Tomato Newsletter "News 'n Views" No. 135 – February 2011

 

Introduction

Uncertainties including economic outlooks, currencies, technology trends and political issues are continuous. And based on the butterfly effect, a concept in chaos theory which states essentially that even the smallest changes in one place effect everything else in the larger system, it's no wonder that we lately see more long-term outlooks than short-term guidance. What it tells us is that it takes long-term planning and views from sources other than business to plan for a sustainable future. However, to be prepared for business long-term will invariably center on technology.

Enjoy the points in this month's newsletter that resonate with this contention and the variety in general.

Regula Spottl

 

In Today's Issue

TOMATO UPDATES

FINANCE AND BANKING

IT

MISCELLANEOUS

From Tomato: Corporate E-Banking bei Kantonalbanken und in Osteuropa

Die St. Galler Kantonalbank (SGKB) offeriert Firmen seit Januar 2011 einen Software Key, der bei der IT des Kunden installiert ist. Papier- oder hardwaregebundene Verfahren mit Streichliste, Mobiltelefon oder USB Stick werden für Zahlungen oder Online-Kontoauszüge somit hinfällig. Diese neue Lösung ist das Ergebnis einer Zusammenarbeit von Bellin, Crealogix, deren gemeinsamem Kunden SGKB und Tomato.

Details zur Lösung lesen Sie im September 2010 Newsletter.

In den kommenden Monaten werden auch weitere Kantonalbanken (Thurgau, Basel-Stadt, Luzern) diese Methode übernehmen. Wir beraten Sie gerne für Ihre Lösung.

Seit November 2010 arbeiten wir mit einem italienischen Bankkonzern und dessen Niederlassungen in Osteuropa an einem ähnlichen Prozess. Die Lösung wird es Bankkunden ermöglichen, die Files im Standard ISO 20022 zu übermitteln. Die Files werden über den Hauptsitz der Bank in Mailand gesteuert und in den Bankfilialen in Osteuropa verteilt oder eingesammelt.

Wie Sie sehen strebt Tomato Lösungen nach einheitlichen und zukunftsträchtigen Standards an. Sind Sie an optimierten Strukturen im Transaction Banking (Zahlungsverkehr / Cash Management) interessiert, nehmen Sie ungeniert mit uns Kontakt auf: 044 814 2001 oder E-Mail, damit wir mit Ihnen diskutieren können, wie eine Lösung in Ihrem Konzern aussehen könnte.

^ Top

 

Guide to RFPs and Tendering for Cash Management Services

By Martin Schneider
We have been offering guidance on RFPs for many years. Last year, we've done the same for tendering for cash management services. It started with some banking clients who we believe can provide such services (also called transactions banking) in their international corporate environment. We provided them with a request for proposal (RFP) and helped them to identify their possibilities. Such an RFP helps the corporate client to regroup its banking relations, optimize processes such as payments and receivables from their accounting to banks and back. This part of our consulting relates to our article on ‘the bank as supplier’ from 2005 and 2009 respectively.

Interestingly, a GTNews article explains exactly what we've been doing.

In the article A Professional Guide to RFPs and Tendering for Cash Management Services, Kristian Rygh and Rafael Dominguez of Nasarius explain how a cash management tender and the request for proposal (RFP) ought to be conducted. They include scoping the RFP, the RFP process and bank selection criteria.

(Details... registration required, free)

^ Top

 

Tools to Manage FX Risk and International Payments

By Martin Schneider
Some of our clients have recently been hit by the higher value of the CHF and lower value of USD and EUR. And like a bad omen, we meet such extreme changes mostly on 31.12. When it does happen, these corporates have to book an accounting foreign exchange loss and have to explain it to the shareholders.

We are working with our clients in streamlining all the corporate foreign currency flows. Once these flows are visible in historical data and can be planned for the coming months, we start to search for natural hedges. We initiate talks to volunteer suppliers and ask them if they may need currencies such as USD and EUR.

We at Tomato have proof that this method works. For example, a client in 2008 was able to reduce his EUR from 20 million to 12 million. If this piques your interest, please contact Andreas Carl.

Also read the article in GTNews: Managing FX Risk and International Payments: What Should Be in Your Treasury Toolset for 2011?

Cash management can be intimidating due the volatile currency markets. The risk to the cash management process and the actual execution of international payments pose two key risks to global treasurers.

In the article Fran Berndt of Travelex Global Business Payments explains the measures treasurers can take to mitigate foreign exchange risk and improve their international payments and receipts as well as what tools they should look out for.

(Details... registration required, free)

^ Top


The Value in Discourse

CFOs may wish that there's less talk and more action. That's what Bud Kulesza remembers from his job as CFO. Now, years later he realizes that some of those disagreements actually helped him make better decisions.

In the article Could We Just Talk? in CFO.com Kulesza admits that it's unrealistic to expect every team member to be up to date on everything all the time and that pressures on the job often don't allow for discussions. However, he suggests that CFOs would do well by creating an environment where talk is an ongoing process, where employees' input is valued and the status quo challenged. Important is that those who take part in such discussions offer solutions or diverse views on decision making. Pure criticism is never welcome though.

Kulesza's advice applies not only to CFOs of course.

(Full story with examples...)

^ Top

 

Technology Blog: Cutting through the Hype

In the first issue of their technology blog, GTNews' contributing editor David Kelin explains how he plans to "cut through the hype" surrounding some treasury technologies and to provide practical and relevant information.

Kelin starts with the premise that “centralisation, standardisation, simplification and automation" are the focus areas for an efficient treasury process. Also, he considers key drivers for treasuries to be reducing cost, creating value, reducing risk and improving control. All of these involve technology.

Introduction to the Technology Blog (registration required, free)

We will keep you up to date on upcoming technology blogs! If you'd like Kelin to focus on any particular area, contact him.

^ Top

 

Trends that Will Change Priorities for IT in 2011

Technology demands evolve and to satisfy them often coincides with the need to do more with less due to tight budgets. Shane O'Neill explains in a CIO.com blog four trends that will change priorities. They include: The need for more bandwidth, more mobility and user-owned devices, "ascending to the Cloud, one careful step at a time" and Windows 7 Upgrades. (Explanations on each trend...)

^Top

 

Will IT Survive to 2020?

The report from Forrester Research titled "IT's Future in the Empowered Era: Sweeping Changes in the Business Landscape Will Topple the IT Status Quo" questions if IT will even exist in 2020.

Forces that will change the relationship of business, technology and the IT organization include businesses' increasing self-sufficiency, business managers' and staff's increasing tech savvy, and the need for speed and agility. Forrester foresees that the "IT status quo will collapse under these forces, and a new model — empowered BT (Business Technology) — will take its place."

Forrester's executive summary and table of content (The full report is not available online)

Thomas Wailgum's blog at CIO.com offers a summary.

^ Top

 

2011 Rangliste der wirtschaftsfreundlichsten Länder der Welt

Die Schweiz ist laut einer Studie der Heritage Foundation und des Wall Street Journal die liberalste Volkswirtschaft Europas. Im weltweiten Vergleich liegt die Schweiz an fünfter Stelle hinter Hong Kong, Singapur, Australien und Neuseeland.

Der Bericht von Roland Meier von OSEC enthȁlt eine Zusammenfassung der Kategorien und Bereiche, die bei der Erstellung der Rangliste bewertet wurden mit den jeweiligen Lȁndern, die die ersten Plȁtze in jeder Kategorie belegen. (Details...)

2011 Index of Economic Freedom Complete Report and Country Rankings

^ Top

 

Internationale Steuervergleiche

Steuervergleiche OECD im internationalen Bereich von 2010

Eidg. Steuerverwaltung hat am 17.1.2011 Steuervergleiche OECD im internationalen Bereich von 2010 publiziert. Die verschiedenen pdf Dokumente zu Steuersätzen und Steuerquoten in verschiedenen OECD-Ländern umfassen z.B.: Kapitalsteuersätze für Unternehmungen, Quellensteuersätze, Mehrwertsteuer-Sätze im internationalen Vergleich, Verlustbehandlung, etc.

Tax burden 2010: International comparison - Tax rates and tax/GDP ratios in different OECD-countries

 

Paying Taxes Studie: Internationale Rangliste

In der Rangliste der „Paying Taxes“-Studie von PricewaterhouseCoopers und der Weltbank liegt die Schweiz auf dem 16. Rang. Der ersten Plȁtze belegen Malediven, Katar und Hong Kong. Die Studie vergeleicht 183 Lȁnder.

Die Kernkriterien in der "Paying Taxes" Studie von PricewaterhouseCoopers und der Weltbank umfassen    Anzahl Steuerzahlungen, zeitlicher Aufwand zur Bewältigung der Steuerpflichten und Gesamtsteuerbelastung und Gesamtresultat.

OSEC's Zusammenfassung der Studie

PricewaterhouseCoopers: Paying Taxes 2011-02-03

^ Top

 

Do Tougher Challenges Lead to more Rules Bending?

In the book Organisational Misbehaviour, Stephen Ackroyd, co-author of the book, argues that bosses and employees are guilty of bending and breaking rules as they are striving to meet high key performance indicators. Especially in tough times, executives and managers often skirt moral boundaries and encourage subordinates to do the same. When the behavior continues, it becomes part of the company culture according to Ackroyd.

Does this resonate with your experience?

Read an interview with Stephen Ackroyd, co-author of the book and a professor of organisational analysis at Lancaster University Management School in the UK. Includes a link to an audio version.

^ Top

 

Social-Media for Companies: Examples

Talking about social-media frenzy is one thing, how to actually benefit from the use of Facebook, Twitter, podcasts etc. is another thing. In the article " Social-Media Frenzy: Amid the chatter, companies are beginning to achieve tangible benefits" in CFO.com, David McCann relates various successful social-media campaigns.

For example, when Ford was about to launch Fiesta, the company used social media exclusively for their marketing campaign. They gave Fiestas to 100 people to drive for six months. But they were the right 100 people, so-called digital influencers (bloggers, podcasters, YouTube celebrities, and automotive journalists). These influencers "cranked out videos, tweets, blog posts, photos, and other media relating to the car." Ford then assembled all this onto a single Web page where "fans could watch this collective test drive unfold in real time. It was all 'unscripted, unedited, and undeleted by Ford,' says Scott Monty, the company's head of social media." (Details...)
^ Top

 

From the Desk of Regula Spottl, Greensboro, North Carolina

American Express to Close Its Call Center in Greensboro

Remember I wrote in 2005 how excited we in the Greensboro area were when Dell opened a plant and employed 1,500 people? Well, in 2009 Dell started the process of moving out of our area – a huge let down!

More bad news about our employment situation: American Express announced on Jan. 19, 2011 that it will close its call center in Greensboro by the end of the year. About 1,900 people in our community will lose their jobs.  Considering that the unemployment rate in our area is about 10% and the major industries – textile and furniture – have moved permanently overseas, Amex' move represents a huge blow.

Amex says it's simply part of  major restructuring. However, in interviews on the radio, I learned that with the economic downturn, many Americans have reduced or stopped using credit cards. Also many have decided to pay off their credit card debt. This is in part due to the economy and also because regulations force credit card companies to post on the invoices how long it will take to pay off debt and how much in interest it will cost if the credit card holder only pays the minimum.

^ Top

^ Top