If you don’t go to technology, technology will come to you. This mantra from the president of the Association des trésoriers du Luxembourg (Atel) is key to understand the meaning of the third edition of the Atel Tech Day, with its roundtables, presentations of use cases such as those of Sanofi or Ferrero, and technology vendor stands. “Between 200 and 300 companies call me every month,” explains chairman , speaking to the hundred or so corporate treasury experts gathered for the afternoon at the Kirchberg Conference Center. “We have a jungle of solutions and it’s very difficult to find the right solution, the right tools, properly organised for your needs. And even to find the right combination of solutions. We have prepared a treasury tech map to which we are constantly adding solutions, but it takes time to find and select the right solutions.”
“The right technology can make all the difference,” confirms Sanae Maamouri, corporate treasury and systems director at Majorel-Teleperformance. “We have seen clear trends, such as automation to streamline organisations’ processes, like real time data for better organisation and predictability, the use of digital platforms and aligning treasury with ESG objectives.”
“We can't get anywhere if we can’t manage the data,” insists John Deere’s lead cash management, Jean-Philippe Bernard. “Each entity will be different in terms of ERP [enterprise resource planning]... Not everyone has to manage and manipulate the same data. Before you start buying something, start by understanding yourself.”
“Come back to Earth. You have so much technology, you’re like a child in a shop, you want to buy everything, have everything. But does it make sense now? The only way to gain growth is efficiency,” he adds.
“Don’t just think about today, but about a future-proof solution. In terms of budget, if you take the best, you have to pay for it and maintenance has a cost,” Maamouri noted.
A three-stage approach
Cyril Oudard, customer value director of Kyriba, a software company that aims to optimise cash flow and liquidity, recommended a three-stage approach. This approach starts with an assessment of the existing situation, “revealing the hidden value in your processes and organisation, and comparing and benchmarking all aspects to find out what value you could derive from this project. It has to be done methodically, between something simple and something not too complex.”
The WHAT: “Where am I today? What’s going well, what could be improved? If you don’t know where you’ve come from or where you want to go, you can’t create a strategic roadmap or evaluate vendors’ products. Start by identifying priorities; it’s not useful to have a global solution at this stage. This will enable you to define the strategy that you could present to the C-level. Today, we have over 2,000 scenarios to compare by sector or geography.”
The WHY: “What is the benefit of this project? For example, saving man-hours or investment, or reducing risk. The benefits can be analysed using two approaches: top down or bottom up. From this, you can draw up a deck to present the benefits, to find out what functions you might need.”
The WHY NOW: “What will happen if I don’t do it now? This involves assessing the scenario in which you do nothing. A risk and threat analysis. Show a heatmap of the risks according to the taxonomy of your business. The aim is to have a comprehensive deck for the C-level so that they validate, confirm or approve the launch of the project and are fully involved.”
Kyriba is a cloud platform dedicated to cash and financial management for businesses. Founded in 2000, the company provides software solutions that enable organisations to better manage their liquidity, monitor financial risks, automate payment processes and improve their cash flow visibility. Kyriba also offers tools for foreign exchange risk management, debt and investment management, as well as compliance and fraud prevention modules.
This article was originally published in .