When your treasury operating model feels scattered, it can cause all sorts of headaches—inefficiencies, increased risks, and a lack of visibility into your operations. Streamlining and optimizing your treasury processes is key to solving these problems.
With a more cohesive and efficient approach, you can improve operational efficiency, reduce risks, and gain better control and visibility over your finances. Unifying processes address current issues and set you up for long-term success and resilience.
Here are 7 Essential Steps to Eliminate Fragmentation:
1. Identify the Pain Points and Risks:
Take a close look at your current treasury setup. Are there areas that seem inefficient or risky? Do you find it hard to get a clear picture of what’s going on?
It’s essential to evaluate your processes, systems, and organizational structure to understand just how fragmented things might be. According to Deloitte, companies with fragmented operations can end up with operational costs up to 30% higher due to these inefficiencies (Deloitte 2022).
2. Picture the Perfect Setup:
Imagine what your ideal treasury operations should look like, considering your organization’s goals and risk tolerance.
Think about whether a centralized or decentralized approach would work best for functions like cash management, risk management, and financial control. According to PwC, adopting a centralized treasury model can cut risk exposure by up to 25% (PwC 2021).
3. Simplify Your Operations:
Pinpoint common processes that can be standardized across all your business units. Create policies, procedures, and guidelines to ensure consistency in areas like cash forecasting, payment processing, and risk management. The Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) notes that standardizing processes can improve operational efficiency by 20% (AFP 2020).
4. Integrate and Automate
Take a look at your current technology setup and find opportunities for integration and consolidation. Implement a centralized Treasury Management System (TMS) to bring all your data together, automate processes, and improve visibility into treasury activities. According to Gartner, organizations using a centralized TMS see a 40% increase in data accuracy and reporting efficiency (Gartner 2021).
5. Create a Single Source of Truth
Set up systems to pull data from various sources into one reliable place. Build strong reporting mechanisms that offer real-time insights into cash, liquidity, risk, and control information. According to McKinsey & Company, better data integration can speed up decision-making by 30% (McKinsey 2022).
6. Reshape for Efficiency
Assess your organizational structure to balance simplicity and growth. Consider centralizing or reshaping functions like cash management and risk management to enhance efficiency and reduce costs. EY’s research shows that optimizing the organizational structure can cut operational costs by 15% (EY 2021).
7. Boost Cross-Functional Teamwork
Make sure your treasury team is chatting and working closely with finance, accounting, and operations. Breaking down silos and promoting teamwork can really help with your transformation journey. According to KPMG, better collaboration can boost productivity by 25% (KPMG 2020).
Conclusion
Fixing a fragmented treasury operating model requires a holistic approach that covers processes, technology, people, and communication. By following these steps, you can turbocharge efficiency, control, and visibility in your treasury operations.
Need help with your fragmented treasury operating model? Reach out to Prodktr for expert consulting services tailored to your needs.
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References
Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) 2020. Standardizing Treasury Processes. Available at: https://www.afponline.org.
Deloitte 2022. The Cost of Fragmented Treasury Operations. Available at: https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/risk/us-deloitte-global-treasury-survey-2022.pdf.
EY 2021. Optimizing Organizational Structure for Treasury Functions. Available at: https://www.ey.com/en_gl/services/assurance/treasury-commodities-finance.
Gartner 2021. Benefits of Centralized Treasury Management Systems. Available at: https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/3-advantages-of-shared-services-over-centralized-services.
KPMG 2020. Enhancing Cross-Functional Collaboration in Treasury. Available at: https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/is/pdf/2021/03/Gagnsaeisskyrsla-2020.pdf.
McKinsey & Company 2022. Improving Decision-Making through Data Integration. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-data-driven-enterprise-of-2025.
PwC 2021. Risk Reduction through Centralized Treasury Models. Available at: https://www.pwc.co.uk/risk/assets/pdf/2021-global-treasury-survey.pdf.