Which treasurer on the beach is playing a video game onher iPad and which is accessing her treasury system to approvepayments? It's getting harder to tell, even if you get a glimpse ofthe screen, because the user-friendly features of the personalvirtual world are spreading to the workplace.

Treasury systems vendor IT2 is following Microsoft's lead andbuilding its new version 8.0 to offer the touch-screen experience,says chief technology officer Paul Higdon. “Users will see livetiles that change color and intensity according to alerts, policyviolations or work waiting to be addressed,” Higdon says. Microsoftis bringing touch screens to Windows 8 and Office 13 this fall, andIT2 will be touch-ready to capitalize on those latest releases, hesays.

Watch for treasury portals to start offering the kind oftechnology common in computer games. “We're investing in bringingvoice, touch and presence control to our CEO treasury portal,” saysMichael Daley, senior vice president and group product manager atWells Fargo Bank. If a treasury executive's device has thosecapabilities, treasury tasks can be done by giving a voice command,touching what you want to do on a screen or waving a hand toindicate commands without actually touching a screen or keyboard,Daley explains.

Some of these popular consumer technologies also have a role toplay in Wells Fargo's multilayer approach to security. For example,the CEO Mobile service can provide users a one-time code to use inplace of an RSA token. Voice verification will add another securitylayer.

Corey Walsh, treasurer at $2.2billion BMC Software in Houston, Texas, and his staff of seven havestarted to access their IT2 treasury system remotely withsmartphones and tablets when they are tied up in meetings. “We'remore productive now that we aren't chained to our desks and cancontribute even more to business or strategic issues,” Walshsays.

Less glitzy mobile deposit activity is now routine at US Foods,a $20 billion food and food distribution company based in Rosemont,Ill., which runs check collections out of a national service centerin Tempe, Ariz. More than 100,000 paper checks are written on thespot each month at retail locations and handed to US Foods salesreps for deliveries. While the overall percentage of checks USFoods collects in this manner is relatively low, it represented areal pain point because the salespeople, called territory managers,had to take the checks to bank branches to deposit them. This wasinconvenient, risky and inefficient, explains Christopher Cheniae,project manager at the service center. Then the company had toreconcile and concentrate those deposits.

Now about 1,000 salespeople simply take out their iPhones, openthe bank app, log on with their user ID and password, and key inthe amount of the check on the screen using a virtual keypad,Cheniae explains. Then they photograph the check's front and back.In the stores, back in their vehicles or at home at the end of theday, salespeople transmit the encrypted photographs to a J.P.Morgan destination, where the bank matches the amount keyed in tothe amount on the image. Then the checks are deposited just as ifthey had been remotely deposited using desktop scanners back in atreasury or shared services office, Cheniae explains.

J.P Morgan immediately screens the checkimages for compliance with Check 21 standards; checks that don'tcomply are rejected and the territory managers are notified so theycan try again.

The bank forwards images of all the remotely deposited checks toUS Foods' cash application operation in Tempe. Without remittancedocuments, the hit rate for check payments is approximately 50%,Cheniae says. If just one or two invoices are being paid, thecompany encourages territory managers to write the customer numberand invoice numbers on the front or back of the check, but thepurpose of the program is to streamline the process for territorymanagers, not give them extra tasks, he explains.

US Foods is cashing in on J.P. Morgan's expanded remote depositservices. “You can now use a hand-held phone as well as a desktopscanner, and the two channels are fully integrated on the backend,” explains Joe Hussey, executive director of J.P. MorganTreasury Services. “We entitle US Foods to remotely deposit checksinto their account with us using smartphones, and they decide howthe drivers can use this service.”

Improved camera technology in the phones paved the way for sucha service, Hussey notes. If drivers have been trained to photographthe checks in well-lit places against a plain dark background, “youcan't really see any difference between checks scanned withsmartphones and checks scanned with desktop scanners,” he says. Thenext generation of J.P. Morgan technology will capture remittancedocuments in addition to checks, Hussey adds.

Of course J.P. Morgan is not alone. Citigroup is funneling muchof its R&D budget for treasury services into mobile and digitalservices, says Hubert J.P. Jolly, managing director for channel andenterprise services at Citigroup. “That's what our clients areasking for. We're upgrading the whole CitiDirect online platformfor mobile access and a single entry portal with a new userinterface and analytics.” Citi is also introducing mobilecollections in select markets.

Don't expect the latest mobile treasury applications to show upfirst in North America or Europe. Less developed countries areembracing mobile solutions faster than the developed economies.

“We are introducing a mobile collections product and arepiloting it in Indonesia,” reports Arthur Brieske, head of productmanagement for the Americas in global transaction banking atDeutsche Bank. “Uptake seems to be quickest in countries with highpenetration of mobile phones and limited payments settlementinfrastructures,” where mobile payments can be leveraged as analternative to currency payments.

For more stories about treasury technology efforts, seeA Tech Transformation for Treasury, Achieving Efficiency with a Single Instance of ERP, andEADS Treasury Opts for Risk Management Muscle. To read moreabout depositing checks from a smartphone, see Remote Deposit Goes Mobile.