Digital Transformation: Corporate Fad or Tsunami of Change?

A joint interview with Sophie Michel, Head of Channels and e-Banking and Steven Lenaerts, Head of Product Management Global Channels, BNP Paribas Cash Management

Sophie Michel and Steven Lenaerts are cash management and e-banking experts with BNP Paribas Cash Management. Here they share with Katia Fau, Senior Business Reporter with BNP Paribas Cash Management, their views on what digital transformation entails as well as its impact on cash management processes and, more broadly, on financial strategies.

We are seeing a great deal of innovation in cash management – to what extent do you think it’s reasonable to describe this as a ‘digital transformation’?

Sophie Michel
Cash management is the bank’s primary transactional activity, and it is digital by nature. Long before the growth of web-based technology, we were developing paperless methods for managing customer relations. Furthermore, what were referred to for a long time as ‘new communication technologies’ have given us both the ability to create a more interactive experience for users, and the opportunity to increase the value of customer communication by offering services tailored to each of our connectivity channels. For example, mobile technology means we can offer personal digital signatures in a more convenient way when validating transactions. Consequently, digital technology is integral to our business, and as we continue to find innovative ways of delivering our solutions and services, we contribute further to the digital transformation that is undoubtedly taking place.

What does digitisation bring to cash management today?

Sophie Michel
Payments and collections, as well as the associated reporting processes, are already dematerialised wherever possible. So far, digitisation has allowed us to build scalability, security, efficiency and reliability, but increasingly it is enabling us to move from transactional and reporting into the domain of the management processes associated with what we do.

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