As a wave of new technologies like blockchain and robotic process automation begin to play a role in business and commerce, a recent report suggests treasury and finance executives may not be prepared to help their companies make the most of the opportunities presented by the new technologies.

A survey of 279 treasury and finance professionals conducted by the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) found that 36 percent think their company is “not prepared” or only “minimally prepared” for the new technologies. Just 11 percent of those surveyed described their organization as “very prepared” or “fully prepared.”

Nancy Atkinson, principal and founder of GTB Consulting, said she wasn't surprised by the results. “Generally speaking, I don't think treasury has a strong focus on technology and on new technologies,” Atkinson said. “They look on that as something needs to mature a bit more and eventually they'll look at it.” Treasury professionals may also rely on their banks to inform them about new technology, she said.

“Blockchain in particular I think is something that treasury has just paid zero attention to,” Atkinson said. But she argued that “there is just such an opportunity with the new technologies.”

“Treasury has to do two things: Begin to think about how that technology can make processes more efficient, reduce costs, and increase security, and then begin to think about a larger role in terms of the strategic role they can play in the organization,” said Jim Kaitz, president and CEO at AFP.

The AFP survey was accompanied by a white paper that that focuses on three up-and-coming technologies: robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI), and blockchain.

Atkinson sees RPA as the technology that's probably easiest to implement and therefore most likely to happen soon.

“The ERP vendors, as well as treasury management solution providers, probably have already started to implement robotics into a number of their solutions, so treasury and finance might be getting those benefits without even knowing that they're there,” she said.

In a couple of years, RPA “is probably going to become table stakes—just absolutely necessary or you can't continue to function,” Atkinson said. “You need that level of data or you're not going to be competitive with others out there.”

Kaitz said RPA and blockchain are likely to arrive sooner than AI. He cited possible payment applications for blockchain in which the distributed ledger technology could serve as a network to move payments to suppliers.

Atkinson agreed that AI would take longer to arrive. “The challenge I see is that it takes a specialization and an expertise that most people in most companies simply don't have,” she said. “It's going to take turning to artificial intelligence companies and working with them to come up with something that will work.

“I think we'll see some impact from [AI] in three to five years, but it probably won't truly take over for five to seven years,” she added.

According to the AFP survey, 55 percent of treasury and finance professionals have no plans to implement robotic process automation, 54 percent have no plans to implement AI, and 51% have no plans to implement blockchain.

Wendy Conley, head of cash management solutions at Finastra, the financial technology company formed earlier this year by the merger of treasury system provider Misys and D+H, suggested that the arrival of new technologies might alter the relationships between companies and their banks.

Traditionally, Conley said, banks would provide solutions for corporate customers. “As you look at these new technologies, it provides a mechanism for that traditional service provider to really change. When you start to get into the innovative technologies like robotics and AI, that still can follow a traditional solution path, but it pushes the envelope,” she said.

The adoption time frame will also change, Conley predicted. “As we move forward, I think there's going to have to be an acceptance that things are not tried, true, and proven in the market for 10 years before I adopt them. I think corporates will find their providers are doing things in a more agile fashion.

“ Tha t doesn't mean it absolutely brings on more risk,” she added. “You need to be more agile, more aggressive, in how you develop and adopt those technologies—that, to me, is a culture shift we all have to make.”

Learning Curve

So how can finance and treasury staffers get up to speed on new technology?

“The first thing for all of us is to step back and just be a little intellectually curious,” Kaitz said. He suggested that finance and treasury professionals should try to “identify those technologies that can have somewhat of a short-term impact on the profession and separate the wheat from the chaff.”

AFP is seeing interest from its members in technology innovations. At its annual conference this fall, “every blockchain session was sold out,” Kaitz said. “We had a blockchain event on Saturday afternoon before the conference started in San Diego, and 200 people showed up.”

He also noted AFP's Mindshift, which is an effort to identify the technologies that will be important for treasury and finance, “but also try to do something in terms of proof of concept so you can start to see what the practical aspects are.”

Atkinson acknowledged that spending time thinking about technological innovations can be difficult for treasury and finance employees “embroiled in day-to-day activity,” but added that familiarity with technology “has become something that's very critical for everybody in their careers.

“It's paying attention at conferences; it's paying attention to what the media talks about,” she said. “As new technologies emerge on the scene, think about them and think, 'Is there a way that could be used in my industry?'”

Mobile Banking

Another recent report shows some progress has occurred on another technology front. According to a survey conducted by Capital One, treasury and finance executives are finally warming up to mobile banking. Its survey of 124 finance professionals at AFP's conference in October shows that 38 percent said everyone in the finance group could handle finance functions from their mobile phone, up from 23 percent in a survey Capital One conducted last year.

Atkinson said she thought the increased use of mobile banking was “largely generational”: “Millennials are now in the workforce, with, in some cases, some substantial responsibilities,” she said. “They're used to the convenience of [mobile capabilities], and I would expect they will continue to demand the flexibility and convenience of mobile capabilities in their jobs as well.”

Chad Wallace, head of commercial digital channels at Capital One, also cited people's increasing comfort with mobile devices and technology given their use of mobile devices as consumers.

“The shift to broad mobile acceptance has driven the availability of an ever-increasing number of mobile products in the corporate environment with security and ease of use that suits corporate needs,” Wallace said in an email.

He also cited the investments that banks have made in mobile applications to provide “a wide breadth of security and usability features.”