Success Story
Richardson Electrics
countries
vendors for banking & payments automation
ACH monthly
About
Richardson Electronics, founded in 1947 and headquartered in LaFox, Illinois, provides engineered solutions and distributes electronic components to the electron device marketplace. The company operates as a multinational corporation with activity across Asia, Europe and the Americas, supported by a lean treasury function.
Solutions leveraged:
Challenges
The treasury team at Richardson needed stronger control, visibility and governance across global cash and payments as operational complexity increased. Key challenges included:
- Limited treasury capacity, with only a treasury manager and assistant cash manager supporting global responsibilities
- Fragmented tools, with spreadsheets and bank software that lacked needed control, transparency and functionality
- Rising operational risk from growing global activity, vendor volume and payment complexity across regions
- High manual effort tied to US FBAR reporting, which strained resources when prepared outside a system
- Concurrent CRM and ERP modernization, including Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains, which raised integration requirements
- Large vendor and payment administration needs, including managing instructions for more than 2,400 unique vendors
Solution
Richardson Electronics partnered with Ripple Treasury to implement a centralized platform for global cash visibility and a payments factory model. The treasury team led implementation without internal IT support, working with professional services and bank consultants from JP Morgan and Bank of America, then managed delivery through weekly review calls. These solutions were deployed:
- Liquidity Management: Centralized control and visibility of global cash positions across regions, supporting stronger daily oversight and decision-making.
- Payments Factory: Centralized disbursements through the corporate office and enabled fully automated payments for the US and EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa).
- Bank Connectivity And Reporting: Established host-to-host connectivity with JP Morgan and Bank of America for balances, statements and payment execution, plus multibank reporting for other accounts.
- FX Rate Automation: Implemented FX (foreign exchange) rate triangulation using a daily XE rates feed, then exported translated rates to Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains to reduce manual work.
- Compliance Support For SEPA Migration: Updated payment data standards to support IBAN and meet SEPA readiness in coordination with pan-European banking partners.
Benefits
With Ripple Treasury, Richardson Electronics centralized global cash visibility and payment processing while automating compliance and FX workflows, delivering Phase 1 on time and on budget despite limited IT resources:
- Improved treasury control through centralized visibility over global cash across regions and banks
- Simplified US FBAR compliance by reducing reliance on manual reporting preparation
- Reduced manual effort by automating FX rate imports and exports tied to daily translation requirements
- Strengthened payment governance by centralizing disbursements and automating US and EMEA payment processing
Conclusion
Richardson Electronics moved from spreadsheets and fragmented bank tools to a centralized treasury operating model with Ripple Treasury. With improved global cash visibility, automated payments and stronger compliance support, the treasury team positioned the business for broader regional rollout and deeper ERP-connected workflows like reconciliation and intercompany netting.
“The team evaluated two prospective solutions in detail, and eventually chose Ripple Treasury. Members liked the fact that the company is relatively small, with a reputation for listening and adapting. This was proved by their ability to develop new facets to the solution as the project progressed.”