Technology Transformation for a Best-in-Class Treasury Function

by Muriel Alvarez, Assistant Treasurer, Dana Holding Corporation

As a corporation that experienced the full force of the global economic crisis, Dana emerged from bankruptcy with a renewed focus on efficiency, control, and cash and treasury optimisation. The first step in achieving this was to review and revise cash management policies, processes and banking structures. A logical next step was then to enforce these principles through an efficient, automated treasury technology infrastructure. Furthermore, a major focus amongst senior management post-bankruptcy was to ensure timely, accurate and complete access to information. Given that Dana had over 40 ERPs in place, resulting in fragmented processes, flows and information, implementing a dedicated, specialist treasury management system (TMS) was the only way to overcome this fragmentation and achieve consistent processes and comprehensive, complete information.

Key Points

• In 2012, Dana’s treasury decided to select and globally implement a new TMS as part of an overall strategy to centralise, rationalise and optimise its operations
• SunGard’s AvantGard Integrity solution was chosen, with one primary objective of achieving 100% visibility over the company’s cash in real time
• The author describes the global roll-out of the solution, region by region, which was completed in 2014
• Key objectives have been achieved and the many benefits of the new system, including automation and standardisation, are summarised

Systems background

Before 2012, our global treasury teams were relying on spreadsheets and a huge number of bank portals to manage cash and treasury operations. Our accounting and bank account reconciliation processes were manual and labour-intensive, which meant that our treasury team was spending its time producing data rather than analysing and acting on it. Our financing and investment transactions were also tracked manually on spread sheets, so we lacked visibility and control. With a lack of timely, complete reporting, it was difficult to measure and monitor risk to financial counterparties.

In 2012, we received management approval to select and implement a new TMS that would be implemented globally as part of an overall strategy to centralise, rationalise and optimise our treasury operations and decision-making.

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