Successful business operations depend on efficient cash flow management, wherein the cash conversion cycle (CCC) is a crucial component that cannot be overlooked. The cash conversion cycle is the measurement of time it takes to convert resources into cashflows.

Corporate finance and treasury professionals regard the CCC as a vital metric that offers valuable insights into cash flow management for companies aiming to optimise financial operations and maximise operational efficiency.

Understanding the significance of the CCC, Treasury Intelligence Solutions (TIS) is positioning itself to serve the Office of the CFO as an orchestration layer for the cash conversion cycle.

In this context, TIS, a leading player in cloud-native cash management, liquidity and payment solutions on a global scale, has revealed the signing of a binding agreement for a majority growth investment from Marlin Equity Partners (“Marlin"). This investment will empower TIS to pursue a range of strategic opportunities, both organic and inorganic, thus enhancing its ability to meet the evolving needs across the Office of the CFO.

Marlin's knowledge of both the European and US markets, and experience covering the Office of the CEO will facilitate TIS’s acquisitions, strengthen product development, broaden partnerships, and expand sales.

Marlin’s acquisition of a majority stake in TIS will also help TIS establish itself as an orchestration layer for the cash conversion cycle. This will enable corporate clients of TIS to seamlessly connect with external parties like banks, as well harmonize with internal systems such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), reconciliation platforms, and treasury management systems (TMSs).

From TIS’s structural standpoint, this strategic positioning ensures that all activities and data are orchestrated cohesively, transcending traditional silos. This integration will aid the Office of the CFO in dismantling or breaking down silos between accounts payable (AP), accounts receivable (AR), and treasury, thereby leading to the optimisation of their CCC.

Furthermore, recognizing data as a vital business asset in today’s AI-driven digital economy, the orchestration of data, systems and connections becomes crucial. This orchestration by TIS will assist the Office of the CEO in modernising operations, leveraging real-time intelligence for informed decision-making, prudent cash flow management, and improving risk management and control capabilities.

From a corporate perspective, this concept closely follows an Enterprise Liquidity Management (ELM) system approach, facilitating comprehensive liquidity management across the entire cash conversion cycle, including forecasting and cash management. This growth trajectory of TIS extending into the ELM space, stems from its foundational role as the orchestration layer, supported by a suite of applications built upon a robust data repository.

Consolidating data into an expansive reservoir or a massive data lake will help finance leaders in monetising their data. This seems especially relevant given data’s value for CFOs and their banking partners. This data strategy should generate new revenue streams, enhance internal efficiencies, and drive innovation and growth.  

TIS has kept in mind the essential premise behind the orchestration layer: the better organizations orchestrate processes, the larger their data lake and monetization potential become.

Marlin has invested in TIS to augment their strategic viewpoint so that CFOs can act as cross-functional business partners to different lines of business and also collaborate at all levels.

Moreover, the partnership with Marlin bolsters TIS’s presence internationally, which is particularly important for the US and Asia. Additionally, it is expected to benefit the strategic relationship between TIS and Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS). Currently, Citi’s clients gain from streamlined and direct access to the TIS’ innovative cash forecasting and working capital platform. This platform offers comprehensive data analytics and efficient workflows to spur enterprise cash management, forecasting, and working capital optimisation.

As AI continues to evolve, taking on an increasingly pivotal role in business operations, data lakes are expected to play an important role in harnessing AI initiatives. Given that AI algorithms rely and thrive on massive amounts of data housed in data lakes to identify patterns, spot emerging trends and opportunities, and flag anomalies (for example, potential security threat), the larger the data lake, the more accurate the analytics, predictions, outcomes, and deductions are likely to be.

Therefore, TIS believes that considering data lakes as an integral component of an AI strategy, as well as growing the data lakes, can be a potential game-changer for the Office of the CEO. This expansion is expected to unlock deeper insights and aid in better decision-making.

In conclusion, with TIS set to serve as an orchestration layer for the cash conversion cycle and Marlin's investment providing an accelerant to TIS's growth, time will determine how well their plans to further drive significant value within the Office of the CFO and the broader corporate landscape materialise.

As TIS continues to drive forward its vision of modernising cash management, optimising working capital, and fostering cross-functional collaboration, the potential for transformative impact across the Office of the CEO and beyond remains promising.