Executive summary

When Canadian visionary Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase, “Themedium is the message,” in the 1960s, he didn't know aboutSoftware-as-a-Service (SaaS) technology–at least as it isunderstood today. He didn't have to. Rather, he understood that amedium itself can have a transformative effect on 'humanassociation and action.' The light bulb, for example, transformedhuman activity because it no longer restricted activity to daylighthours. The automobile spawned suburbia, highways and the extensionof time and space between work and home life. In the world oftreasury and risk management, SaaS is a medium that has thetransformative power to break down barriers and change the waygroups across and beyond the enterprise share information andcreate intelligence. Taking a closer look at medium, we can explorehow the shared nature of SaaS technology, while not new, isenabling an evolution that will take the management of treasury indirections not yet thought of.

From Shared Data to Shared Services