Digitalisation: The foundation for success in 2022

Data is at the heart of treasury To help get digitalisation right — and support first-stage digitalisation projects such as robotic process automation to improve the efficiency of fundamental treasury tasks — companies need to look at the availability and quality of data across their organisation. “Treasury effectiveness is a function of the data coming in from a wide variety of stakeholders: the faster it arrives, and the better quality it is, the more effective treasury will be,” says James Kelly, Group Treasurer at learning company Pearson. “ Treasury effectiveness is a function of the data coming in” Pearson has made significant advances in tackling its data challenges. “We are now seeking to streamline data and improve data flexibility by leveraging a data lakehouse that will provide a single version of the truth,” explains Kelly. A data lakehouse is a storage architecture that combines the flexibility of data lakes with the management capabilities of data warehouses. “The structure should allow us to bring in more data from across the business and do more with what we already have.” As Pearson’s example shows, effective use of data is critical to next-step digitalisation projects. “As we move to a real-time automated treasury, we must better utilise data,” says Grant Walker, Treasury Systems Manager at Nestlé. Data-driven decision-making around FX risk management and liquidity management is a key 2022 goal for The Weir Group, notes Ngoshi. Similarly, John Donegan, Global Head of Treasury Operations at Hewlett Packard Enterprises says that having put in place a foundation of reliable data, treasury is now developing an information dashboard, with automated KPIs for FX, DCM and risk management. “The end point is a smart treasury that can provide valuable insights from data for real-time decision making,” he says. Kiera Agnew, Assistant Treasurer at Kellogg’s, says the company plans to leverage data in order to create a ‘no touch’ treasury. “Everything, from the suggestion of the parameters of a potential hedge, to the cash settlement and the accounting of that hedge, will be automated,” she says. No ‘one-size-fits-all’ For many years, there has been a consensus that having a fragmented technology landscape — with multiple banking platforms and ERP systems — makes it challenging to achieve treasury objectives. “Within Nestlé, we have introduced a global TMS and ERP following significant investment,” says Walker. Likewise, Agnew says Kellogg’s is working with banking and fintech partners to innovate its TMS to address challenges caused by fragmentation. Certainly, for many companies “ For the first time, there's genuine competition for TMS providers” Digitalisation: The foundation for success in 2022