CitiConnect_API_Case_Study_Book

32 Enhancing Operational Efficiency | API Playbook To mitigate these risks, the company is able to leverage CitiConnect API to retrieve country holiday schedules in real-time into their own internal systems. The APIs can be set to retrieve such information on-demand or following a pre-set schedule, which is a particularly useful feature because ad-hoc holidays can be declared at any time in any country. Companies that operate in multiple countries face the challenge of manual updates of country holiday schedules. Public holidays vary greatly from country-to-country, and some are oftentimes announced at short notice by their respective governments. Companies would normally update the holiday schedules in their systems by first contacting their banks’ service team located in each country and obtaining this information manually. This is a highly inefficient process, prone to human errors. Should a particular holiday be missed, there will be mismatch between the date on which the bank expects to execute a transaction versus the company’s own records, which results in reconciliation problems. The solution is powered by the following CitiConnect APIs: • Country holiday schedules are continuously updated in the company’s systems to ensure value dates are reflected correctly for every payment, which also minimizes the risk of payment rejections • Increase operational efficiency by eliminating manual work and input errors of holiday schedule updates via automated updates which saves time and resources • Reduce reconciliation problems that are caused by value date mismatches between a company’s own records and banks’ statements Authentication of company instruction Branch holiday schedule inquiry • Updated holiday schedules can flow into the company’s invoicing system, and be used to generate revised invoices or customer reminders for updated payment dates Automated Country Holiday Schedules The Company E-Commerce company specializing in cross-border trade operating in Asia Pacific. The Challenge The Solution The Benefits Potential Uses