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Part I: Identifying Vulnerabilities in the Office of Treasury and Finance
As the last traces of the old way of doing business disappear, your organization faces an increasingly volatile modern landscape that demands fast reactions to real-time challenges. In today’s hyper-global world, the sheer complexity of cash management and general operations for the office of treasury and finance has left many companies feeling that they’re barely treading water. This marks a clear liability in international markets that demand nimble adaptation—a liability that can only be addressed through the implementation of next generation technologies.
Future Challenges for Treasury and Finance
In a recent report sponsored by SAP, CFO Research surveyed CFOs, controllers, treasurers and other financial leadership at companies with more than $250 million in revenue about the state of their office. The 371 finance executives who were surveyed identified a clear and pressing need for the office of finance and treasury to step up its game when it comes to cash management, control management and overall finance functions.
- 80 percent said that the increased complexity and volatility of modern business has made cash management, reporting and forecasting even more important.
- 62 percent said their office would need to increase its ability to contribute to high-value activities within their company.
- 83 percent said their company would need better forecasting and understanding of its cash positions to succeed in the future.
- 76 percent said that they expect cash management to become even more difficult over the next five years.
Respondents also revealed their top priorities for implementing improvements in the near future:
- 33 percent said that increasing the accuracy, quality and consistency of their data about cash flows was paramount.
- 34 percent said their top priority for the future was improving the accuracy of cash forecasts.
- 33 percent said having real-time access to cash information and analyses was their first priority.
Shortcomings in the Office of Treasury and Finance
Survey respondents identified a variety of roadblocks they had encountered while striving to meet their goals for performing cash management and forecasting.
- 63 percent said that effective cash management has become more difficult in the last five years.
- 62 percent said that their company’s own size and complexity is a big factor in cash management difficulty.
- 57 percent said the number of competing systems used throughout their organization made cash management more difficult.
- 66 percent said that performing accurate, value-driven cash management required too much manual input.
Most tellingly, 58 percent said that their office needed more resources to succeed, but 72 percent also said that their office had a CFO mandate to reduce costs even further.
Problems Waiting for a Solution
Taken as a whole, those numbers paint a very clear picture of the pressing need for a next-generation cash management solution to meet the challenges of the future. Like those companies in the CFO report, your organization probably remains saddled with an inefficient landscape of legacy technologies, outdated processes and competing functional priorities.
In a world where your company is doing business in more countries than ever before, while subject to a huge range of local market conditions and individual jurisdictional concerns, you need to make sure that the office of treasury and finance operates from a position of flexibility, stability and consistency.
In part two of this series, you’ll learn how a next-generation treasury solution can help your company face the needs of tomorrow. You’ll also find out how top performing companies have benefited from already implementing those solutions. To get started, learn how SAP’s Treasury and Financial Risk Management Solutions can start helping your office achieve excelle....
