TOMATO CATCH-UP: Newsletter Issue 161 – June 2013

Your monthly resource on working capital, process optimization and issues relating to the world of corporate treasurers, IT professionals and bankers!

Introduction:

For this newsletter, we discovered blogs by professors at the Institut für Finanzdienstleistungen in Zug (IFZ) that bankers will enjoy. In gtnews and cfo-insight.com, the articles on SEPA, SWIFT and e-supplier invoicing help treasurers updating their knowledge on challenges and new developments. In cio.com, the articles on operational resiliency and “digital IQ” will address CIOs and their teams’ issues. Finally, regardless of you specialty, the articles Strategies for Simplifying Your Company and a leadership style that stresses a lot of autonomy will invite you to assess how the tips resonate with your situation.

Enjoy the variety!

Regula Spottl

In Today's Issue:

TOMATO UPDATES

Tomato: Upcoming Events for Fall 2013

FINANCE, TREASIRY AND BANKING

CIO AND IT

MANAGEMENT AND CAREER

Tomato: Upcoming Events for Fall 2013

Jährlicher Swiss Treasury Summit in Zug am 11.9.2013
Martin Schneider spricht aus seiner langen Erfahrung im Zahlungsvekehr zu SEPA, Cloud, FTX-EBICS gemeinsam mit Samuel Antunes, Cornel Bischoff und Martin Bellin.

In Vorbereitung: Jährliche Treasury Tagung bei einer Zürcher Bank am 19.9.2013
Mike Müller (Group Treasurer Tecan) und Martin Schneider berichten über die erfolgreiche Einführung von Swift Score für den ganzen Konzern. Der gesamte Zahlungsverkehr wird seit 3 Jahren über den Swift-Gateway zu neuen und definierten Hausbanken geleitet. Drei Jahre danach lässt sich die Nachhaltigkeit aus der Distanz noch besser beurteilen.

1TC/First Treasury Convention im Europa Park in Rust am 28./29.11.2013
Die Tomato AG ist zum dritten Mal mit Vorträgen und Stand an der Treasury Convention vertreten

Details zu den drei Veranstaltungen...

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Zinsänderungsrisiken und Margendruck bedrohen Banken: Massnahmen...

Das Retail-Banking muss gegen die Bedrohung von Margendruck und Zinsänderdungsrisiken Massnahmen treffen. Welche Strategie bietet die richtige Erfolgsorientierung?

Gemäss Dr. Martin Spillmann, Dozent am Institut für Finanzdienstleistungen in Zug (IFZ), ist professionelle Bilanzsteuerung oder ALM (Asset & Liability Management) die beste Lösung. Im Blog „Eine stille Banken-Katastrophe?“ erklärt Dr. Spillmann ALM sei komplex und involviere mehrere Bereiche. Er beschreibt die Situation, erklärt was zum Erfolg nötig ist, listet Bedrohungen sowie Fragen, die CEOs beantworten müssen. Details...

Danke Dr. Spillmann für diesen interessanten Bericht! Mit Martin Spillmann sind wir auch über den Swiss Treasury Summit vernetzt.

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Internetplattform „Viele schaffen mehr“ – interessante Idee

Vereine und öffentliche Einrichtungen (wie z.B. Kindergärten, etc.) haben viele Wünsche aber oft kein Geld. Über die neue Internetplattform „Viele schaffen mehr“ der Volksbank Bühl können Leute solche Wünsche mitfinanzieren. Dieses innovative Projekt ist auf dem Finanzierungsmodell Crowdfunding basiert.

Im Blog Volksbank Bühl – ein Vorreiter für Schweizer Regionalbanken und Genossenschaftsbanken? Beschreibt Prof Dr. Andreas Dietrich, Dozent an der Hochschule Luzern - Wirtschaft, Institut für Finanzdienstleistungen Zug IFZ, wie das Internetportal der Volksbank Bühl funktioniert.

Er erklärt, diese genossenschaftliche deutsche Regionalbank sei eine Vorreiterbank im deutschsprachigen Raum und beschreibt, warum die „Idee auch in der Schweiz für regional verankerte Banken oder Banken mit einem genossenschaftlichen Gedanken interessant und weiter zu beobachten“ ist. Lesen Sie den Blog...

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E-Supplier Invoicing Market is Growing

Electronic supplier invoicing helps to reduce cost and improve transparency. The challenge for CFOs is to have suppliers on their side which is not easy, says Ritobaan Roy in the cfo-insight.com article Electronic invoicing market grows.

The problem is a lack of standards. Also, smaller suppliers may find it expensive to make the transition. In addition, “country-specific legal and tax regulations may restrict a sudden change to a buyer’s system of e-invoicing,” says Mr. Roy.

Still, CFOs of companies with a high level of automation should be able to implement an e-invoicing solution fairly quickly. Also in most cases, it’s best to gradually switch over from paper to electronic invoices. Therefore, CFOs should be prepared to work with both systems in parallel during the transition, says Mr. Roy. Full story…

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Latest Update on SEPA Migration Challenges

Preparing for SEPA migration is now in a late stage and most treasurers are familiar with the main challenges. However, confusion and some “niche complexities” appear to be more challenging once treasurers are deeply involved in the conversion.

Dieter Stynen, Deutsche Bank, highlights two such challenges. One of them involves IBANs and BICs: How to obtain codes and “whether or not both codes are required for the processing of domestic direct debits under SEPA.” The other challenge involves the issue of XML. It’s clear that XML ISO 20022 is the mandatory messaging format for all SEPA transactions. However, it’s not “as clear cut as it may first appear to treasurers,” says M. Stynen.

Details in GTNews article Addressing the SEPA Migration Challenge… (Registration required, free)

Further details and resources on the Tomato webpages SEPA Schedule (E) and SEPA-Fahrplan (D)

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New SWIFT Service Bureaux (SSBs) Criteria

The new qualifying criteria for SWIFT service bureaux (SSBs), introduced in the Shared Infrastructure Programme (SIP), redefined “eligibility criteria, roles, responsibilities and legal, financial and operational requirements.” These stricter requirements could significantly change the SSB market.

In the article SSBs: A Changing Marketplace, gtnews’ Bija Knowles examines

the changing SSB marketplace
the new Shared Infrastructure Programme (SIP) criteria
what it means for treasurers looking for “partners for the on-boarding and connectivity procedure” and
the status of the SWIFT for Corporates programme.

Details… (registration required, free)

In the article Q&A: SWIFT Explains New SIP Qualifying Criteria for Service Bureaux, gtnews’ Heather McKenzie interviewed Filip Versluys, head of partner management at SWIFT, to illustrate the changes and their potential impact. Details… (registration required, free)

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How Can IT Attain Operational Resiliency?

Such diverse risks as cyber-attacks, power failures, severe weather etc require that organizations develop sophisticated systems of availability that ensure uninterrupted business operations. The key to success is building processes for operational resilience that include data governance, disaster recovery and IT service management (a process-based practice intended to align the delivery of IT services with needs of the organization), argues Thor Olavsrud, in the cio.com article How IT Can Achieve Operational Resiliency.

David Tapper, vice president of Outsourcing and Offshore Services at research firm IDC, offers 5 recommendations for achieving operational resiliency. They include:

Tapper has five recommendations to help organizations achieve operational resilience:

Develop Key Performance Indicates (KPIs), a risk profile and a blueprint for operational resilience.
Implement strategic change initiatives.
Perform gap analysis.
Develop a holistic enterprise-wise governance and risk management system.
Incorporate an optimal sourcing model for operational resilience.

Full story with details for each recommendation…

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CIOs Collaboration with Top Execs = Higher “Digital IQ” and Profits

“Digital IQ” refers to how well companies weave the value of technology into “the fabric of their organizations.” To grow the Digital IQ involves “integrating technology into the way a company plans, innovates, measures results, interacts with customers, and ultimately creates value,” according to PwC’s 4th Annual Digital IQ Survey: What is Digital IQ? This website is educational and worth examining.

PricewaterhouseCoopers' fifth annual Digital IQ study found that a collaborative relationship between the CIO and other top business execs results in a higher ‘digital IQ’ and higher profits. While the result of the study is not surprising, some details in the article are.

Pricewatrhousecooper’s conducted a study with 1,108 business technology leaders. Full CIO.com article…

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Strategies for Simplifying Your Company

Most organizations identify complexity as a major challenge as it hampers productivity as well workplace morale. What can companies do about it?

In their Harvard Business Review blog, Ron Ashkenas and Lisa Bodell suggest Seven Strategies for Simplifying Your Organization. These strategies include:

Get rid of “stupid rules”, low-value activities and time-wasters.
Clarify what internal and external customers really want and focus on that.
Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize!
Take out extra steps in processes to make them as lean as possible.
Speak up about poor practices, even when complexity is caused by poor management.
Reduce extra layers of management and stay away from micro-managing.
Complexity is like a weed in the garden. Don’t let weeds grow back. Do steps 1-6 over again.

Mr. Ashkenas argues that “simplification should be a core leadership capability and a critical component of the business strategy.” These steps provide a good start; and they are not meant for just top management. Each person can take measures to simplify. The reward is less stress and better morale.

HBR Blog with explanations to each step…

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Leadership Style: Give People a Lot of Autonomy

I previously referred to the Sunday New York Times “Corner Office” column that features interviews with CEOs about their leadership and hiring styles. On June 1, in the article Here’s My Vision, and Here’s Yours. Let’s Make It Work, Jenna Fagnan, president of Tequila Avión, explained her leadership style.

Ms Fagnan gives her employees a lot of autonomy. She makes sure they completely understand her vision and buy into it. More importantly, she makes sure that each person knows what exactly he/she has to do to make that vision happen; what it means for each one individually, and how important it is to the overall vision. Full story…

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From the Desk of Regula Spottl, Greensboro, North Carolina

Microfinance in North Carolina: Slow Money NC
Pittsboro is about an hour from Greensboro. It’s a small town with many organic farms, people experimenting with heirloom animals and plants, and a bustling Farmer’s Market, which is a cooperative located in a former mill. It’s also the heart of Slow Money NC, “a small but growing movement of radical microfinance.

Slow Money NC, is “an innovative lending system that has helped arrange 80 loans to nearly 40 borrowers in North Carolina.”

To deal with Pittsboro’s Farmer’s Market’s huge debt, Slow Money founded an investment club called Bringing It Home Chatham LLC. Sixteen individuals contributed $25,000 each to restructure the store’s debt. Partly as result of the restructuring, the store is profitable for the first time this year.

The article How Carol Peppe Hewitt and Slow Money NC are raising funds for farmers, one loan at a time appeared in print with the headline "Radical finance."

I’m proud of the strong interest in local and sustainable farming in our area as well as this innovative financing system. It’s not what first comes to mind for Europeans when they think of the U.S.

Your Tomato
Regula Spottl

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