While many pooh-pooh cloud computing, for treasury it will be cost-saving manna.
No matter what people think of “the cloud,” it is growing and most likely coming to an application near you. Accenture, in a recent report, called cloud computing “the fundamental re-creation of the traditional enterprise operating model,” offering companies agility and savings in both time and money.
For today’s lean treasury, that is going to make a lot of difference. That’s because a headache for many treasuries is technology and the IT people who service it—whether both are in-house or outsourced. This has been the case for Tina Daroszewski, a manager of treasury operations at Avis Budget Corp., who has moved away from having a treasury workstation on company computers. Presenting at the New York Cash Exchange in early June, Ms. Daroszewski was thrilled when in implementing a new ERP, she was able to eliminate technology from her day-to-day responsibilities. Up until then, she had to deal with outdated systems and data with almost no IT support. Upon implementation, however, “we completely got rid of IT. There was no need to call them anymore.” In addtion, treasuries that do adopt a cloud strategy will also eliminate the cost of servers, software licenses, maintenance fees, data center space, electricity.
The cloud will likely also help treasury with its aspirations to be more strategic, because it will not only free them up to do their jobs but might aid in speeding up cash. “The cycle times for resource allocation can be dramatically increased, shaving weeks off an organization’s IT budget and approval process,” according to Accenture. With platforms now removed from companies, treasuries can attain the efficiency they so often covet and need. They can save money, too, by only using what they need when they need it. “IT services become an operating expense rather than a capital one, and allocated on an annual, quarterly or even monthly basis,” Accenture said.
Still for many who are hesitant about the cloud, there is one thorn that they cannot overcome — and that is control. For all its promises of efficiency and time and money savings, for practical purposes, the company’s data is not in your control. In some sense, it is not yours anymore. The vendor, be it SaaS or cloud, has full control over the data, and depending on the circumstances, can lock you out of it.
But in a world where treasury is pressed for time and being asked to be more strategic, the merits of cloud computing often outweigh any downside.