There are countless articles and multiple presentations that talk about Treasury Workstation RFP's. Articles range from how important selecting a Treasury Workstation is to how to go about making that selection- invariably pointing out that the best way to do that is via the RFP process. I am sure that you are well aware of it by now; if you are not, do a search on google and you can find out for yourself.
Here is how it works in short. You decide to finally retire the old Treasury Workstation or Excel based system that your organization has been using for countless years. The next step is of course to see what is out there while fixing or defining your internal controls and processes better. Now is time for the request for proposal or the RFP. Some one in your treasury organization or in some cases an external consultant is hired to write a detailed and extensive RFP. From responding to multiple RFP's over the last couple years, I can tell you that these are often very very detailed. They are so detailed typically that they cover almost every topic and every need in the space- a recent RFP that we responded to specified a need for Cash Positioning, Bank Polling, Reconciliation, Debt Management, Investments and Electronic Funds Transfer to name some.
It typically takes an organization between 3 months to 8 months to create the RFP. Add another 3-4 months for the first round of responses, another 3-4 months to evaluate the responses and eventually select a product. That is well over a year in just the selection process. It is important to note that after that year of extensive selection, users in the Treasury would have seen the chosen product maybe once or twice during one of the product demonstrations. When implementation starts, it is typically a "Big Bang" approach and all modules are implemented across the board. Even if the implementation is done module by module, it still takes the better part of a couple of years to get the implementation completed and for users to start using the solution, or more likely beginning vendor product trainning courses to learn how to use their new solution.
It has been a few years since the organization decided that it needed a new Treasury Workstation or Cash Management Solution. In a year, a lot can change- new technologies, new rules and regulations, newer standards, new business scenarios- almost everything can change. We recently talked to a prospect of ours who had spend 3 years on implementing a solution. Unfortunately, at the end of it they did not like the product they adopted- it did not meet their needs.
It may be the case that RFP should stand for "Roadblocks For Progress" instead of "Request for Proposal"!
Now let us ask the all important question- After spending a few years in getting a comprehensive solution in place would the organization have the courage, the time, the money or management approval to check out another solution that seems to work better; just in case there are problems with the newly adopted solution? Sorry, but chances are that they are stuck with it.
An alternate and more agile approach would be to request Trial Versions of products that are needed. If the Treasury Workstation solutions out there are truly web-based, easily deployable and configurable to your treasury processes, they should be able to provide you a free trial within a week of your request. Do your cash positioning in parallel on the trial system for the first 1-2 months that you would otherwise spend on creating the RFP. Yes, do request for a feature list, identify what is supported or not and request for demos. Most importantly clearly identify your processes and needs- your current and future needs. However, do not do the extensive multi year RFP process. Get vendors to fill up a check list, ask them to demo the product to you and request that you need to try out the system for 1-2 months. You will not only have a system at the end of 2-3 months, you would also have a system that your users are comfortable using - you hit the ground running. Note that an RFP cannot tell you how adaptable and configurable the product is- A Free Trial of the product lets you do that first hand. Repeat the process for the modules you want to adopt based on your priorities and you will have a treasury solution that meets current and future needs, adoption will be easy and you will have the ability to change- especially if you choose a modular product that is easy to integrate.
So the next time you consider issuing an RFP, think about requesting a Free Trial from your vendor. It may just end up saving you a lot of time and money and you will get a system that meets your continuously changing needs.