The Total Economic Impact™ Of Thomson Reuters Confirmation

Thomson Reuters Confirmation is an easy-to-use platform that streamlines and simplifies the confirmation process, saving employee time and reducing audit timelines. With Confirmation, the end-to-end process is managed in one centralized location to deliver trusted and high-quality confirmations. In addition to efficiently delivering secure confirmations, the platform is simple to adopt and scale as needed to fully meet an audit firm’s confirmation needs.

Thomson Reuters commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study and examine the potential return on investment (ROI) enterprises may realize by deploying Confirmation.¹ The purpose of this study is to provide readers with a framework to evaluate the potential financial impact of Confirmation on their organizations.

To better understand the benefits, costs, and risks associated with this investment, Forrester interviewed five representatives of four organizations with experience using Confirmation. For the purposes of this study, Forrester aggregated the interviewees’ experiences and combined the results into a single composite organization that completes 1,500 confirmations with Confirmation per year.

Interviewees said that prior to using Confirmation, their organizations did not have a dedicated solution for confirmations and they instead utilized manual methods. This approach relied primarily on email, but it could also include fax, phone, and mail. However, this course lacked consistency and demanded significant employee time. These limitations led to inefficiencies and a desire for a more streamlined, centralized, and digital way forward.

After the investment in Confirmation, interviewees’ organizations achieved a more efficient and accurate confirmation process with faster timelines. Key results from the investment include employee time saved, faster onboarding, and cost savings with trusted and high-quality confirmations.

Quantified benefits. Three-year, risk-adjusted present value (PV) quantified benefits for the composite organization include:

• Fifty percent time savings on standard confirmations. By using Confirmation for its bank confirmation needs, the composite organization saves employee time, reduces timelines, and has a more seamless confirmation process overall. Confirmation provides a centralized and easy-to-use platform with a direct link to the banks, which helps coordinate workflows and makes preparing, sending, and receiving confirmations more efficient. This benefit equals $43,000 over three years for the composite organization.
• Eighty percent time saved on more complex confirmations. In addition to using Confirmation for its typical banking confirmations, the composite organization also uses the platform for more complex ones that previously required extensive follow-up, as well as some accounts receivable (AR) confirmations that are innately more time-intensive on average. By having direct connections to the relevant parties and immediately reaching the correct people in a unified platform, Confirmation saves the composite considerable employee time that results in financial savings of $69,000 over three years.
• Faster onboarding and understanding of the confirmation process. In addition to saving time at the composite as employees work on confirmation requests throughout the year, Confirmation also allows the organization’s new users to more quickly learn the confirmation process. Its new users only need to learn Confirmation instead of learning different procedures for different banks. This saves each new user at the composite organization an average of 2 hours and amounts to savings of $4,000 over three years.
• Cost savings with routinized fee collection. Since the pricing for Confirmation is straightforward and tied to specific confirmations, the composite organization is able to pass these costs onto the applicable clients. Prior to using Confirmation, when the composite completed confirmations through manual methods and additional employee time, costs were instead absorbed by the composite organization. Recouping costs when using Confirmation equals $135,000 over three years for the composite organization.

Unquantified benefits. Benefits that provide value for the composite organization but are not quantified for this study include:

• Faster timeline to complete confirmations and audits. With Confirmation, the composite organization’s confirmations are completed 65% faster on average. This keeps audit timelines on track and helps the composite meet its deadlines.

• Improved client experience. Confirmation results in an easier, more digitized process that reduces the need for the composite organization’s clients to get involved in facilitating confirmations. Clients can simply sign on to the platform to approve requests.
• Trusted and high-quality confirmations. The banks with which the composite organization completes confirmations widely use Confirmation. The added automation and direct link to the banks reduces errors, avoids duplication, and improves overall accuracy.
• Improved employee experience. Confirmation improves the employee experience at the composite organization by providing a modern, user-friendly tool that improves efficiency. Additionally, the platform can be used from anywhere and enables hybrid work.
• More time for higher-value work. With the time savings that results from using Confirmation, employees at the composite organization have more time to spend on higher-level advisory and analytical work.
• API flexibility. While the composite organization does not currently use an API with its Confirmation adoption, the availability provides long-term flexibility should the organization prefer to use a more fully integrated approach in the future.

Costs. Three-year, risk-adjusted PV costs for the composite organization include:

• Costs to Thomson Reuters and for internal efforts. The composite organization pays Thomson Reuters on a per-confirmation basis. Additionally, an internal FTE spends 5 hours dedicated to the initial adoption of Confirmation. These costs total $149,000 over three years for the composite organization.

The representative interviews and financial analysis found that a composite organization experiences benefits of $251,000 over three years versus costs of $149,000, adding up to a net present value (NPV) of $101,000 and an ROI of 68%.

Appendix A: Endnotes