Corporate Treasury's relationship with their IT department

Commentary

“In every company, we all share the same objectives and work together to achieve them.” 

This statement is obvious – but we all know that the reality is more complicated: apart from genuine – healthy – differences of opinion, the need to prioritise the use of scarce resources can generate heated debates which do not always end well.

The reality of corporate teamwork is especially challenging for treasurers. We rely on data and input from many sources, and we need IT systems to manage this process. But many treasurers are reluctant to be part of the corporate IT structure: it usually does not provide the functionality we need, treasury is often not a high priority for budgets and investment, and there is a strong feeling IT does not understand our needs. At the same time, as good corporate citizens, we should not be heading off in a separate direction.

So – how do treasurers manage this conundrum?

• Have a specialised IT team in treasury, or rely on central IT?
• Use the treasury module of the major ERP systems, or install a bespoke TMS?
• Download all the data manually and use spreadsheets?
• Where to get the budgets? Where does treasury stand in the pecking order?

There was a surprising consistency in the approach: 

• Whoever they actually report to, everyone felt a specialised IT team was needed
• Whether treasury runs its own IT team or not, treasury’s needs have to be addressed separately
• Most participants agreed treasury is not a top priority for the business or budgets. One took a very different view: using value at risk as an argument, they had obtained “gold standard” prioritisation.
• A different approach is to frame treasury business cases in terms of....