Treasury Automation Solutions to Be Key for Banks’ Clients: Celent

Treasury's ability to impact the bottom line is gaining increased recognition at the C-levels of leading organizations, driving greater adoption of more sophisticated and better integrated treasury automation solutions, says a new report on treasury management from Boston-based Celent .

Companies are striving to increase the visibility and the velocity of the cash flowing through their organizations, and to optimize how this cash is deployed and invested. Treasurers need accurate and timely visibility over an organization's cash, debt and investments around the world. Treasurers are in real need of automation solutions to facilitate these tasks, according to the report, Treasury Management Technology: Optimizing the Cash Cycle. Yet, for a majority of corporations, spreadsheet technology remains the dominant liquidity tool.

Through 2008, Celent expects to see broader corporate usage of treasury technology by firms of all sizes. A key driver of this increased adoption will be greater usage of ASP treasury solutions, primarily by midsize treasury departments.

In the report, Celent analyzes the current state of the corporate treasury technology market, looking at key drivers of treasury technology adoption and examining the advantages and disadvantages of the various automation options available to firms -- from spreadsheets to treasury workstations to ERP or bank solutions.

According to Madhavi Mantha, author of the report and senior analyst at Celent, the type of treasury automation solution selected by a company varies depending on the firm's size and other factors. For example, the report says a midsize treasury that is primarily focused on automating cash and position management, and that has a limited number of banking partners as well as limited internal IT resources, will do well by choosing an ASP solution provided by either its primary bank or a specialized vendor.

"There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to choosing the right approach to automating treasury functions. A company's chosen strategy will vary based on the scope of treasury's responsibilities, its level of involvement in operational cash flows, its geographical footprint and the complexity of its banking operations," said Mantha in a statement.