TOMATO CATCH-UP - Newsletter Issue 210 – May 2018
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 depending to the source.
The articles we refer to in this newsletter are not necessarily consistent with our experience, but we believe it is important to give you advice from others. Also, we like to be challenged and review and adapt our advice and offers to our clients. In this spirit, enjoy today's topics and please tell us your experiences or stance on any of them so that we can share them with your fellow readers. And remember that for any problem you’re grappling with, ask Martin Schneider for a discussion that will clarify it. Contact Martin via email or call 044 814 2001.
Regula Spottl and the Tomato Team
Topics
- A Day in the Life of Martin Schneider
- Hohes Optimierungspotenzial bei der digitalen Innovationsfähigkeit der Schweiz
- Regulations for the Swiss Financial Sector at a Glance
- Cash Flow Hedging in der OR-Rechnungslegung
- Four Possibilities for Cross-border Payments
- Key Aspects of Implementing a Treasury Management System
- Cash Forecasts: Quality and Accuracy Are Key
- The Power of the Cloud: Minimizing Risks and Exploiting Opportunities
- Das Ende der Universalbanken - was folgt?
- Book Tip: Bob Peters' Excellence Dividend
A Day in the Life of Martin Schneider
At least three days a week, I start my day at the office with coordinating projects and solutions for clients. For a few years now, this involves most often enabling ERP-TMS-Bank Gateways and realizing payments from the local business unit’s ERP to banks. Since 2004 I have been calling this work ‘Financial Flow Management’. Together with my two coworkers we handle approximately 4 to 5 industrial client projects at a time. Each of them is at a different stage of progress.
As a coordinator I talk to the IT-staff of clients’ banks, the ERP staff (SAP, Microsoft Navision, IFS, Oracle etc.), sometimes also to the ERP provider and IT employees. We analyze and search for ways to move your vendor, payroll and treasury payment via a secure channel (Swift, Ebics, Host-to-Host) to your bank. If the client bank is a local savings bank or our clients work with more than 30 and more banks worldwide, we design together a vision paper where the client will finally work with just one technical high performance bank per world region.
Finally, we prepare together with the client the bank-RFPs to make sure we find the best bank connection for his region in terms of technical specifics, implementation team, service and bank rating. Together with the local controller, we discuss solutions and keep an eye on local regulations that can represent an obstacle to moving payments to a sophisticated transaction bank.
We keep track of all our progress via a so-called Tomato Working Paper that tracks the entire project scope with telephone notes, e-mails, specifications and project meetings with Treasury, CFO and providers.
Our clients appreciate my many years of experience with software providers, banks and ERPs. It convinces them that we also know the challenges of the regions far away from headquarters. The ultimate goal is visibility of all financial flows at the headquarter with transparence, security and fraud protection.
One day a week is reserved for onsite meeting with clients such as progress updates with Treasury and the CFO and also developing with IT staff the technical specifics of ISO formats 20022 and building secure Gateways; and one day of the week is reserved for research and development.
Hohes Optimierungspotenzial bei der digitalen Innovationsfähigkeit der Schweiz
Verglichen mit den anderen OECD-Ländern schneidet die Schweiz bei der digitalen Innovationsfähigkeit insgesamt gut ab - sie liegt an achter Stelle. Das Optimierungspotenzial ist also relativ hoch.
In Zusammenarbeit mit BAK Economics hat das Beratungsunternehmen Deloitte den digitalen Puls der Schweiz analysiert und die Ergebnisse mit anderen OECD-Ländern verglichen.
Deloitte hat die Fähigkeit zur digitalen Innovation an drei Säulen gemessen: Talente, Start-ups und Investitionen & Patente. Die Schweiz belegt Platz 2 bei Talente, Platz 17 bei Start-ups und Platz 8 bei Investitionen & Patente.
In einem Bericht von Money Today Wie sieht's mit der digitalen Innovationsfähigkeit der Schweiz aus? kommentiert Ruedi Maeder die Ergebnisse.
Hier zum gut recherchierten und aufbereiteten Bericht von Deloitte
Kommentar Martin Schneider:
Die Digitalisierung startet mit strukturierten Prozessen und Abläufen. Wir von Tomato sind seit 25 Jahren Prozessoptimierer. Mit unserer Erfahrung ermöglichen wir Ihnen für Ihre Finanz-Geld-Flüsse den Start ins digitale Zeitalter.
Regulations for the Swiss Financial Sector at a Glance
With the new web portal "Regulatory Horizon", KPMG offers a comprehensive online overview of the most important planned regulations for financial service providers in Switzerland. It guides visitors through the “labyrinth of laws, regulations and circulars” and it is user friendly.
Regula’s Comment: Truly impressive! English…, Deutsch…
Cash-Flow Hedging in der OR-Rechnungslegung
Eine Umfrage der Credit Suisse unter 300 Firmenkunden zeigt auf, dass sich zwei Drittel der Schweizer KMUs gegen Fremdwährungsrisiken meist durch Devisen-Termin-Geschäfte absichern.
Um sicherzustellen, dass sich die wirtschaftlichen Sicherungsstrategien in der Jahresrechnung in der gewünschten Form widerspiegeln, ist der Einsatz von Hedge Accounting erforderlich. Im KPMG-Blog Cash Flow Hedges in der OR-Rechnungslegung erklärt Silvan Loser, was zu beachten ist.
Four Possibilities for Cross-border Payments
Almost 50% of companies consider a bank's B2B payables offering to be a very important part of the bank selection process, the Strategic Treasurer data shows. The 2017 B2B Payments & Working Capital Management Survey also found that as many as 67% of companies operate in more than one country and 33% in more than 20 countries, reports Victoria Beckett, editor of GTNews.
Technology offers more and more methods of payment and globalization is ongoing, so it is not surprising that treasurers are considering to upgrade their cross-border payment processes.
The article 4 ways to make cross-border payments in theglobaltreasurer.com explains four of the major cross-border payment methods and explores the advantages and disadvantages for businesses.
- SWIFT for companies
- EBICS
- Host-to-host (H2H)
- Block chain
Martin Schneider's comment:
Please read above "A Day in the Life of Martin Schneider" . Bank Gateways have been our daily business solutions for 10 years.
Key Aspects of Implementing a Treasury Management System
Every potential customer planning to implement a treasury management system has different requirements, framework conditions and expectations. Nevertheless, they are all taking the same strategic step to move forward with a professional, largely standardized treasury management system.
There are common elements that underpin every treasury management system implementation. The article The common denominator: the must-consider-aspects of a treasury management system implementation in theglobaltreasurer.com highlights and explores the key aspects which are:
- Processes – workflows
- Project management and the corresponding documentation
- Multiple stakeholders: other departments, other stakeholders and ultimately the entire company
- Cash visibility
- Digital contract management
- Cash positioning and forecasting
Martin Schneider:
Standard workflows and processes are most important. With this goal, your way is open for a world in digitization. Structured processes will lead you to success. Read above the Deloitte Report in German.
Cash Forecasts: Quality and Accuracy Are Key
As rates are expected to rise anytime, the quality and accuracy of cash forecasts that are used to plan for future liquidity are key. The challenge is how to measure the accuracy of forecasts.
A white paper issued by CashAnalytics on Cash Forecasting Accuracy measurement explains the key considerations and steps involved. Conor Degan has summarized it in theglobaltreasurer.com. He explains them as:
- Decide what to measure i.e. choose the component of the forecast that means most to the business and select the time period or date that matters most.
- Choose a simple method of accuracy measurement from various methods available.
- Keep the analysis focused by choosing the most important metric and the most relevant time horizon so it’s easy to understand and straightforward to explain.
Martin Schneider’ Comment:
Keep simple structures, train your local controllers, review their planning and precision will follow.
The Power of the Cloud: Minimizing Risks and Exploiting Opportunities
Cloud computing is the driving force behind the digital transformation and the Internet of Things. However, many executives are hesitant to deal with cloud technology. In an expert blog, Reto Grubenmann comments on KPMG's white paper "The Power of the Cloud", which examines the opportunities and risks of cloud solutions in detail.
Das Ende der Universalbanken - was folgt?
Viele große Finanzinstitute verstehen sich nach wie vor als Universalbanken, obwohl ihre Geschäftsmodelle veraltet sind. Dafür gibt es drei Haupttreiber: Technologie, Regulierung und veränderte Kundenbedürfnisse.
Details im Artikel aus finews.ch "Das Ende der Universalbanken - und was danach kommt"
Martin Schneider und Andreas Carl verweisen auf ihren Tomato-Fachartikel Mehr Übersicht und Ordnung im Verkehr mit Banken.
Regula’s Comment:
This is a good example of a topic that’s not entirely new. Googling “the end of universal banks” points to articles from as far back as 2012. For example, the Economist featured the article “The fall of the universal bank” in 2012. However, the three key drivers mentioned above are accelerating the need for change.
Book Tip: Bob Peters' Excellence Dividend
In 1982, Tom Peters published In Search of Excellence, a highly successful book that inspired an entire generation of entrepreneurs how to look at business.
Now Peters is back with The Excellence Dividend: Meeting the Tech Tide with Work That Wows and Jobs That Last, in which he illustrates that nothing is better than a high-quality product or service developed and delivered by people who are more committed to each other than to their common goal. Review in ceo.com…
From the Desk of Regula Spottl, Greensboro, NC, USA
Greensboro has encountered to major events in April and I assisted as a volunteer in both.
- A tornado struck one of the poorer section of Greensboro on April 15. It killed one person and severely damaged or demolished over 1,000 homes, businesses and three schools. This is very unusual for our area. The relief effort has been remarkable!
- After serious deterioration for a few decades, Hillside Mansion, “a grand home in Fisher Park in Greensboro, built … in the 1920s,” has been restored. In April this Tudor-style home has been shown as a Designer Show House, each of the 31 rooms having been decorated by interior designers from all over America. Every day required 24 docents who volunteered to show visitors the individual rooms. It was fun to be involved.