“Wallex enables us to mitigate our risks of exposure to foreign currencies and this will help us achieve our long-term financial goals”
- Elisabeth Amelia, CFO
Background
ViBiCloud is an Indonesia Cloud Solution Provider that offers a new multi-cloud and on-premises platform management solution as part of the hybrid solution offering. Winning accolades such as the prestigious Microsoft Country Partner of the year in Indonesia in 2019 as well as getting competencies such as, Microsoft Gold Cloud Platform, AWS Cloud Consulting Partner, Alibaba Cloud Direct Partner Huawei Cloud Consulting Partner Premier, and Google Cloud Partner, ViBiCloud is a reliable partner to accompany their customers in their transformation journey.
ViBiCloud frequently deploys software and vendors from multiple countries outside of Indonesia to enable some of their services and needs to make frequent transactions to various countries, including Singapore, United States, China, etc. from their headquarters in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The Challenge
When assessing their payments solutions using leading local banks CIMB Niaga and BCA Corporate Banking, ViBiCloud saw several downsides that needed to be improved, specifically high administrative cost and provision fee from the Banks, given the value and frequent payments they were making each month.
#Costs
Banks in Indonesia will charge various fees for international transactions. It’s usually USD 25 of service fee, and transaction fee up to IDR 50.000 per transaction. While some banks even charge % fees - in this case, the higher the value of transactions, the higher you will pay.
#Limited operational hours of banks
With mandatory branch visits for international payments, the bank’s limited operational hours, especially during PPKM (Emergency Public Activity Restriction) due to the COVID-19 situation, also affected the productivity of ViBiCloud’s finance team.
#Currency fluctuation
Indonesian Rupiah is one of the most volatile currencies in the market. Having to make frequent high-value vendor payments from IDR to USD, AUD and SGD every month, FX volatility can affect companies’ cash flow, as well as productivity.
Solution
Since the pandemic struck in early 2020, mobility and business operation has been very limited. However, as a technology company, business must continue and payments must be made. Walking through the platform demo given by the Wallex team, ViBiCloud was convinced that they needed to switch providers and Wallex was the ideal solution they were looking for.
Even though ViBiCloud has never used a fintech provider to make cross-border payments before, realising that Wallex is already trusted by more than 20,000 customers in Asia, Ms Amelia, as the Chief Finance Officer, decided to sign up with Wallex.
The onboarding and KYC process was also very fast and easy, all done online within 2 days only, without having them physically visit an office or meet face-to-face.
Wallex offered a cheaper flat fee compared to banks, ViBiCloud realised they could save a significant amount of costs and achieve higher efficiency in company expenses.
Wallex's secure online platform was very easy to use and saved lots of time and effort, by completely eliminating the need for physical visits to the bank branch especially during the PPKM (Emergency Public Activity Restriction) period in Indonesia due to the COVID-19 situation.
Result
Since signing up with Wallex in May 2020, ViBiCloud has made frequent and high value supplier payments in USD, SGD and AUD from Indonesia - all online without any transaction limits.
1. Saving of up to IDR 300,000 on provision fee for each transaction
Apart from the competitive exchange rate, ViBiCloud benefited from Wallex's low fee - resulting in estimated savings of over IDR 1,000,000 every month only from provision fees.
2. Zero maintenance fee
ViBiCloud previously used several different banks for their cross-border payments purposes, and each bank has monthly administration fees depending on various factors such as minimum balances, etc. Switching to Wallex, which has no maintenance fees at all, ViBiCloud is able to be more cost-efficient.
3. Eliminate mandatory bank visit and save up to 2 business days on each transaction
Wallex's easy-to-use and secure online platform was very easy to use and saved the finance team lots of time and effort by completely eliminating the need for multiple visits to the bank branch.
Especially for high value transactions for as high as USD 120,000 - with Wallex can be done online with simple paperworks.
4. Exchange rates locked in for 24 hours
With Wallex, ViBiCloud is able to secure an exchange rate that best suits their business payments needs. Locking in an exchange rate for 24 hours allows ViBiCloud to control their FX expenses and internal budgets, whilst remaining competitive.
*T&C apply
**Refer to the availability of Wallex platform to set up payments.
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