**War on cash**
October 2020
Bankable Insights – Digital Transformation: War on cash – A collection of articles about digital transformation of corporate treasury
Dear clients,
Over the last six months, we have seen massive changes in the way organisations and businesses operate. Amid the disruptions, one clear trend has emerged. Digital transformation has accelerated across every industry, with digital channels having become the primary conduits of customer engagement, business productivity and supply chain resiliency.
Digitalisation is not a new concept. But the pandemic has shown that digital transformation is about more than just using technology to do business. It is about technology fundamentally changing business processes, altering the way organisations deliver value to customers, employees and stakeholders. And those businesses that have been able to embrace digital transformation have also been able to better adapt – and survive – in a suddenly disrupted world.
Now that the world begins to chart its recovery, we see many of our clients continuing with their COVID-19 digital pivot. The same holds true for Standard Chartered and our core banking services; we remain committed to digitising the way our clients manage their cashflows, trade and supply chain finances, as well as payments and securities services.
Making more agile and real-time decisions across cash, liquidity and risk management are key benefits of digital transformation. But what progress have organisations made in embarking on this journey?
We have compiled the first edition of our Digital Transformation newsletter with a focus on cash. We have examined trends that had been accelerated by the pandemic, how these have spurred digitisation of cash and payments across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, and practical implementations for reducing risk, increasing operational efficiencies and enabling deeper customer engagement.
With many more corporate treasurers starting to embrace digital transformation, it's clear that the pandemic has become both a catalyst and imperative for change.
For instance, one of the key impacts of the pandemic has been the diversification of supply chains which has made access to supply-chain financing more critical than ever.
Embracing digitisation is enabling many companies to better manage their supply chain financing, usually through partnerships and collaboration with digitally enabled partners. A healthcare supply-chain platform in Kenya called Medsource recently collaborated with Standard Chartered.
By automating their entire payments process using APIs, we helped facilitate supplier payments and expedited the shipping of medical supplies during this critical time of need.
We’ve shared many more such real-world instances in our article series. We hope you find the articles insightful and look forward to engaging with you further on your digital journey.
