Payment security at the heart of Seyfert SAS' concerns
Payment security was a major issue for Seyfert SAS. Three years ago when the SEPA banking standard was introduced, the group decided to rethink payment management, aiming to achieve greater transaction security. To meet this need, Christelle Pinon, Finance and Accounting Manager for the group, recognised the beneficial functions offered by the Cegid Exabanque software, in particular for cash management and banking communication.
The group employs 500 members of staff and works with over 2,500 customers around the world, bringing in a turnover of €180 million. Today, the holding has centralised payments for all its subsidiaries in Cegid Exabanque so that transactions can be completely secure.
Ms Pinon, you evidently see making your transactions secure as of the utmost importance. What did you do to achieve this?
Yes, it is very important for us to make our payments secure, which guided our choice to the EBICS TS protocol, enabling orders to be signed digitally. We did so in 2012, making us one of the first users.
To guarantee maximum security, we also implemented a limit on access per IP address, which is offered by the Cegid Exabanque software. Therefore only users with a recognised IP address can connect. We thus reinforced the access conditions for Cegid Exabanque, which already requires that each user has a personal user name and password. This only affects users that are based at a fixed computer. Our signatories who need to connect to Cegid Exabanque remotely are not affected by this, so as to avoid hampering their mobility.
In addition to access to the software and order validation, we also wanted to monitor precisely the actions open to each user. Managing Cegid Exabanque rights enables us to attribute specific roles to each user with a limited scope (per company or bank account). Of course, before introducing these settings we had to carry out a thorough assessment given the sensitivity of this area.
The favourable cost of Cegid Exabanque and the fact that it functions in SaaS mode were decisive factors for us, as well as how simple the interface is to use. as well as how simple the interface is to use.
You are now very happy with your payment management and banking communication software. Why did you choose the editor Exalog and its Cegid Exabanque solution in 2012?
We approached Exalog in connection with ETEBAC migration. At that point we were using the application supplied by our bank, but the arrival of SEPA pushed us to look for a new solution to manage our banking communication and our payments. We were in contact with Cegid Exabanque users from other companies, and their feedback was very positive. The favourable cost of Cegid Exabanque and the fact that it functions in SaaS mode were decisive factors for us as well as how simple the interface is to use.
It was easy to set up the software, while the most complex area was managing banking contracts (for our 5 banks and 20 accounts). We had to be rigorous when configuring the software before starting to use it, but everything went without a hitch, thanks in particular to Exalog’s support teams. Now when we have questions about Cegid Exabanque, the same teams are very proactive, and get back to us in several minutes which is ideal.