Survey finds treasurers optimistic.

• Author: Carmody, Daniel J.
• Position: Treasury - Survey

Most corporate treasury practitioners are optimistic about the future despite an uncertain economic environment, according to the 2008 TreaSolution Annual Treasury Survey. The survey also found that nearly 90 percent of respondents expect a pay raise this year and about one-fifth plan to add staff to their departments.

The survey polled 140 treasury practitioners on topics ranging from technology to relationships with their banks.

On the subject of salaries, not one respondent expects a pay cut this year; about 12 percent think their remuneration will stay the same; nearly 76 percent expect it to increase by up to 10 percent; and almost 13 percent predict they will receive a raise of 10 percent or more.

When it comes to staffing, 21.5 percent say they plan to add employees in 2008, while only about 7 percent expect their departments to cut staff.

Technology

As treasurers are being asked to assume increased responsibility, while at the same time reducing overall expenses, practitioners are finding that the key to successful treasury management is through implementing both secure and efficient procedures.

To help achieve this, many mid-size to large organizations are considering treasury workstations that automate manual tasks while facilitating more secure and efficient treasury function.

Treasury workstation utilization is growing due to new technology that is drawing the attention of more middle-market treasury departments. In the past, treasury workstations were considered a tool for mostly large organizations with more than $1 billion in annual revenue.

Today, more than 70 percent of organizations with $5 billion or more in revenue use some form of treasury workstation technology. A little less than 40 percent with revenue greater than $1 billion use treasury workstation technology.

Many treasury departments currently rely on spreadsheets for their primary cash-management technology. If an organization is relatively small and has simplified its cash-management requirements, spreadsheets may effectively address all of its treasury-management technology requirements.

But larger organizations with complex cash-management requirements will likely have already evaluated (or plan to evaluate) a treasury workstation. Many medium to large organizations will consider this technology because of its ability to efficiently automate manual processes, provide comprehensive audit trails and implement straight-through processing.

Another area of...