun to adjust our philosophy to being less concerned with the payment mechanism itself, but more concerned with our customer’s experience when handling the payment and the data that is with it. We will continue to evolve our philosophy as customers’ needs shift, and we will stay agile throughout.
Many banks have started to embrace a digital transformation in how they handle incoming payment types. What is a success story that Commerce Bank has experienced?
BACH: We’ve adopted a “Voice of the Customer” methodology. Any time that we talk about digital transformation, we want to hear from our clients. We want to know what changes impact them the most and what value digitization has on their businesses. It is imperative that we learn from our customers’ experiences and incorporate their feedback into the product development strategy at Commerce Bank. We want to make sure that our journey is paralleling with our customers and their unique payment challenges.
Many corporations have established partnerships with multiple banks, and each may have their own solutions for digital payment handling. How does Commerce Bank talk to its customers about its digital payment solution, Integrated Receivables?
BACH: Our conversations are driven by what the expectation is on consumer side. Consumers have been familiar with a diverse banking ecosystem for some time. As a result, organizations now expect an ecosystem that connects to multiple institutions. Many of our clients don’t want to be overloaded with excess modules and add-ons that get in the way of day-to-day processing. They don’t want to jump back and forth between multiple applications to process a payment. They want a single place where everything is located at their fingertips and our Integrated Receivables solutions allows us to provide that customer experience.
How are your clients adjusting to new message surrounding Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning?
BACH: Artificial intelligence and machine learning is baked into our Integrated Receivables solution. The engine learns the behaviors of the payer to help reduce payment exceptions later down the line. So, we approach the conversation with a different tone, as organizations have always looked to their banks as trusted payments partners. Customers are becoming more familiar with seeing banks present tools that are improving how payments are handled and solutions that add value to payment processes.
We’re not just talking only about the payments themselves, however - we’re addressing our clients’ pain-points in how they make or receive payments and what happens to the data that comes with it. At Commerce Bank, we approach the conversation from the perspective of a payment consultant rather than as a salesperson and have had great success in doing so.
Outside of the Accounts Receivable space, how is Commerce Bank looking to partner with organizations from a Treasury perspective?
BACH: As we develop our product roadmaps, our product teams are managing a myriad of initiatives in the Treasury space. However, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention one of Commerce Bank’s largest initiatives, which is upgrading our existing core technology to provide our commercial clients a better banking experience. We are modernizing our core system to position us to be successful tomorrow and for the future.
Learn more about CommercePayments® Integrated Receivables. Download our eBook, Developing A Payment Strategy Through Accounts Payable & Accounts Receivable Automation.
