The Economist Research Unit’s recent report – “Building a data-driven treasury” – see, contained an important figure on the “Steps in developing a data strategy”: 


Source & Copyright©2019 – EIU 

A TMS alone is not enough

In many companies, treasury data is centralised in a TMS but this is not enough, the TMS should be fed
by dedicated data analysis software, Mr Abigail from Arup advises, because TMS is limited compared to the data visualisation platforms. 

The survey found that companies with a high volume of transactions, or those with information spread across subsidiaries in different regions, will benefit most from implementing a data-driven strategy in their:

• Investments
• cash flow forecasting
• exposure identification and measurement. 

Conclusions

EIU’s survey concluded that:

1. Establishing a data strategy is a vital first step towards accruing the benefits of a data-driven treasury
2. creating a repository of unstructured data is essential for a more nuanced analysis
3. technologies should be set up to deliver timely, reliable and quality data on which treasurers can make better and faster decisions 
4. a culture shift is required among treasurers, who must be prepared to act on real-time information and speed up decision-making 
5. for corporate treasury departments, the move to become data-driven may be the starkest change yet.

---

CTMfile take: This is an important study on why and how corporate treasury departments need to become data-driven, but one factor that was not covered was the need for the “repository of unstructured data” to cover several years not just the last 30/60days as some TMS solutions do.