The challenge:
HCL Technologies Limited is a complex business. It operates across a number of industry verticals including aerospace and defence, automotive, consumer electronics, energy and utilities, financial services, government, independent software vendors, industrial manufacturing, life sciences and healthcare, media and entertainment, mining and natural resources, oil and gas, public services, retail and consumer, semiconductor, server and storage, telecom, and travel, transportation, logistics and hospitality.
With such a diverse market presence with 23 entities, it was proving increasingly challenging for the company’s treasury to manage foreign exchange conversions spread over multiple continents, given that HCL’s centralised treasury operated out of Noida, India and dealing with multiple banks in different time zones was proving to be especially cumbersome and inefficient.
HCL Technology was looking to implement an integrated online FX platform solution that would allow them to centralise payments and FX bookings, thereby helping treasury to reduce its overall transaction costs. Adding to the challenge, it was imperative that this solution could be rolled out simultaneously across several continents and implemented seamlessly within a short turnaround time of two weeks to minimise disruptions to HCL Technologies’ systems.
The solution:
Deutsche Bank managed to beat strong competition from other global competitors to secure this mandate with HCL Technology. The solution Deutsche Bank brought to HCL Technologies was aimed at providing an online FX platform which was integrated with the payments platform of the bank, so that HCL would not need to fix rates either on voice or on another bank’s proprietary solution.
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Deutsche Bank provided a fully integrated FX conversion solution for HCL Technology and its subsidiaries across the world.
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The solution covered 23 entities across Europe and America and catered for 23 different currencies.
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The solution was completely integrated with the client’s existing payment flow and seamlessly connected with their ERP system.
Best practice and innovation:
Deutsche Bank provided HCL Technology with a first-of-its-kind solution which enabled the client to seamlessly integrate their existing payment processes with Deutsche Bank’s FX4Cash platform. This solution was a ‘plug and play’ model which did not require the client to incur any costs relating IT integration. As a result of Deutsche Bank’s solution, HCL Technology was able to streamline its FX booking process and align it with the same platform used for making payments. HCL Technologies was also able to centralise its FX booking process and FX4Cash which eliminated the need to keep track of 23 different currencies.
All of this helped to greatly simplify and optimise the company’s processes around foreign exchange management across the group’s entities spread across different time-zones.
