Digitalisation is of key importance in the banking industry, especially when it comes to optimising internal processes. At one of our customers, a state bank in Hesse, the implementation of the SAP Payment Engine (SAP PE) is playing a key role in ensuring the smooth and efficient processing of bookings and payment orders. Behind this technological development, however, are the bank’s employees, who are heavily involved in the further development, customisation and implementation. In this blog post, we take a look at their roles and the value that the SAP Payment Engine brings to the bank.

What is the SAP Payment Engine?

The SAP Payment Engine is a central platform that coordinates all of the bank’s payment transactions between different account management systems. It ensures that bookings and payment orders are checked, validated and routed to the correct target systems. Acting as an intermediary or booking hub, SAP PE enables the seamless integration of all systems, which is crucial for the bank.

The key advantage of this hub is its ability to respond to specific customer requirements by dynamically adjusting and optimising bookings. This flexibility is particularly important as the bank’s customers often have different and complex payment methods that need to be addressed individually.

The role of employees in implementation

The bank’s employees are not only responsible for managing SAP PE, but are also actively involved in its development and adaptation to the specific needs of customers and business units. In doing so, they take on a variety of tasks:

1. Developing and customising booking and payment orders

A key area of responsibility for employees is the development and customisation of entries and payment orders. This goes far beyond simple processing. It ensures that the booking process is tailored to the individual needs of the customer. The solution includes a service package that covers the development of various payment formats such as SEPA, Swift, SCT-Inst, US formats and customer-specific payment formats. By configuring the booking items for incoming and outgoing payments, the bank can ensure that the specific billing and payment modalities of its customers are accurately implemented.

2. Validation and customisation

Another important task is the validation of bookings. Here, specific validation mechanisms are developed that are tailored to the needs of the business units. These validation rules ensure that errors are detected and corrected at an early stage. In addition, the employees are responsible for the customer-specific enrichment of bookings, ensuring that all relevant data is captured and processed correctly.

3. Clearing and routing control

Employees are also responsible for customising clearing processes and defining specific routing rules. This routing control is crucial to ensure that payment orders are processed correctly and routed to the right systems, always taking into account the client’s individual specifications.

4.  Centralisation and customised integration

All booking processes are centralised via SAP PE, which acts as a flexible system. Staff ensure that the platform is designed to dynamically respond to the needs of different business units and customers. This adaptability ensures that all bookings are not only recorded correctly, but are also complete and in line with customer requirements.

Training is the key to success

In order to get the most out of the SAP Payment Engine, it is essential that employees receive in-depth training. The training courses focus on the customer-specific development and implementation of the SAP PE functions. Comprehensive knowledge of the architecture, posting processes, verification and enrichment processes is imparted. Another important focus of the training is error handling and the simulation of booking scenarios to ensure that all requirements can be fully mapped and tested.

Conclusion

The implementation of SAP PE at the bank is an important step towards optimising accounting processes and efficiently meeting customer-specific requirements. Employees play a central role in the development, customisation and implementation of these processes. Thanks to their expertise and continuous focus on training and development, the bank can ensure that its booking processes meet the high demands of its customers not only today, but also in the future.

With this solution, the bank is well equipped to increase the efficiency of its payment processing and to continue to play a leading role in the banking industry.

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