Treasury in the Cloud

Cloud computing is predicted to become a billion dollar market. From a treasury perspective, does the cloud really have potential, or is it nothing but an airy idea?

By Martin Bellin

One of the essential reasons for the assumed success of the “cloud” is the outsourcing of IT services. Capacities are freed, investments can be reduced and budgets for everyday business become more flexible. A higher IT efficiency due to cloud computing has been predicted especially for medium-sized businesses. Even more importantly, however, it might help companies optimize their internal processes. The most important features:

• Data is available on all mobile devices – all information is at your fingertips, anywhere.
• Due to data sharing, the involved applications contain information from many parts of the company. Employees, departments and group companies feed the data pool with information on their own processes and simultaneously make use of data from the other parties. Global access can offer a genuine advantage, especially for decentralized collaboration.
• Data no longer needs to be distributed throughout the group. The flood of messages via e-mail, phone or fax no longer needs to be processed. The cloud contains all information, which can be retrieved and used as needed. The efficient distribution of data also solves the problem of double accounting.
• The data stored in the cloud is always up to date and available in real time. The loss of information due to delays becomes an issue of the past.
• The architecture of cloud-capable applications greatly simplifies the deployment of applications within the group. The local installation of software on workstations completely contradicts the concept of free access.
• Additionally, the costs of maintaining server farms can be reduced. People-intensive support capacities - especially for specialized applications - are no longer needed.

However, wherever there is light, there is shadow also. There are reasons why cloud computing is slow in gaining acceptance. Outsourcing the storage of internal data to third parties is very difficult for owner-run companies. Some of their misgivings are definitely well founded.

In order to solve the problem, the cloud concept was split into a “public” cloud (user-independent provision), the “private” cloud (user-related provision) and a “hybrid” cloud (a combination of both models). In addition to security concerns, the automated connection or even complete integration of cloud computing into a group's data streams and network is not impossible, but nevertheless very complex. Last but not least, the software needs to support the cloud. Conventional software models that need to be installed on a PC do not work with the new concept.

On the Way to Globalization

What relevance does the cloud have for treasury? Treasury departments are on the way to globalization. Therefore, the treasury workstation has served its purpose and will be replaced by a global network. The advantages of cloud computing enables a quantum leap in data management and compliance. Global information becomes available in real time. Since employees no longer need to collect data, capacities are freed that can be invested in higher quality work. A complete record of all processes as well as the work distribution in the front and back offices can be represented across all organizational and regional boundaries.

This reorganization makes it possible to replace reporting with process assistance. The report sent to others becomes the respective unit’s basis for information. In turn, this leads to much more precise and reliable data. While the establishment of a „Payment Factory“ or an „In-house Bank“ was often reserved for the big players, it is now easily possible for medium-sized businesses, because communication and information are distributed. Actually, these results are exactly the advantages expected from cloud computing. Its technical advantages round out the picture, especially with regard to the treasury, whose applications are a special case in the overall context of the company. The challenges of electronic banking, in particular, can become a problem for the in-house IT in time-critical support cases. Outsourcing expertise therefore makes sense from a technical perspective.

All in all, the “cloud in the treasury” is not only a new technology, but also the basis for a reorganization of treasury processes. Although the concept is not new fundamentally, it now receives the attention that it needs to gain widespread adoption. Lastly, the renewed discussion of the topic becomes a catalyst to bring the internationalization of the enterprise to the treasury – as is right and due.

Author:

Martin Bellin is Managing Director of the BELLIN GmbH in Ettenheim.

martin.bellin@bellin.de

German publication

Innovationspreis-IT 2012 goes to the BAWAG P.S.K.

The financial management tool “BAWAG P.S.K. Finance Cockpit” won the special award “Austria” as the most innovative product 2012 at the Innovationspreis-IT awards for medium-sized businesses.

The “BAWAG P.S.K. Finance Cockpit” was created by the BAWAG P.S.K. bank in cooperation with the consulting and software company BELLIN.

The solution is based on the treasury management software tm5 by BELLIN and was optimized specifically for small and medium-sized enterprises. It allows many SMEs to use a standardized, highly professional and modern system for all aspects of treasury management, including payments, at a very competitive price. The fact that it is a fully web-based system additionally reduces the technical requirements on the customer side, which makes an implementation in the whole enterprise a walk in the park.

“We are very happy to see our partner BAWAG P.S.K. win this award” said Martin Bellin, founder and Managing Director of BELLIN, after the solemn award ceremony last Friday at the CeBIT in Hanover, to which he was invited as a guest together with representatives of BAWAG P. S. K. “The combination of the sales power of a bank for small and medium-sized enterprises and the know-how of one of the leading suppliers of treasury management systems opens the door to new possibilities for a large number of companies. We look forward to seeing the system put to continued good use in SMEs, and we will be happy to expand our close cooperation with the BAWAG P.S.K in the future.”

The official German press release by the BAWAG P.S.K. read more

BELLIN Academy in Autumn 2011

Since the beginning of 2011, BELLIN provides customer-independent training sessions around the use of tm5. From September to early December, the second BELLIN ACADEMY cycle took place in the course of six days. In four different training sessions on the topics "Administration of tm5", "Risk Analysis in TT", "LMPlanning" and "Financial Status", the participants both systematically expanded their knowledge of the system and extensively discussed the different scenarios and pitfalls of everyday work. Hands-on exercises in the system rounded out the sessions.
Encouraged by the increasing number of participants and much positive feedback we have expanded the range of seminars for 2012. In addition to offering selected courses again, we will offer entirely new seminars, such as basic training sessions for new users on the topics of LMCash and TT, and, for the first time, a course for the IC module.

BELLIN Builds New Community

The treasury software supplier introduces new online support network for tm5 users / Careers section as special feature

BELLIN BACKSTAGE, the newest application launched by German software firm BELLIN, offers licensed users of their flagship treasury software tm5 an online community to supplement it. Users can export their existing identity information from the application to BACKSTAGE or set up nicknames and separate details.

BACKSTAGE ensures exclusivity by allowing only tm5 users to sign up for it. “Since access requires the latest tm5 update to be installed, the platform is accessible to about half of tm5 users one week after installation,” says Martin Bellin, founder and CEO of the company. ...

New payment possibilities: BELLIN’s treasury system tm5 now includes an interface to Deutsche Bank

Pay global - act local

By means of the newly created connection, companies only require one single system. It uses the international XML format ISO 20022, which can be generated and managed locally, for the execution of global payments via Deutsche Bank. Easy handling: a single system interface, one authorization and user administration controlled by the client, and only one authorization with the bank using the “corporate seal”. Therefore, nothing stands in the way of a worldwide implementation, under consideration of legal restrictions, for a harmonization of international payments...

Martin Bellin im Finale des Wettbewerbs „Entrepreneur des Jahres 2011“BELLIN

Pressemitteilung

Ettenheim, 16. September 2011. Vor wenigen Jahren war sein Unternehmen noch im heimischen Arbeitszimmer angesiedelt – nächste Woche hat Martin Bellin gute Chancen zu einem der besten mittelständischen Unternehmer Deutschlands gekürt zu werden. Denn der Ettenheimer befindet sich mit seinem Software- und Beratungsunternehmen BELLIN GmbH im Finale des Wettbewerbs „Entrepreneur des Jahres 2011“. Zum 15. Mal hat die Prüfungs- und Beratungsgesellschaft Ernst & Young in einer mehrstufigen, strengen Auswahl Hunderte von Unternehmen unter die Lupe  genommen. 65 davon haben den Sprung ins Finale des Wettbewerbs „Entrepreneur des Jahres  2011“ geschafft, darunter auch Martin Bellin.
„Das ist eine tolle Auszeichnung für die herausragende Arbeit unseres Teams“, kommentiert der Gründer und Geschäftsführer von BELLIN das Erreichen der Finalrunde. „Es wäre eine große Ehre den
Preis nach Ettenheim holen zu können!“...

BELLIN Summer Puzzle Solved

Small games keep friendships alive and facilitate work on many a hot summer day. To win this year's game, you had to collect words from www.ilovetreasury.com. Every week, we published another word from the solution phrase. If you took the time to regularly check the site, you were successful. The completed postcards returned to BELLIN were collected and the winner drawn at the end...

Read more in BELLIN BACKSTAGE.

„BAWAG P.S.K. Finance Cockpit“
Neuer Standard im Finanzmanagement

BELLIN Pressemitteilung

Juli 2011

Die BAWAG P.S.K. zählt zu den größten Zahlungsverkehrs-Anbietern, ist ein verlässlicher Partner der österreichischen Wirtschaft und unterstützt diese mit pionierhaften Lösungen. Das neue  Finanzmanagement-Tool der Bank, das „BAWAG P.S.K. Finance Cockpit“, setzt ab sofort einen signifikanten Schritt in Richtung „modern banking“ und bietet Unternehmen eine integrierte Lösung zur zeitnahen, transparenten und nachvollziehbaren Darstellung ihrer Zahlungsströme sowie zur Optimierung des Zins- und Währungsmanagements an. ...

Adam Smith Award 2011

For the second time, Virgin Atlantic Airways wins the renowned British treasury award through the use of the BELLIN payment solution. Last year, Virgin already entered the competition in the category "Harnessing the Power of Technology" with its groundbreaking host-to-host connection to various banks from within the treasury system. In 2010, this solution won the title "Highly Commended". Other winners were corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Caterpillar, and HP. The same year, the German Semikron company from Nuremberg also received an award for their exemplary organization of their newly created group treasury and use of tm5. Although all of us were happy about these awards, we continued to work to finally emerge as the winner in one of the categories.

We achieved our goal in 2011. By directly connecting tm5 to the payment processing at Lloyds TSB in London via a SWIFT Service Bureau, it is now possible to process local and cross-border payments in several variations of the BACS-18 format directly in tm5. This host-to-host connection was uncharted territory for Lloyds TSB, which proved to be a decisive factor in the jury's decision to give the award to Virgin Atlantic, the main recipient, as well as Lloyds TSB and BELLIN.

We congratulate our customer Virgin Atlantic Airways and their Group Treasurer Edward Collis, who participated in the awards ceremony together with Senior Treasury Analyst Branko Ilic. Mr. Ruediger Schlecht, Director of Consulting & Implementation at BELLIN, who was the consultant responsible for the project, also attended the ceremony. David Soan, Managing Director of BELLIN Treasury Alliance in the UK, accepted the award on behalf of BELLIN.

It is now time to think about the coming year. We would like to encourage our customers to work together with us to create another unique solution that wins this award. Any idea is welcome. Please contact us directly or speak to your consultant.

User Workshops Prove Popular

We were able to reach many customers with the four regional events. The events in Amsterdam, Bremen, Ettenheim and Bad Birnbach were fully booked long before they took place. The core topics of the events were the new features included in tm5  Patch Day 4...

Read more in BELLIN BACKSTAGE.

BELLIN in Mannheim

BELLIN Treasury Community in great mood

Every year, BELLIN is a co-host of the Finanzsymposium trade show in Mannheim, Germany. As always, our stand was a point of contact for many customers and prospects. In addition to the usual bustle, the stand design made it possible to have conversations in a quiet atmosphere, which proved to be very popular. In spite of the record attendance announced by the organizers, many visitors perceived the atmosphere in corridors and halls as rather quiet...

Read more in BELLIN BACKSTAGE.

Customer Survey 2011

For the current year, we have undertaken a review of our services and offers. Does what we have to offer really impress our customers? Is the service just as they want it? What issues in the cooperation are going to arise within the next 12 months? ...

Read more in BELLIN BACKSTAGE.

Winner – Harnessing the Power of Technology

Virgin Atlantic decided to change the way it processed its accounts receivables (AR) and accounts payables (AP) when it realised its old payments system was nearing the end of its shelflife. The company wanted to create an operational environment in which their multiple business units shared a common centralised ‘best practice’ model for the processing of sterling accounts payables and receivables. The solution needed to accommodate a range of up to nine existing ERP technologies, with their associated differing file formats, used across seven business units. It was also required to consolidate all traffic into a common interface, whilst creating strong visibility (with the associated liquidity benefits), control and reporting throughout the AR/ AP lifecycle. In addition, having made a strategic decision to utilise the SWIFT network as an interface to its financial institution partners, the company needed the solution to be SWIFT enabled. ...

New Partnerships: BELLIN now represented in the UK and the Benelux

Press release Ettenheim

March 2011

Following the strong demand for BELLIN’s treasury management system tm5 and affiliated services across Europe, BELLIN has formed two partnerships dedicated to serve the UK and Benelux customers.

tm5 is BELLIN’s web-based treasury management system that, in addition to features expected from a TMS, has a fully integrated payment solution enabling corporate treasuries to communicate directly with banks around the globe. Its core modules cover all aspects of daily treasury management, including cash management, forecasting, processing, recording and valuation of all types of treasury deals with banks and group companies. On top of that, tm5 offers powerful possibilities for intercompany netting and reconciliation. The product features a competitive price for an unlimited number of users, rapid deployment, connectivity to banks and comes with up to 24/7 hotline support. It is offered as a SaaS solution or can be selfhosted by the client. ...

New presence of BELLIN in the UK

Press release Ettenheim

January 2011

BELLIN in the UK after more than one year of market development, BELLIN has reorganized their presence in the UK. “Our success in the market is significant and we have been able to enhance our offering earlier than expected. It is our intention to serve the local clients in the best possible way and to demonstrate our dedication to the UK market,” states Martin Bellin, the founder of BELLIN. With the founding of the BELLIN Treasury Alliance Ltd, a new organization has taken over the sales and implementation business from the former partner. ...

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german

L'Occitane en Provence chooses tm5

L’Occitane uses tm5

L’Occitane en Provence has finally decided to make use of BELLIN’s treasury management system tm5 to support their treasury activities. As a multinational organization, L’Occitane en Provence is going to start the project in their central treasury department in Geneva before further deploying the treasury platform within the group companies...

Virgin Atlantic Airways - A multi-bank international payment solution

The solution

The solution chosen was based upon the BELLIN tm5 Treasury Management System and Payment Gateway. A key feature of the solution was to have a common payment process across the enterprise including system access controls and payment signing authorities. The four-eyes principle for controlling system changes was adopted as this was an inherent feature of the BELLIN platform. A number of suboptimal interfaces between the internal ERP systems and external electronic banking systems were replaced by a single Payment Gateway which could send payment files to the banks and receive account balance and transactional information centrally.

Made to Measure – Restructured EBN Treasury Receives a Customized System

The Solution

For decades, the Utrecht-based energy production company EBN was part of a multinational corporation. When the Dutch government made EBN an independent company in 2006, the finance department had to be rebuilt completely. In order to establish a separate treasury department, finding a suitable management system was of the essence. After comparing offers from different vendors, EBN quickly chose BELLIN‘s tm5...

The City of Basel‘s financial administration implements a multi-bank solution for international payments

BELLIN Payment Gateway

The previously used FIDES Treasurer-PC frontend was replaced by BELLIN’s tm5 solution to ensure a smooth payment process and to optimize the Treasury. FIDES now takes care of the back-end data transmission from the bank to the client and vice versa. It does not matter whether payment orders are sent from tm5 as templates, forwards, standing orders or specific single payments. They are generated in tm5 and transmitted via the BELLIN Payment Gateway to FIDES using an FTX connection. FIDES then transfers the payment orders to the executing banks via the Swiss banking network...

SEMIKRON substantially increases its efficiency with the formation of a central group treasury

The solution

The company’s desired way forward was to standardise its tariff structure for all SEMIKRON group companies, to apply same-day value to all incoming payments and to reduce fees for eurodenominated payments by up to 50%. Operationally, the company wanted to establish direct access to local euro clearing in phase one and US dollar clearing in phase two. Payment formats were to be standardised to leverage the industry developments, particularly in the area of SEPA XML ISO20022. The number of electronic banking systems was also reduced to a single system. In addition, a consistent liquidity structure was sought, with one central, German and English speaking contact person at the bank...

Three Partners, One System – Payments Revolution at Shoe Retailer Deichmann

The Solution

Nobody sells more shoes in Europe than Deichmann. However, the steady expansion into new countries made the corporation‘s cash management increasingly complicated. Each subsidiary handled their payments differently. After the German parent company successfully established a treasury management system in 2009, Deichmann set a new goal: Step by step, all sites should introduce a consistent payment format and process payments through a central gateway. In addition to their established software provider BELLIN, the group enlisted Deutsche Bank as a partner in the project...

Cash as Cash Can – Toshiba Europe GmbH Optimizes it‘s Cash Management

The Solution

The European branch of technology giant Toshiba is broadly based. This applies to the product portfolio as well as to the size of the financial apparatus – the 20 regional offices maintain 78 accounts in 14 currencies at 34 banks. All this is managed from the headquarters in Neuss, as are various cash pools with a total sum of several hundred million euro. For managing these resources efficiently, Toshiba has been relying on BELLIN’s services and their treasury management system tm5 for quite some time...

Royal Customers – Modern Receivables Management at Seidensticker

The Solution

The Seidensticker Group sells nearly 16 million articles of clothing every year. They are largely brought on the market by approximately 15,000 business customers. Therefore, a well-functioning receivables management plays a crucial role for the largest shirt manufacturer in Europe. To keep track of payment terms, credit reports, and credit limits, Seidensticker uses various sources of information. BELLIN‘s solutions enable the company to combine this data, providing all employees with a clear overview that is always up to date...

Good Planning is Crucial - the Herrenknecht AG Benefits from a Superior Liquidity Management

The Solution

The steady growth of the Herrenknecht AG induced the company to look for a treasury management system. The previous Excel-based solution was not capable of displaying much of the important data adequately. The medium-sized manufacturer of tunnel boring machines is the world market leader in mechanized tunnelling technology. Most machines are customized for the project and thus unique. An important goal of Herrenknecht is to always have sufficient liquidity. Particular challenges are the high capital intensity in the production of the machines, the control of currency risks and the management of receivables. Dealing with these tasks has become much easier thanks to tm5 by BELLIN...