Q&A with Planixs’ UK Sales Executive, Rachel Edgecombe

Hi! tell us about yourself and your role here at Planixs…

Hi, I’m Rachel. I came to study in Manchester 9 years ago and never left! Manchester is a real hive of activity and investment so it’s a great place to be right now, in spite of the difficult year we have all had.

I always wanted to work for an innovative forward-thinking technology provider because of the fast-paced atmosphere and ever-changing landscape. I have firmly found my feet in the world of fintech, more specifically, treasury automation technology. Before I joined Planixs just over a year ago, my focus was around Corporate Treasury. Realiti® is a unique and cutting-edge solution originally designed to meet the liquidity requirements of banks. Therefore, my move to Planixs was a real step up in terms of the sophistication of the product and the scale of projects I work on.

I work within the sales team alongside a great bunch of colleagues. There is an absolute wealth of industry expertise at Planixs, so every day is a school day. The sales team is propped up by the rest of the business with other teams working together to support us which makes for an enthusiastic and collaborative atmosphere all round.

I truly enjoy my role at Planixs. It is split into three parts, so I get to wear different hats and engage with a lot of different people. The three aspects of my role are account management lead for all UK entity banks, managing all campaigns focused on global corporates and NBFI’s and I’m also heavily involved with our partner channel, working with world-leading organisations who resell and/or implement our software.

It is a very exciting time to be at Planixs – we are winning prestigious new name logos and expanding our reach outside of world of banking, which I suppose will be the focus of this blog.

That is great, and what is it that you enjoy about your role?

Building relationships is my strong point, it’s also what I most enjoy about my role at Planixs. I work closely with our existing customers, new prospects, and our partners. Each of these relationships requires a different understanding of our product and how it’s perceived by the market. It can be a challenge to juggle these different conversations and perspectives, but I learn a lot and feed that insight back into the business.

Learning about industry trends and challenges is always interesting. There isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ approach to selling Realiti so every time we gain a new customer or partner, we are learning and adapting to the market.

I spend a lot of my time talking to treasury and liquidity management professionals about how they are currently operating versus how they would like to be operating. Helping fill in that gap with Realiti is always so rewarding.

You have mentioned that your role involves speaking to treasury and liquidity management professionals to establish their challenges and needs – what are the current trends you are hearing about in the marketplace?

At the center of all my conversations is data. Banks, large corporates and NBFIs are all looking at how they can generate more actionable insight. Without the ability to harness data via a system that will aggregate it and provide a granular view, they’re not able to monitor or adapt.

There has been more of an operational requirement for Realiti, not just a regulatory drive. The need to transition towards modern architecture to gain greater control in the last twelve months has accelerated and organizations of all sizes are realising the need for change.

It is impossible to talk about current trends without mentioning Covid. It has been a real leveler in many ways, no matter how big or small your organisation is. Without a cloud hosted infrastructure, many have been stung by the lack of flexibility and remote access that comes with an on-premise solution. With entire workforces working from home, many day-to-day treasury activities have become a nightmare. Accessing data and securing communication channels has been a huge talking point. The market volatility we have seen over the past year has only added to a greater appetite for control.

For the smaller banks, cash visibility (real-time or not) and control over funding models have been the focus. Sector-specific banks, those reliant on the hospitality and retail markets, for example, have had to drastically adapt around collapsing supply chains and credit lines. Visibility across your banking estate and granularity of data is the only way of monitoring and modifying your funding model. Realiti has provided our customers with the ability to be dynamic depending on their portfolio.

Again, for smaller banks, changing regulatory requirements has increased pressure to improve their liquidity processes. Previously, many small banks had justified deferring liquidity and data management projects, but I’ve definitely seen a trend in liquidity projects getting brought forward. It is my understanding that the PRA has provided a degree of relief in terms of reporting flexibility due to the pandemic, however, no treasury team wants to then have to quickly scramble together a years’ worth of returns!

Interesting, you deal with banks, NBFI’s and large corporates. Who is most interested in intraday liquidity monitoring?

Meeting the requirements of banks is still our bread and butter. That said, the uptake in interest in our solution outside of the banking world is huge.

For our friends in the NBFI space, regulatory reporting pressure is not the main driver. I have found that liquidity management is a main driver which is what we are experts in. Whether or not you have a banking license, you still need the right amount of cash in the right place at the right time, especially if payments are at the heart of your business. Liquidity management was seen as a mandatory box-ticking exercise exclusively for banks, but that attitude is changing.

Market volatility at the start of the pandemic has placed greater pressure on banks and financial institutions to conduct regular stress tests. Smaller organisations are not exempt from this. No matter how big or small you are, having the ability to demonstrate, assess your own vulnerabilities and bring that into your daily processes, policies and governance is important.

OK, that explains the uptake in interest around the Realiti solution. In short, why do you think it is that Realiti is the ‘go to’ choice for these organisations?

Realiti was designed for banks. This means it is specialised, sophisticated and highly secure. Realiti was born from the liquidity disaster of 2008, a solution to a real problem. It is not just a ‘nice to have ‘treasury solution.

Realiti is also a module-based platform, so it’s entirely scalable. Firms can employ as much or as little of the technology as they require, without having to invest in a full-scale treasury management solution.

To finish up, the last twelve months have accelerated the need for greater liquidity insight. Various factors can create extreme volatility on a treasury’s liquidity position. Having the right application for the job will ensure that risks can be minimised both here and now, yet also allow organisations to futureproof the treasury department for years to come.

To find out more about our solutions, and how we can help you gain greater insight and liquidity control, please contact us today.