FiREapps Delivers Unprecedented Speed and Breadth of Integration With Business and Treasury Systems to Drive FX Risk and Cost Reduction

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Feb. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- FiREapps, the leading provider of foreign exchange exposure management software, today announced FiREapps 4.5, the latest version of its software-as-a-service solution. FiREapps 4.5 empowers treasurers to make timely, informed decisions to reduce the economic impacts of FX risk by further extending the solution's ability to integrate quickly with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, trading platforms and treasury management systems and deliver comprehensive, in-depth analysis of FX exposures.

FiREapps 4.5's robust, flexible integration capabilities has led to demonstrated interaction with a continuously-expanding of ERP systems, trading platforms and treasury management systems from vendors including:

• ERP Systems: SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, QAD, SunAccounts, Microsoft
• Treasury Management Systems: SunGard AvantGard, FXpress/Reval
• Trading Platforms: 360T, FXall

FiREapps CEO Wolfgang Koester sees the latest FiREapps release as the result of an evolutionary process that now allows customers across the spectrum of FX risk management approaches and policies to quickly apply best practices to reducing FX risk and cost.

"FiREapps is proud to have demonstrated its ability to solve critical issues for leading edge treasury organizations like Agilent, " said Koester, "but we are equally proud of our ability to provide a low-cost, high-reward way for organizations just beginning to get a handle on FX, so they can leapfrog their competitors."

From Exposure Data to Business Intelligence

Treasury needs to make timely decisions to mitigate FX risk, however most organizations struggle to aggregate relevant data from ERP and other business systems to calculate and analyze their exposure. Companies that have been able to overcome these challenges by relying on manual processes or home-grown automated solutions experience high degrees of operational inefficiency and limited flexibility to adjust to changes within their business environment.

One such company, Agilent Technologies, turned to FiREapps as they mapped out a pathway to their next generation, end-to-end automated foreign exchange exposure management process.

"FiREapps plays a key role in fulfilling our vision for an automated, straight through process for managing foreign exchange," said Dawnette Blake, FX Manager for Agilent Technologies. "FiREapps took the pain out of creating the kind of automated STP solution we were looking for by interacting very quickly with our Oracle ERP system and other disparate data sources and feeding our downstream trade execution and management platforms, so that we can make better decisions more quickly."

Ms. Blake will share her experiences with the FiREapps solution during a free, online Webinar to be held on Wednesday, February 17 at 2:00 pm. EST. Registration for the Webinar, entitled "Transforming FX Data into Business Intelligence to Reduce Risk and Cut Costs," is available online at http://fireapps.com/news/webinars.

Powerful Exposure Analysis Capabilities: Value at Risk

Beyond data management, FiREapps 4.5 introduces powerful new analytical tools that provide greater insight to the potential economic impacts of foreign exchange risk. Relying on newly-added Value at Risk (VaR) calculation and reporting features in 4.5, Treasurers can prioritize their management of currency exposures by potential economic risk.  FiREapps' dashboard-level view of VaR for gross currency exposures and for net exposures after any hedges have been applied provides a quick before- and after-snapshot of risk mitigation results.

"VaR calculation allows FiREapps customers to go beyond exposures to really understand how the volatility of the currencies they manage can make all the difference from an economic standpoint," said Koester.

Support for Centralized and Distributed Enterprise Workflows

FiREapps 4.5 data management and analysis capabilities support multi-user exposure data sets, analysis and decisions, making it easier for organizations to manage decision workflows in either centralized or distributed treasury environments. These new workflow enhancements make it easy for organizations to coordinate analysis and decision activities across any number of stakeholders, providing a robust platform for historical data comparison, reporting and reference.

"Transparency is key when it comes to managing foreign exchange," Koester said. "Delivering support for sophisticated treasury workflows in a secure environment allows companies to take a holistic, enterprise-wide approach to reducing FX risk."

About FiREapps

FiREapps is the leading provider of on-demand software solutions that help multinational corporations reduce the cost and risk of foreign exchange.  Based on over two decades of experience in finance, accounting and risk management, FiREapps solutions provide corporate treasurers with timely, complete and accurate FX exposure data and powerful decision support analytics. As a result, treasurers are empowered to make rapid, informed, and cost-effective currency risk management decisions. 

SOURCE FiREapps