By Freya Purnell
SAP and Westpac Institutional Bank have teamed up to develop Australia’s first real-time payment solution for large companies and institutions.
Utilising SAP’s NetWeaver Process Integration, SAP and Westpac will overcome the delays created by the current multi-step process of digital payment instructions, by delivering a one-step payment solution.
The Corporate Banking Connectivity Project, as it is known, will achieve this objective by connecting the end-to-end accounts payables and receivables data for large companies using ISO 20022 Global Data Standards. This will convert all parties within the payments channel onto the same data structures. SAP NetWeaver Process Integration integrates tightly with SAP ERP at the customer end to enable real-time data exchange, while integrating into Westpac’s electronic banking platform for equally tight connectivity with the bank’s own back-end systems. It extends the financial workflow functionality of SAP ERP all the way to the bank so no manual intervention is required in encrypting and transmitting payment and receivables data to the bank.
As a result of the project, Westpac will be the first of the big four banks to offer corporate customers the ability to send a payment instruction directly from their SAP system to the bank’s core payment systems, and receive acknowledgement messages back in real time.
Mike Baldwin, head of innovation and implementation at Westpac Institutional Bank said that corporate customers are seeking greater automation of payment processing and global messaging standards for sending and receiving payments.
“This solution will save significant time and money across everyday payment channels,” Baldwin said.
This project is part of an ongoing program by Westpac to simplify banking processes and make it easier for customers to do business with the bank, he said.
Stuart Pike, general manager, banking, SAP ANZ, said that the project is unique as it doesn’t require any additional hardware to be installed by customers.
“All that is needed is for the customer software to be reconfigured, which requires minimal time and investment,” said Pike.
“Transitioning a company’s IT payments system into a tailored platform would normally take six to nine months and will now be reduced to weeks. Once we go live, customers simply need to download Westpac software from SAP Service Portal and set up the system at a minimal cost,” Baldwin said.
The project is currently in the design-phase and is scheduled to go live in first quarter 2013.
