As treasury technology matures and companies put ever higher premiums on internal productivity and efficiency, treasury staffs are letting their vendors know what they'd like to see next.

Better visibility of collateral is on the list, reports Laurie McCulley, a managing director at Treasury Strategies. "Derivative and foreign exchange trades often involve the daily exchange of collateral," McCulley says. "Users want to see the collateral positions tied to the transactions. They are doing it today through work-arounds, but they want more efficient, direct reporting." How badly they want it depends on whether Dodd-Frank regulations require collateralization of corporate over-the-counter derivative trades, she adds

Stronger reporting tied to key performance indicators (KPI) is another highly desirable area. Embedding policy provisions and activity metrics in treasury systems' reports would make it apparent if policies have been violated—or even impossible to violate those policies as a result of embedded rules on such things as investment concentrations. "They want to see exactly where their assets are invested, down to the holdings of funds they might be using," McCulley says. "And they want to be able to define success and see at a glance how successful their performance is." That may involve greater integration of investment portals and treasury workstations for dashboard reporting, she says.