Developments in Liquidity Management: Seeking New Working Capital Solutions
Abstract
Developments in Liquidity Management: Seeking New Working Capital Solutions
The pace of change in liquidity management is picking up, and corporations are clamoring for unified solutions. Corporate treasurers can expect further advances in integration of general ledger systems, ERP systems, specialty workstations, and solutions offered by specialty integration providers through 2010.
Given the ongoing credit crisis, tighter lending practices, and greater risk aversion, the old adage that "Cash is king" is not only in vogue, it is the rage. Access to and oversight of cash are becoming increasingly important. Corporate treasurers are focusing on how best to manage liquidity as well as examining the role technology can play. Cash needs to be invested, but the challenge is how to best manage the daily liquidity flow and how to implement best practices when making short-term investments.
A new Celent report, Developments in Liquidity Management: Seeking New Working Capital Solutions, focuses on the high-level challenges and trends in liquidity management. The Holy Grail of liquidity management is one consolidated view of all funds available and the ability to act on the data in a timely manner. Within the next five years, Celent predicts that the technology will be developed for that goal to be achieved. More interestingly, that goal will be achieved by different constituents in different ways, benefiting a wide array of corporate clients. ERP providers, workstation providers, and banks will all work toward providing corporations with a global view of cash positions, the tools to analyze the data, and the tools to manage liquidity.
| Key Need | What It Means |
| Data Consolidation Stage 1 | Fewer sources of data from more dependable providers. |
| Standardization Stage 2 | More uniformity in data languages used to transmit financial information. |
| Global Solutions Stage 3 | Vendor solutions that can handle all currencies and connect with all key banking providers. |
| Integration Stage 4 | Ability to tie transaction data to their general ledger and enterprise resource planning (ERP) system more easily |
| Analysis Stage 5 | Ability to use analytical tools to better understand their options; better data paves the way for better analysis. |
| Execution Time Stage 6 | The maximum amount of time to analyze data and then execute investment decisions based on the data |
| Source: Celent | |
"Treasurers are finding themselves more involved than ever before in the business of carefully managing their corporation’s cash, with a keener eye than usual on balancing the desire for respectable short-term investment yields, and attention to the balance between risk and yield," says Enrico Camerinelli, senior analyst with Celent’s banking group.
"In these uncertain times, some treasurers are investing cash almost exclusively in treasuries or near-term cash equivalents and shying away from many kinds of commercial paper or asset-backed securities," he adds.
The first section of this report provides an overview of the current corporate treasury market, with a focus on the increasing role of cash and cash equivalents. The report then briefly reviews developments in pooling and cash forecasting. It provides an update on SWIFT’s Standardized Corporate Environment (SCORE) solution, which is poised to change the day-to-day operations of large corporate treasurers. Finally, the report updates Celent’s 2006 Case Study of Microsoft, in which Microsoft’s "Fort Knox" treasury transformation project was featured.
The report is 48 pages long and contains six tables and 20 figures. A table of contents is available online.
of Celent's Corporate Banking and Finance & Risk research services can download the report electronically by clicking on the icon to the left. Non-members should contact info@celent.com for more information.