Scaling Treasury and Financial Operations Smarter with Serrala and SAP

Faced with escalating complexity and 30,000 monthly intercompany invoices, Intuitive Surgical centralized its intercompany processes, improved global liquidity visibility, and strengthened compliance. The company achieved these outcomes by implementing one of North America’s first SAP Advanced Payment Management In-House Bank (APM-IHB) solutions — positioning Intuitive Surgical as a leader in SAP-native Treasury and Finance transformation and setting a benchmark for other organizations.

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This journey didn’t start with technology, it started with scale, complexity, and the need to rethink how a global finance organization supports growth. over 30 years, Intuitive Surgical has been at the forefront of robotic-assisted surgery, revolutionizing patient outcomes, and empowering surgeons to operate with greater precision and fewer constraints. With more than 66,000 surgeons trained globally and 2.5 million patients treated in 2024 alone, Intuitive’s growth trajectory is nothing short of remarkable.

But with rapid growth comes complexity, especially in finance and treasury operations. As Intuitive expanded across 28 countries, managing over 40 legal entities, 20 currencies, and 30,000 monthly intercompany invoices, its treasury and accounting teams faced mounting challenges: fragmented systems, manual reconciliations, limited cash visibility, and growing foreign exchange (FX) exposures.

The tipping point came when the company realized its existing infrastructure could no longer support its scale. Intercompany transactions were handled outside of SAP S/4HANA, leading to inefficiencies in internal reporting and a lack of standardization. Financial operations were stretched thin, relying heavily on manual effort and stopgap solutions to meet month-end demands, shares Ryan Mason, Corporate Treasurer at Intuitive Surgical. But it was clear that a more strategic, scalable solution was needed. That’s when Intuitive turned to Serrala.

A Strategic Treasury and Finance Blueprint for Modernizing Financial Operations

The Serrala Treasury Services team brought a structured, SAP-native approach to transformation of financial operations. The engagement began with the execution of an SAP Strategic Treasury and Finance Blueprint. Serrala’s team performed discovery workshops, stakeholder interviews, and data analysis to uncover inefficiencies and align cross-functional teams. This process broke down silos between tax, legal, IT, accounting, and treasury, fostering collaboration and shared ownership of the transformation journey.

Serrala’s deep expertise in SAP treasury and financial operations solutions, including intercompany invoicing, automated end-to-end invoice clearing, and liquidity optimization, was a key differentiator. Rather than offering a generic solution, Serrala worked “shoulder to shoulder” with Intuitive to co-create a roadmap tailored to its unique needs, shares Mason. The blueprint prioritized initiatives with the highest business impact, such as implementing SAP’s Intercompany Matching and Reconciliation (ICMR) and Advanced Payment Management In-House Bank (APM-IHB).

Tangible Results and Measurable Impact

The first wave of Intuitive Surgical’s transformation has already delivered immediate and measurable benefits. Following the initial phase of deployment, Intuitive now auto-clears 90% of matched intercompany transactions, with unmatched items queued for dispute resolution.

Liquidity management has also improved significantly. With enhanced visibility into global cash positions, Intuitive is targeting a 6% reduction in average bank balances —equivalent to $20 million in working capital optimization. FX risk management has become more effective, with hedge effectiveness improving from 90% to 92%.

These early outcomes are being tracked through SAP-native reporting and reviewed monthly, ensuring transparency, accountability, and sustained momentum as future phases progress.

Empowering People and Processes

Beyond the numbers, the transformation has had a profound impact on employee experience. Treasury and accounting teams, once overwhelmed by manual processes and data overload, are now able to operate with more structure, standardization, and clarity.

“As the company grew exponentially, our processes didn’t scale with it,” said Erika Ishii, Director of Tech Accounting & Product Ops at Intuitive. “We were managing everything offline — Excel, emails, outside of SAP — with every region doing their own thing. Roles weren’t clearly defined, and we were throwing bodies at the work just to meet the demand. It created a lot of inefficiencies.”

Recognizing that gap in process maturity was a breakthrough — and once addressed, the impact was immediate.

The ROI has been significant, reducing manual effort, improving confidence in data, and establishing a foundation for scalable financial operations. Teams now report less stress, better usability, and more time to focus on value instead of firefighting.

A Roadmap for Treasury Transformation

Intuitive’s journey began in late 2022 with a strategic priority-setting session. Following a rigorous RFQ process, Serrala was selected for its SAP expertise and collaborative approach.

By mid-2023, deep-dive workshops were underway, leading to a detailed ROI model and transformation roadmap. Intuitive’s finance leadership used this to secure executive sponsorship and capital budget approval in early 2024 — a key milestone that formally set the project in motion.

Implementation began in late 2024, and the first deployment went live in Q2 2025.

What this Means for SAPinsiders

• SAP-Native Treasury Tools Drive Scalable Growth: Intuitive’s success highlights the power of leveraging SAP-native next generation solutions in S/4HANA like ICMR (Intercompany Matching and Reconciliation), APM (Advanced Payment Management), and APM-IHB (Advanced Payment Management In-House Bank) to automate and streamline corporate treasury and financial operations. For SAPinsiders, this reinforces the value of building transformation strategies around native SAP capabilities to ensure seamless integration, data consistency, and long-term scalability.
• A Structured Blueprint Aligns Finance, IT, and Tax: The transformation was not just about technology, it was about cross-functional alignment. Serrala’s SAP Strategic Treasury and Financial Operations Blueprint brought together treasury, tax, legal, IT, and accounting teams to co-own the roadmap. For SAPinsiders, this demonstrates the importance of breaking down silos and using structured assessments to align stakeholders around shared goals and measurable outcomes.
• Data Visibility and Automation Unlock Strategic Value: By automating 90% of matched intercompany transactions and improving global cash visibility, Intuitive was able to reduce average bank balances by $20 million and improve FX hedge effectiveness. SAPinsiders can see tangible benefits from automation and real-time insights that go beyond operational wins, they’re strategic levers for liquidity optimization, risk reduction, and performance improvement.
• Treasury and Finance Transformation Requires Ruthless Prioritization: Intuitive Surgical didn’t just embrace a phased approach, they partnered with Serrala to turn strategic prioritization into a competitive advantage. They started with high-impact initiatives and built toward long-term goals to prevent treasury and finance modernization from being overwhelming. For SAPinsiders managing similar complexity, this reinforces a core truth: transformation at scale demands ruthless prioritization, phased delivery, and executive alignment to accelerate ROI.