TOMATO CATCH-UP - Newsletter Issue 179 – December 2014

Your monthly resource on working capital, process optimization and issues relating to the world of corporate treasurers, IT professionals and bankers!

This newsletter is bilingual, English or German according to the source.

Introduction:

Work can feel mundane and insignificant, lacking meaning and purpose. However, if you can envision the solution as its best, your work will provide more satisfaction. That’s the spirit in this year’s quote in our Christmas card:

I saw an angel in the marble and carved until I set it free. ~ Michelangelo

Together we can create something beautiful!

We wish you and your families a New Year filled with love, wonder, laughter, health, and happiness.

Wir wünschen Ihnen und Ihrer Familie ein neues Jahr erfüllt mit Liebe, Wundern, Lachen, Gesundheit und Zufriedenheit.

Regula Spottl and the Tomato Team

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Looking Back on 2014

December means slowing down, taking stock of what rocked the world of finance and IT professionals, and gearing up for what will most likely dominate our agendas in 2015. Most of all, we’d like to offer our sincere appreciation for letting us share your journey throughout the year.

To recap the main issues at the forefront for finance and IT professionals in 2014:

Bank connectivity for European, U.S. and Chinese banks kept us busy at several client desks. This involved finding inexpensive ways to connect the accounting system with the bank IT in order to electronically receive the debit and credit reports, as well as executing mass payments from the ERP, sign them and send them electronically to the bank and making these worldwide local company payments visible to the Headquarter Treasury.
Controlling and audit provides a better overview of who owns bank signatures. We’ve seen more than once that the project sponsor is also the audit department.
Through EBICS channel, we successfully connected two banks in Switzerland and Austria to the client’s SAP accounting system.
We believe that EBICS as channel to the bank will play a major role in Switzerland after 2016
Several projects involved redesigning payments at the U.S. branch of the European corporate. This included writing RFPs and sending them to a shortlist of chosen banks that would integrate the U.S. payments into the client’s corporate payment landscape.
SEPA (now for Switzerland for 2016) and later EMIR were and still are key topics for you in the treasury.
The Brown-Bag Lunches focused on Decentral Payment Factories and especially FinFrag (the Swiss legislative way of the European Emir or the US Dodd-Frank). Please address your questions, if you can or should count on FinFrag in 2015.
We held workshops at conferences in Zurich and Salzburg, participated in the Swiss Treasury Summit, and gave presentations on CGI and SEPA.
At the Structured Finance Convention in Karlsruhe, our Tomato mugs ‘Keep your liquidity high’, which were again give aways for visitors, were a Hit!
At this year’s Apéro we once again enjoyed the company of colleagues and clients over wine and appetizers prepared by Lesley Riwar, our friend from Ghana. Finance and IT professionals from a various companies that would otherwise never get the chance to meet, eagerly shared what role their company plays in our market.

Reflecting on this year, did you reach your goals and are you happy with the solutions? If you have open issues, feel free to share with Martin. He will be happy to discuss them with you; and as usual, the first hour is free of charge. 044 814 20 01.

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Hiring a Consultant - Tipps fuer einen erfolgreichen Beratereinsatz

Hiring a consultant that you have not worked with before as well as hiring him for a new project can be daunting. However, in either case, a formal process of preparing a needs analysis, hiring a consultant, working with him and finalizing the project eases the process. The webpage Hiring a Consultant on tomato.ch walks you through the process - a useful resource!

Ziehen Sie deutsch vor?
In der Webpage Tipps für einen erfolgreichen Beratereinsatz finden Sie Richtlinien für den Prozess fürs Herstellen einer Bedarfsanalyse, das Engagieren eines externen Projektleiters, die Implementation und den Abschluss eines Projekts.

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IFZ Retail Banking-Studie 2014

Medienmitteilung - Das Institut für Finanzdienstleistungen Zug IFZ der Hochschule Luzern – Wirtschaft hat am 21. Nov. die dritte Studie zum Schweizer Retail Banken-Markt veröffentlicht. Sie zeigt auf, dass sich die Banken auch letztes Jahr recht gut entwickelt haben. Die Experten empfehlen den Institutionen jedoch, stärker auf die neuen mobilen Kommunikationsformen und Veränderungen der digitalen Technologien zu fokussieren und sie einen integralen Bestandteil ihrer Geschäftsmodelle zu machen. Details…

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UBS plant Web-Chat – andere Banken zögern

Die meisten Banken in der Schweiz beurteilen den Web-Chat als unbedeutend. Nicht so die UBS! Sie plant,ab dem ersten Semester 2015 einen Web-Chat zu lancieren.

Im IFZ Blog Die UBS startet bald einen Web-Chat – andere Banken noch zögerlich berichtet Prof. Dr. Andreas Dietrich den Stand von Web Chats in Deutschland und die Vorteile, die die UBS von ihrem geplanten Angebot sieht. Blog...

Martins Ansicht: Um die Web-Chat Möglichkeit war ich schon mehrfach froh. Vor allem, wenn ich das Gesuchte nicht grad finde. Nutzen konnte ich auch Tipps wie und wo man am besten eine Nachfrage startet bzw. welche Abteilungen für gewisse Fragen zuständig sind.

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China schützt Kunden mit Einlagensicherungsregeln

China orientiert sich vermehrt an westliche Werten. Ein Beispiel sind z.B. die neuen Regeln zur Einlagensicherung, die fast 100% der chinesischen Bevölkerung vor einem Verlust ihrer Sparguthaben schützen werden.

Details in NZZ Bericht Schutz der Guthaben, China treibt Einlagensicherung voran

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Cash Management Information Web Portal

A portal that offers a large collection of information and expertise in cash management can be an invaluable resource for CFOs and treasurers. BNP Paribas’ new portal offers visitors easy access to cash management information via editorial features, expert contributions, practical guides and case studies.

Topics covered in this portal include Renminbi, payment factories, SEPA, reconciliation, international payments and much more. Web Portal…

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Developing a Strategy, not Listing Goals

Goals and strategy are entirely different. Many managers focus on goals which include a small set of performance indicators and confuse them with strategy. Really creating a strategy involves three steps, according to Graham Kenny, author of Crack Strategy’s Code (President Press, 2013). These steps include:

Identify which stakeholders you depend on for success and then satisfy them. That’sthose who are key to the survival and prosperity, including customers, suppliers, employees, and shareholders.
Recognize what you want from your stakeholders. To specify this for each group translates into its objectives.
Recognize what your stakeholders want from you. When you articulate what key stakeholders want, you’re defining “strategic factors…those few things that you must excel at if you are to achieve a competitive advantage and, simultaneously, meet your corporate objectives,” says Kenny.

Full story in Harvard’s newsletter…

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One CEO’s Leadership Approach

I previously quoted from the NYTimes interviews with business leaders about their background and their style. In last weekend’s column, Roger Fergusan, CEO of TIAA-CREF, a retirement service provider, answered the question “Is there a value on your list that is particularly important to you?” with “One is about personal accountability. One of the phrases I use is that if you owned this company, what would you do? And if your colleagues were owners, what would you want them to do?”

Good questions and a good approach! More…

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How to Build a Culture of Learning and Why

When I was in graduate school in the mid-90s, Peter’s Senge’s The Learning Organization was the newest trend in academia and organizations. In Cio.com, Tim Low, VP of marketing at PayScale, is revisiting this topic, explaining that “a culture of learning is important for businesses to maintain current skills, stay on top of new and emerging tech, and get a market advantage."

Low defines a learning organization as one” that intentionally collect[s] information, reflect[s] on that information, and share[s] the findings to improve performance within the organization.” Such organizations can adapt quickly despite unpredictable situations, he suggests.

The cio.com article highlights how a learning culture effects IT and the organization overall. Details…

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Paying Taxes Studie: Internationale Rangliste

In der Rangliste der «Paying Taxes 2015: The Global Picture» Studie von PricewaterhouseCoopers und der Weltbank liegt die Schweiz auf dem 16. Rang (14. Rang in den Studien von 2012 und 2013. Der ersten Plȁtze belegen Vereinigten Arabischen Emiraten, Katar, Saudiarabien, Hongkong und Singapur. Die Studie vergeleicht 189 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.

Der NZZ Artikel “Wo Steuern und Abgaben die KMU belasten: Die Schweiz könnte mehr tun” fasst die Studie zusammen und hat ein Link zur Studie.

The Paying Taxes 2015: The Global Picture report is available on PWC’s website.
We reported the last time on the Paying Taxes Report in the February 2011 newsletter.

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From the Desk of Regula Spottl, Greensboro, NC

A Reason to be Proud: World Giving Index 2014

America gets a bad rap for many things and it deserves it from some. The ranking of the World Giving Index is a good reason for Americans to be proud.

The World Giving Index 2014, compiled by the Charities Aid Foundation and published in November, presents data from across the globe over a five year period (2009-2013). It includes data from 135 countries that was collected throughout 2013.

The index covers three the charitable giving behaviors: (1) helping a stranger, (2) volunteering time and (3) donating money.

This year, the United States is the only country to be ranked in the Top 10 for all three of the charitable giving behaviors. 44% of all Americans volunteer each year. 68% of households give to charity. According to the latest estimate, donations to charity account for 2% of America's GDP.

Press release with summary of the report…

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