Cash management is vital for the survival of any company or
group, regardless of its business, size or location. It has been a
corporate treasury staple and an integral part of the job profile of
the corporate treasurer for many years. Recently however, much
has been made of the potential of new technologies to enhance
and supersede traditional cash management processes.
Buzzwords such as automation, digitization and artificial
intelligence (AI) have some treasurers worrying about their
future: Are we facing an entirely automated cash management
process? Are machines taking over and replacing corporate
treasurers completely? What responsibilities remain beyond the
digital transformation? The answers to these questions are much
more complex than a simple yes or no. They start with the here
and now.
The cash management
fundamentals of good decision-making
In order to assess the potential of any technological changes to
the cash management process, we need to establish a bottom
line: What is it that treasurers actually need to support their
business to maximum value? For cash management, it ultimately
comes down to the following.
Transparency and visibility
Corporate treasurers need information. And
they need all information. Trying to draw con-
clusions from incomplete data is like trying to
find the right place with half the map missing.
This is why treasurers need group-wide trans-
parency and visibility of financial data from all
entities and accounts.
Quality data
At its core, treasury management is about
having the right information to make the
right decisions. If the data is unreliable, so
is the action I base on it. Therefore, data
quality is as crucial, if not more crucial than
data quantity.
Real-time data
Quality data is all about timing. Information
that was accurate at one point in time can
quickly become useless if it takes too long to
be transmitted. In treasury, yesterday’s data is
as good as no data. This is why treasurers need
data available in real time, or as close to it as
possible.
The Future of Cash Management
Work with Your Data – not for Your Data
reliable
decision-making
unreliable
decision-makingData
Transparent data
accurate data
real-time-data
real-time-data
The three types of information are inherently connected:
transparent, accurate and real-time data cannot be viewed in
isolation. If you have one but not the other, you’re still left with
an incomplete picture.
