Categories » Adam Smith Awards
Google
Ronni Horrillo, Assistant Treasurer
Scattered data, extensive manual work, speed of process, and inconsistencies were some of the key challenges the Google treasury department faced when it came to build a cash flow forecast model. The data the department needed was scattered across database warehouses with few formatting consistencies from one to another. In addition, since Google actively pursues different business and investment opportunities, variables continue to multiply. Each variable is associated with a different spend or collections team and as a consequence there were inconsistencies in the way each group operated.
Be the first to comment | August 2011
Honeywell
John Tus, Vice President and Treasurer
When the global recession hit in 2008, Honeywell’s pension plans felt the force. Like most companies, Honeywell incurred significant losses to the asset values of its defined benefit pension plans and the lower interest rate environment that ensued further adversely affected each plan’s funded status.
Be the first to comment | August 2011
Amway (China) Co. Ltd.
Winnie Li, Director of Finance Operations and Treasury
Headquartered in Guangzhou, Amway China runs a network of 252 retail shops in over 180 cities throughout China. With the rapid market expansion and sales force growth, working capital management, including receivables and sales incentive payments management, becomes challenging for both the company and the treasury functions, which collect receivables through shops holding over 380 bank accounts with local branches, and handle approximately half a million payments per month with few errors and failures.
Be the first to comment | August 2011
PetroVietnam Power
Dr Hoang Xuan Quoc, General Director
PetroVietnam, the government-owned national oil and gas producer, sought long-term financing for its Power Nhon Trach 2 Joint Stock Co. (PVPower NT2), the Owner of the Nhon Trach 2 750MW Combined Cycle power plant, a project of national importance and is part of Vietnam’s current National Electricity Master Plan. PetroVietnam’s goal was to find affordable, long-term financing for its Nhon Trach 2 plant, a project that is key to the company as well as to national planning objectives.
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Nokia Siemens Networks
Rudraprasad Kundu, Structured Finance, Asia Pacific and India Regions
Nokia Siemens Networks is a leading global enabler of telecommunications services. With its focus on innovation and sustainability, the company provides a complete portfolio of mobile, fixed and converged network technology, as well as professional services including consultancy and systems integration, deployment, maintenance and managed services. It is one of the largest telecommunications hardware, software and professional services companies in the world. Operating in 150 countries, its headquarters are in Espoo, Finland.
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Honeywell
Susan Puente-Duany, Director Global Banking and Cash Management
In 2010, Honeywell was using a version of SunGard’s AvantGard Treasury Workstation, Quantum that was nearing the end of its lifecycle. The workstation was hosted by Honeywell’s data centre. The on-going maintenance and in-house IT support of the treasury workstation were taking up a great deal of time and resources. The company’s IT department was also in the process of migrating all its existing ERP systems to one global vendor.
Be the first to comment | August 2011
Google
Frank Chow, Business Systems Integrator
Before it implemented its most recent technology solution, the Google treasury department contained a number of systems that performed specific, but unrelated tasks. This meant that the company was forced to extract information manually via reports or export and create spreadsheets to consolidate and manipulate data.
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Microsoft
Nancy Wells, Senior Banking Manager
Microsoft’s method of managing its bank accounts was cumbersome and inefficient. Documentation travelled to and from Redmond via courier, and the cycle times to make signature changes or close accounts could be as long as six weeks. Microsoft has more than 800 bank accounts in 110 countries for 230 legal entities. The company has limited resources to dedicate to administrative tasks and those it does have are tied up in processing 1,500 bank administration workflows.
It is an honour to be recognised by the prestigious Adam Smith Awards for ‘Harnessing the Power of Technology’ using Citibank’s eBAM portal. This innovative tool is helping us gain efficiency in bank administration.
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Brady Corporation
Kathryn Campbell, Assistant Treasurer
Having tripled in size as a result of 30 acquisitions and rapid global expansion, Brady Corporation found its finance costs and complexity increasing. Over 50% of the company’s revenues derived from Europe and Asia, which led to a fragmented and decentralised cash and treasury environment, where almost 400 bank accounts across more than 50 banks resulted in both counterparty and operational risk, not to mention high costs and inefficiencies.
Brady Corporation is honoured to receive this international Award along with many of the world’s leading corporations.
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LEGO System AS
Lars Thulstrup Bruhn, Vice President, Treasury
The financial crisis and subsequent focus on efficiency, liquidity and risk management has led many companies to review their cash and treasury operations. Few can boast the same project momentum and professionalism as that displayed by The LEGO Group. In only 18 months, treasury has rationalised its banking providers, centralised treasury operations, implemented an in-house bank and enhanced its technology environment considerably. The company demonstrates best-in-class cash management and payment processes typically associated with far larger companies, creating a framework for future growth and continued competitive advantage.
The LEGO Group has completed the centralisation of treasury and implementation of an in-house bank, including extending its SAP installation, in a very short time.
Be the first to comment | August 2011