Easy Answers to All Your TIS Inquiries
The following FAQs represent the most common inquiries we receive from treasury, finance, and IT practitioners regarding our company operations, solution capabilities, and general industry fit. If you cannot find the answer to a specific question, contact our team using info@tispayments.com and one of our experts will quickly assist you!
Company FAQs
The below FAQs represent a list of the most common inquiries we receive from clients, prospects, and industry practitioners regarding our company’s background, operations, roadmap, and general management. Click on any question to read the full response and access additional resources related to the topic! If you cannot find the answer to a question, use the below option to submit a new query.
TIS defines itself as an Enterprise Payment Optimization (EPO) expert. At our core, we operate as a cloud-based provider of payments, liquidity, compliance, and security solutions. Our Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model provides a fully-hosted and managed software product that is operated and enhanced by a robust team of product, onboarding, support, and industry experts. This complete software and service approach ensures comprehensive coverage for our clients in terms of automation, efficiency, and ease-of-use.
TIS was founded in 2010 in Walldorf, Germany. Ever since, we have remained true to our original business proposition of developing industry-leading cloud solutions that enable treasury, finance, and other stakeholders to automate and simplify their global payments, liquidity, security, and compliance operations.
TIS is headquartered in Berlin, Germany but maintains offices in numerous locations globally. Today, this includes international offices across the U.S., Germany, Belgium, and Bulgaria.
TIS employs more than 250 personnel across the world, with the majority concentrated in product development, solution onboarding, and customer support. Most of our team operates out of Europe, but a growing number of staff are also located in the United States.
TIS services a broad number of multinational corporations, non-profits, and institutions including multiple Fortune 500 companies. More than 300 organizations across all types of industries, geographies, and complexities leverage TIS daily, and more than 35,000 active users maintain accounts on our cloud platform. The majority of individual users are treasury, controlling, finance, HR, compliance, and IT professionals.
As a trusted and longstanding provider of SaaS solutions, TIS is constantly enhancing our existing product and adding new value by developing additional capabilities and features based on client conversations, industry research, and collaboration with partners and peers. Our roadmap is being constantly refined to ensure our development focuses on what is most important to our clients and community. Today, some of our innovative projects include support for smart analytics and data science applications, as well as corporate banking APIs and AI logic for managing fraud, compliance, cash forecasting, working capital, and much more!
TIS manages client support fully in-house and maintains more than 100 staff members who are focused exclusively on customer service. Each client is provided with a single representative who handles all of their requests, and because of this level of personal attention, TIS maintains a superb support rating from customers. In fact, TIS has an average 9.1+ / 10 stars across all customer reviews between 2019-2022, and we average 92%+ successful ticket resolution in under 24 hours.
TIS manages the vast majority of onboarding tasks on behalf of our clients, including establishing integration with all required back-office systems, managing compatibility with all financial messaging formats, and connecting to all required banks, accounts, and entities. We also help clients gather and collect the appropriate data for refining their cash forecasts and working capital reports. These services drastically eliminate the burden on enterprise treasury and IT teams and is essential during ERP migrations and other situations where internal bandwidth is stretched. In most cases, TIS can handle bank onboarding in a matter of months and can significantly help with ERP and back-office connectivity in order to ensure a globally unified and streamlined technology stack without creating an unnecessary burden on our clients.
Individuals that would like to learn more about active client experiences have several options for reviewing insights, success stories, and reference material. Our website contains a full list of success stories and client community updates that you may access here, but you may also visit our Capterra and TrustRadius pages for external reviews and ratings. In either case, we’re confident you’ll like what you find!
Product FAQs
The below FAQs represent a list of the most common inquiries we receive from clients, prospects, and industry practitioners regarding our product capabilities, solution coverage, and development roadmap. Click on any question to read the full response and access additional resources related to the topic! If you cannot find the answer to a specific question, use the below button to submit a new query.
The TIS EPO platform specializes in providing SaaS-based payments, cash forecasting, liquidity, security, and compliance solutions for enterprise clients and multinational organizations. Our cloud solution is comprised of three suites: CashOptix, PayOptix, and RiskOptix. CashOptix includes cash reporting, forecasting, liquidity, and bank account management tools, while PayOptix focuses on bank connectivity and payments. RiskOptix includes a comprehensive range of compliance and security modules. You can learn more about each of our product tiers and associated capabilities using the below link.
No, TIS is not classified as a TMS. Instead, TIS is best described as an Enterprise Payment Optimization (EPO) Platform, and focuses on providing global payments, liquidity, compliance, and security capabilities to organizations. Most TMS platforms differ from TIS in that they provide a broader but less specialized range of treasury functionality across risk, hedging, debt and investments, FX, compliance, payments, cash, and more. TIS is advantageous for companies because they do not need to purchase redundant or unnecessary functionalities, as often is the case with a TMS. Furthermore, the select capabilities that clients receive from TIS are highly specialized and refined in order to offer peak levels of automation, efficiency, and performance.
Yes, TIS is a fully cloud-based (SaaS) solution that is hosted on a multi-tenant infrastructure. Our servers and datacenters are SOC I, SOC 2, and ISO 27001 certified, and we maintain full compliance with GDPR and all other globally relevant software, data, and hosting regulations. The result is that most of the maintenance and upkeep tasks that internal IT and treasury teams would otherwise have to manage are completely eliminated through TIS. We also handle the task of integrating with other back-office ERP and TMS solutions, as well as various banks, accounts, and entities. In addition, our team handles all system upgrades and patches and maintains 99.95%+ annual uptime, which means clients have almost no responsibility regarding the support or maintenance of our solution.
As a cloud-based solution, TIS’ full suite of capabilities can be accessed through any common browser, including all standard desktop, laptop, and tablet devices. In addition, TIS provides a mobile application for on-the-go payment workflows and approvals that is available on the Apple and Android app stores and compatible with all common smartphone devices. This broad range of accessibility options enables clients and users to easily work from any office or remote location while also ensuring optimal security and workflow compliance.
TIS can connect to almost any TMS or ERP solution on the market, and provides deep integration with SAP products. The same is true for most HR and AP solutions. TIS is particularly adept at assisting enterprises with ERP migrations or complex integrations involving numerous back-office systems and legacy platforms, as we can use our library of APIs and direct plugins to quickly automate connectivity across your global network. Depending on client needs, Host-2-Host (H2H) or SFTP connections can be accommodated as well.
Today, many TIS clients use our solution to complement their existing TMSs and ERPs. This is because TIS acts as a specialist in connectivity and payments, and can often provide additional efficiencies, automation, and control over what traditional TMSs and ERPs are capable of. This includes streamlined onboarding of all bank partners, compatibility with all messaging formats, and support for all relevant payment methods and channels.
As a result, clients find that TIS supplements their existing ERP and TMS functionality by streamlining liquidity and transaction processes, mitigating fraud and compliance risks, and ultimately saving remarkable amounts of time and money. Find out how TIS can serve an extension to your TMS by requesting a demo!
TIS supports virtually every bank connectivity option on the market today. This includes support for all primary methods like SWIFT, APIs, EBICS, Host-2-Host, and more, as well as support for required messaging formats like ISO 20022, SWIFT MT, and other regional and bank-specific formats. Altogether, there are over 140k unique payment profiles supported by TIS, as well as a vast number of statement reporting formats. As a result, clients are never limited in their options for bank connectivity or financial messaging when using TIS.
TIS employs robust security measures at every juncture within our solution to keep client information safe and secure. This includes multifactor authentication (MFA) and single sign-on (SSO) during login, the use of IP safelisting and blocklisting software to restrict user access, and 24/7 user and system auditing controls. Other controls include the use of encryption and hashing on files in transit and in storage. In addition, our PCS solution screens and monitors payments against a community repository of validated transactions to spot any inconsistencies in beneficiary or bank details. For each client, admins can also determine the authentication levels of each user in their network and add or remove users as necessary. Custom approval workflows and bank account management controls can also be incorporated as needed. Finally, TIS employs a variety of controls and protocols internally to protect our own operations and ensure total integrity and safety of our clients’ data.
TIS is used by over 35,000 individual personnel across 300+ enterprises and 30,000 individual entities. Most of these users are treasury, controlling, finance, HR, or IT employees, but various C-level, AP, accounting, or compliance staff may use the solution as well. In each circumstance, clients can determine the authority level of users and provide or restrict access to certain modules or functions. In addition, data collected or analyzed within TIS can be transmitted to other systems (TMS, ERP, etc.) or exported in simple formats (Excel, PDF, etc.) for external analysis and upkeep.
Yes, the majority of TIS’ capabilities can be customized to fit the needs of clients. This includes flexibility regarding which capabilities are purchased, which bank connect options and formats are used, which payment methods are leveraged, and which types of integrations are established with other back-office systems. TIS can also help customize payment approval and execution workflows, user permissions, and other operations to fit the exact needs of clients based on their internal structure, geographic complexity, or pre-existing banking and technology stack. This flexibility enables clients to easily scale their usage of our solution over time as expansion and growth dictate.
In many cases, clients are able to achieve significant cost savings by transitioning to TIS because they can eliminate the use of redundant or unnecessary features and systems. The use of TIS also helps reduce banking and transaction fees and can play a substantial role in account rationalization projects. And because TIS manages all onboarding, maintenance, and service requests, clients can usually save significantly on consulting, IT, and other technology-related costs. In addition, TIS provides rebates and rewards programs in certain areas of our solution to help clients optimize payments activity conducted through various localities and supplier networks.
TIS can support as many users as necessary for each client, and we maintain more than 30,000 active users today. Although our platform structure is intuitive and easy for new clients to become familiar with, there are numerous options for education and learning. During onboarding and throughout the course of normal usage, TIS provides training opportunities for users to familiarize themselves with each capability through a combination of in-person sessions, recorded demos, and remote training exercises. Each year, TIS also holds an annual client conference that provides users with updates regarding new features and capabilities. Finally, clients always have access to a full library of training resources and demos through our client community portal, which is available 24/7 online.
TIS fully manages all solution upgrades on behalf of clients as part of a regular cadence. Depending on the frequency of new developments, TIS implements around 50 releases per year. However, these upgrades rarely impact client uptime and are implemented on a rolling basis without any pauses or delays in our clients’ production environments. To date, TIS maintains an average 99.95%+ system uptime.
Industry FAQs
The below FAQs represent a list of the most common inquiries we receive from clients, prospects, and practitioners regarding various technology terms and financial acronyms. Click on any question to read the full response and access additional resources related to the topic! If you cannot find the answer to a specific question, use the below button to submit a new query.
The TIS Enterprise Payment Optimization (EPO) Platform provides international multi-bank, multi-system, and multi-entity connectivity in order to unify global payments and liquidity management workflows for organizations.
At TIS, our EPO platform is focused on providing efficiencies to connect, collaborate, pay, analyze, and review payments and liquidity operations at every juncture. As such, we provide a specialized suite of capabilities that span cash and working capital insights, forecasting, bank connectivity, payments, and all associated compliance and security requirements. This is in contrast to a TMS, which typically offers a broader but less specialized suite of functionality that includes risk, hedging, debt, investments, etc.
ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning software, and refers to the platforms used by most global enterprises to manage functions like accounting, HR, AP, AR, logistics, and more. Compared to a TMS or EPO platform, ERPs offer a very broad range of functionality that covers the operations of numerous departments at a company, and many offer treasury and finance modules as well. Common ERP platforms on the market include SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, and Microsoft Dynamics.
Today, nearly every large multinational organization uses at least one ERP, and companies that have undergone significant expansion or partake in frequent M&A activity may have multiple ERPs. As a result, it is common for TIS clients to require integration and connectivity with their ERP solutions in order to streamline various payments, liquidity, and banking functions.
A TMS is a Treasury Management System and is the software used by treasury and finance teams to manage a broad range of functions across payments, banking, liquidity, forecasting, compliance, financial risk, debt and investments, and more. Depending on the TMS, functionality that addresses additional financial operations may be provided as well. Today, common TMSs on the market include Kyriba, Serrala, ION, and FIS.
Although TIS provides support for a number of functions that fall within the scope of a traditional TMS, we do not classify ourselves as a TMS. However, we commonly integrate and connect to various TMS solutions as part of our core value proposition to optimize client payments, liquidity, security, and compliance operations.
ISO 20022 is the new financial messaging protocol developed by the ISO committee and incorporated by SWIFT to serve as the standard for international financial messaging between banks and financial institutions. It is widely regarded as the replacement for SWIFT MT standard, which has been in existence since the 1970s and was the original international financial messaging standard.
Today, ISO 20022 messages for payments (“pain” formats) and reporting (“camt” formats) serve as the benchmark for worldwide transmission of payments and statement data between banks. At TIS, we offer full support of the ISO 20022 payments and reporting formats.
As defined by IBM, an application programming interface, or API, enables companies to open up their applications’ data and functionality to external third-party developers, business partners, and internal departments within their companies. This allows services and products to communicate with each other and leverage each other’s data and functionality through a documented interface.
Within finance and treasury, APIs are commonly used to display payments and liquidity data from global banks and accounts centrally through a solution like TIS. Today, many of the most popular web applications – including online banking – would not be possible without the use of APIs.
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is a software licensing model in which access to the software is provided on a subscription basis, with the software being located on external servers rather than on servers located in-house. SaaS applications (including TIS) are typically accessed through a web browser, with users logging into the system using a username and password. Instead of each user having to install the software on their computer, the user is able to access the program via the internet.
Today, SaaS-based software is available for all manner of systems and functionalities, including most of the popular TMS, ERP, and EPO platforms currently on the market.
Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) is a secure version of File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and a part of the SSH Protocol for easy data transfer and data access over a Secure Shell (SSH) data stream. SFTP is also known as SSH File Transfer Protocol. It provides a secure connection to transfer files and traverse the filesystem on both the local and remote systems.
With regards to TIS services, SFTP connections between our cloud platform and a client’s banking systems may be established to transmit payment files and receive bank statements. Today, SFTP connections are often necessary in circumstances where SWIFT, API, EBICS, or other options are unavailable or not preferred by the client.
The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) is a global, member-owned cooperative providing services related to the execution of financial transactions and payments between banks worldwide. Its principal function is to serve as the main messaging network through which international payments are initiated.
Today, SWIFT’s messaging services are trusted and used by more than 11,000 financial institutions in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. Through SWIFT, banks, custodians, investment institutions, central banks, market infrastructures, and corporate clients can connect with one another exchanging structured electronic messages to perform common business processes, such as making payments or settling trades. At TIS, full SWIFT support can be extended to clients as a standard service.
Foreign exchange (Forex or FX) is the conversion of one currency into another at a specific rate known as the foreign exchange rate. The conversion rates for almost all currencies are constantly floating as they are driven by the market forces of supply and demand. Many factors can potentially influence the market forces behind foreign exchange rates. These factors include various economic, political, and psychological conditions. The economic factors include a government’s economic policies, trade balances, inflation, and economic growth outlook. Political conditions also exert a significant impact on the forex rate, as events such as political instability and political conflicts may negatively affect the strength of a currency. The psychology of forex market participants can also influence exchange rates.
Single sign-on (SSO) is an important element in any effective security program. It is a service that gives a user access to multiple network destinations by entering only one login, one username, and one password. Simplifying the login process adds a layer of safety by reducing the likelihood of error and the need to enter credentials numerous times. For example, if a user typically accesses four applications during a work session, going through four login routines multiplies the possibility of mistakes and consumes time. Instead, using SSO means they must only log in only once and then have access to all four systems.
In addition to SSO, to ensure a user’s credentials are not comprised when logging in to their applications, multi-factor authentication (MFA) offers additional protection by using a second source of validation before granting system access to users. Common examples of multi-factor authentication include personal device PINs, biometric components, or geographic / network locations. Ultimately, MFA enables organizations to verify the identities of users using multiple validation techniques before they can gain access to critical systems. At TIS, both SSO and MFA techniques are employed to protect our users and their data.
Foreign Bank Account Reporting (or FBAR) is a financial regulation introduced by the IRS that requires certain U.S. individuals and companies to submit an annual report of all overseas bank accounts, brokerage accounts, and mutual funds to the U.S. Treasury Department. The main purpose of this regulation is to help the IRS uncover tax evasion and other financial crimes. Generally, U.S. individuals and companies must file an FBAR report if they have signature authority or financial interest over at least one financial account located outside the United States, AND the aggregate value of their foreign financial accounts exceeded $10,000 at any time during the calendar year in question.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is one the toughest privacy and security laws in the world. Though it was drafted and passed by the European Union (EU), it imposes obligations onto any organization that targets or collects data related to people in the EU. The regulation was put into effect on May 25, 2018 and levies harsh fines against those who violate its privacy and security standards, with penalties reaching into the tens of millions of euros.
With GDPR, Europe has taken a strong stance on data privacy and security at a time when more people are entrusting their personal data with cloud services. With regards to TIS, this means that our company faces strict standards and protocols regarding how we can collect, store, and transmit client and user data across our platform and hosting structure. Today, TIS is fully GDPR compliant.
A SOC 1 Report (Service Organization Control Report) is a written documentation of the internal controls at a service organization as they pertain to the user entities’ controls over financial reporting. SOC 1 reports were implemented by the American Institute of CPAs to improve the regulatory and risk standards and safeguards for outsourced services. Because it is common for businesses to outsource tasks or functions to service organizations, some of which are core to the organization’s operations, SOC 1 reports require service organizations to demonstrate that they have adequate regulatory and risk standards in place over their clients’ financial controls. Today, TIS is SOC 1 certified.
Similarly, SOC 2 is a security framework that specifies how organizations should protect customer data from unauthorized access, security incidents, and other vulnerabilities. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) developed SOC 2 around five “Trust Services” criteria: security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. In short, SOC 2 provides auditors with guidance for evaluating the operating effectiveness of an organization’s security protocols, and covers how companies should handle customer data that’s stored in the cloud. Ultimately, the AICPA designed SOC 2 to establish trust between service providers and their customers regarding data security and compliance. Today, TIS is SOC 2 certified.
ISO 27001 is the leading international standard focused on information security that was developed to help organizations of all sizes and industries protect their information in a systematic and cost-effective way. Not only does the standard provide companies with the necessary know-how for protecting their most valuable information, but a company can also get certified against ISO 27001 and, in this way, prove to its customers and partners that it safeguards their data. Because it is an international standard, ISO 27001 is easily recognized all around the world, increasing business opportunities for organizations and professionals.
Ultimately, the goal of ISO 27001 is to protect three aspects of information: confidentiality (who can access information), integrity (who can change information), and availability (how and when authorized users can access the information). Today, TIS is fully ISO 27001 certified.
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