Yesterday's tools can't handle today's tasks.

• Author: Bosacco, Michael
• Position: Treasury

It's clear that cash is the lifeline of any company. But without cash visibility and mobility, corporate treasurers are unable to make confident and timely decisions about how to protect themselves from tomorrow's liquidity risks.

Liquidity is too expensive and too important to be left decentralized. Consequently, it must be managed globally, watched centrally and reported singularly. But how do corporations put a finer point on global cash positions for better decision-making and liquidity risk management? Are the tools and technology of yesterday up to the demands and challenges of today?

Challenges of Yesterday's Technology

For many organizations, managing corporate cash and liquidity is still a lot like playing a game of darts. They use disparate technologies to make decisions--spreadsheets, databases, email and bank portals--and hope for the best possible outcome. The problem with this approach? Data is frequently inaccurate, lacking a holistic and global view and not up to date. Likely, any corporation stuck in the trenches, Using yesterday's tools to manage today's more complex treasury requirements, is feeling the pain and challenges associated with disparate systems, as well as cash visibility and mobility, data transparency and reporting and risk and liquidity management.

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Labor-intensive keying of data manually into spreadsheets is not only inefficient, but also places a company at significant operational risk if information is mistyped or overlooked altogether. And enterprise resource planning systems--thought to be highly efficient for managing internal and external information across the entire organization--do not adequately support the more complex functions, workflows and instruments of treasury.

Without visibility and mobility, a corporation is unable to pinpoint a global cash position. This means it cannot accurately forecast cash and liquidity requirements and make sound investment and borrowing decisions. Lack of transparency resulting from data scattered across regions and multiple systems and in inconsistent formats makes reporting unreliable, difficult to explain, inefficient and costly.

And improper risk management techniques can have tremendous implications, sending even the most profitable company into financial distress. It is therefore imperative that cash is invested wisely, reliance on third-party providers of finance minimized and changes in market foreign exchange and interest rates monitored daily.

Technology Advancements Support Treasurers

Advancements in treasury technology in recent years--more powerful treasury management systems (TMS), FX/Trading platforms, eBAM, short-term investment portals, multi-bank connectivity and more--provide corporate treasurers with the opportunity to address these growing liquidity management challenges while more effectively monitoring their company's cash and risk.

As the treasury role...