Beyond Technology in Treasury: Leveraging Community Intelligence

Running an efficient, data-driven global treasury is not just a technology play: it’s also about leveraging “community intelligence” and group-wide collaboration. Sounds too involved? It’s easier than you think, says Nikolai Diekert, Director, Product Management, Coupa.

It has always been the job of the corporate treasurer to manage cash, liquidity and risk in an unpredictable world. Despite the almost existential importance of the role, treasurers have often been presented with a rather simplistic toolset to help keep the lights on: the spreadsheet.

In itself it is a useful, flexible and familiar piece of technology. The problem with spreadsheets comes when treasuries have to bring financial data together to make sense of the rapid-fire dynamics of the commercial, economical and, increasingly, political drivers of global business.

When having all financial data in one place, available and readable in real time is so critical, it’s perhaps an anomaly that treasurers often struggle to gain access to the right data, running the gauntlet of functional silos, multiple yet disconnected systems, and perhaps even budgetary resistance to improvement. It certainly would be an anomaly, were it not such a common scenario.

Download our Free Treasury App for mobile and tablet to read articles – no log in required.

Download Version Download Version