The Challenge:
Complex payment corridors and workflows
Since its foundation in 1981, the iconic fashion brand Guess has grown into a global powerhouse with operations spanning Europe, North America, and parts of Asia.
As a global company, Guess regularly processes payments for suppliers, services, and payroll across diverse geographies. While the company maintains over 100 bank accounts in 15 currencies for its regular transactions, certain payment corridors posed a challenge for the finance team.
Ugo Boveri, Vice President, Finance International at Guess Europe, explains, “There are currencies like the South African Rand and Korean Wong, that we don’t transact in often enough to warrant opening a local currency account and establishing a bank relationship.
“When we embarked on a goal to streamline our processes and reduce manual operations, these exotic payment corridors presented a hurdle. Things like unique payment formatting requirements prevented us from automating processes within Piteco, our Treasury Management System, which was causing inefficiencies.”
Even in regions where Guess had banking relationships, local regulations often demanded unique data formats, such as China’s IBAN structure or country-specific vendor details, making automation impossible. Guess required a way to bridge these gaps with Piteco, and achieve its vision of a lean, automated treasury operation.
The Solution:
A unified workflow between Convera and Piteco
Guess’ journey towards a fully automated Treasury operation began at a tradeshow, where the finance team were introduced to Convera and its online cross-border payments platform, GlobalPay.
“There was a synergy with Convera from the beginning, because they had prior experience integrating their cross-border payment platform with Piteco, our Treasury Management System.” says Ugo. “Convera understood our mission to become as automated as possible and worked closely with us to make that happen.”
Convera’s GlobalPay platform enables fast and efficient international transactions in over 140 currencies, across 200 countries and territories. With a global network of 50+ local bank partners and 500+ bank accounts Convera optimizes every payment for speed and cost.
In collaboration with Guess’ finance team, Convera spent six months integrating GlobalPay with the company’s treasury workflows through Piteco. Today, when transacting in exotic currencies, Guess sends an XML payment file from Piteco to Convera, which processes the transaction and returns a confirmation file in a closed-loop system that is fully auditable.
The Results:
Efficiency, compliance, and control
The transformation Guess has experienced by integrating GlobalPay with Piteco has been significant. A cumbersome load of manual processes and exotic payment hurdles has now become a streamlined, automated experience.
“Prior to the integration, payments to a country like South Africa were treated as exceptions that required extra time, paperwork, and human oversight,” says Ugo. “Today, these transactions feel routine and can be processed as quickly as a standard SEPA transfer within Europe.”
The benefits extend beyond convenience. By significantly reducing manual interventions, Guess has reclaimed valuable time and resources. “We no longer need to dedicate a resource to handle exotic payment scenarios or chase down formatting quirks.” Ugo says.
Compliance and auditability have also improved, with every transaction now captured in Piteco, creating a single source of truth. “If an auditor asks about a South African rand payment from 2024, I can bring that up with the click of a button. No more paperwork,” explains Ugo.
Guess set out to create a single, automated, auditable, and consistent global payment process. With Convera, and the integration of GlobalPay with Piteco, that vision is now reality. “Our goal was one process, one flow,” Ugo reflects. “Convera has played a huge role in helping us achieve that, allowing us free up resources and operate with more efficiency.”
Prior to the integration of Convera GlobalPay with Piteco, payments to a country like South Africa were treated as exceptions that required extra time, paperwork, and human oversight. Today, these transactions feel routine and can be processed as quickly as a standard SEPA transfer within Europe.”
Ugo Boveri
Vice President, Finance International, Guess Europe
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