Hoang Duc operates in a fast-growing but challenging healthcare market with many market nuances such as unclear and complicated tender processes, especially in the public sector. The budget approval process is time-consuming and complex. There are also governmental issues to address such as tender and purchase audits of all key hospitals, pricing controls and health insurance matters.

As an emerging business, the company leaders are investing in technology such as SAP S/4HANA to automate processes and efficiencies. However, most of the treasury and finance management are manual processes using spreadsheets.

Hoang Duc use multiple bank accounts for their cash management needs. The lack of real-time access to cash flow data, across entities and banks, hinders the CFO from informed decision-making. The long account receivables cycle from government hospital clients puts pressure on the CFO for accurate cash flow planning to ensure liquidity. The company’s current short-term cash planning is inaccurate due to poor data quality and lack of tools and skills, leading to sub-optimal cash management and missed opportunities.

With a small treasury organisation, the company lacks the necessary human resources with the appropriate treasury expertise and skills and heavily relies on manual, time-consuming processes using spreadsheets. Hoang Duc is a family owned, mid-sized business and there are not yet well-documented treasury policies and processes in place. This posed challenges for the CFO in managing operational, market and regulatory risks.