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Kenya Airways Ltd. is the national carrier of Kenya. The company was founded in 1977, after the dissolution of
East African Airways.
T
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The treasury department at Kenya Airways looks after transactions across
51 countries and over 200 bank accounts – which includes payroll to
more than 4,500 staff and over 1,000 suppliers in over 80 different
currencies. Some of the challenges that arise from this include:
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Senior approvals required.
Often these payments require the
approval of senior managers such as the treasury manager,
company directors and other authorised signatories. Under the old
interaction methods, seniors were required to logon to an online
platform in order to be able to view and authorise payments.
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Senior approvers often travel.
Due to the nature of Kenya
Airways business and the large number of countries covered and
the related different time zones; the required approvers and decision
makers frequently travel. This often makes it inconvenient and
difficult for seniors to logon to an online based portal to approve.
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Delays in payments.
As a result, there were often delays in
payments, which could put pressure on supplier satisfaction, staff
and other vendor relationships which are key to maintaining the high
levels of service at Kenya Airways.
The challenge, therefore, was to improve efficiency and turnaround times
for payment approval.
T
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Since Jane Kiboi, Manager Treasury for Kenya Airways frequently uses
an iPad device, Citi proposed its CitiDirect BE tablet app as a solution
for payment approval and access to consolidated balances for Kenya
Airways’ multiple accounts.
CitiDirect BESM Tablet allows Kenya Airways users to authorise and
release payments from anywhere and at any time – something that is
especially important in light of the level of travel required of the company’s
senior managers. The simple interface enabled Kenya Airways to
customise data visualisations, filtering of real-time data by currency,
amount and country and the ability to view information in map and chart
format with just a few taps.
The implementation of the solution was extremely efficient and was
accomplished by simply downloading the CitiDirect BESM Tablet app
and user entitlements already defined in CitiDirect BE being maintained.
In addition, CitiDirect BESM Tablet uses the same SafeWordTM card
multifactor authentication as CitiDirect BESM, ensuring the same robust
and secure processes. The interoperability of Citi’s channels has been
extremely useful to Kenya Airways and has assisted in improving the
implementation speed and ease of learning the new tool.
As Kiboi explains “the solution has enabled treasury staff to input
transactions in the office through the CitiDirect BESM platform, which I
can then authorise while travelling.”
Now, the company can easily optimise its working capital and maintain
critical supplier relationships and enjoy benefits in the following areas:
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Optimised user experience with interactive features and an
intuitive interface.
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Freedom and flexibility with on-the-go access to real-time
information in the CitiDirect BE platform.
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Customised data visualisations providing enriched visibility of bank
accounts, payments and transaction detail.
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Authorise and release single and batch payments and send
payments to repair.
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Use features and discovery tools to view data globally, by region or
country; and filter by currency, amount and country in chart or
map views.
B
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The CitiDirect BE tablet solution is a step forward for Kenya Airways
banking processes. It harnesses the power of mobile technology (in
this case, iPads) in order to improve the way the company interacts and
process transactions with their banks. The CitiDirectBE Tablet app is
extremely user-friendly and simplifies the viewing, access to and approval
of cash management information. By utilising this solution, Kenya
Airways’ approvals and turnaround times have improved and ensure the
company’s payments are released in a timely manner and improved the
level of control and visibility over deposits with Citi across the globe.
Kiboi concludes “this process and bank interaction improvement has led
to the overall improvement in the efficiency of the treasury department at
Kenya Airways and helped to provide further convenience to senior staff
that travel and are required to approve payments.”
K
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Time taken to implement solution and realise benefits in
payment turn-around times.
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Productivity gains.
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Process efficiencies.
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Visibility for key decision makers across the payment cycles.
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Visualisation of Kenya Airways position at any time, real time.
Steven Elms, Citi and Dennis Nandwa, Kenya Airways
HIGHLY COMMENDED WINNER
Best in Class Treasury Solution in Africa
Kenya Airways
Jane W. Kiboi, Manager Treasury
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Adam Smith Awards © August 2015