BCR Publishing
We are the leading provider of news, market intelligence, events and training for the global receivables finance industry.
Working with industry leading organisations, experts, governments and universities, BCR Publications delivers expertise in factoring, receivables and supply chain finance to a global audience.
BCR has long been a beacon of innovation and excellence in the realm of receivables finance, playing an instrumental role in shaping the industry’s international landscape. Through its comprehensive conferences, insightful publications, and thought leadership, BCR has facilitated crucial dialogues and connections among industry professionals, driving forward the development of receivables finance globally.
Follow BCR Publishing
Free passes
For corporate treasurer roles/functions!
Het belang van cash management in de aanloop naar bedrijfsoverdracht
| 30-11-2016 | Peter Schuitmaker |
Het belang van cash management in de aanloop naar bedrijfsoverdracht wordt vaak onderschat. Onnodig en zonde! Want cash management levert onmiddellijk een verbetering van de liquide positie of een verlaging van de rentedragende schulden.
Als voorbeeld een handelsonderneming. De omzet is 100. De bruto marge is 15. De directe kosten zijn 10. De onderneming groeit met een 2%, vergelijkbaar met de prijsindex. We kunnen hier dus spreken over een stabiele exploitatie in een evenwichtige omgeving. De onderneming wordt gewaardeerd op basis van de methodiek Adjusted Present Value. De waarderingsuitkomst komt uit op 30.
Qua werkkapitaal heeft de onderneming zijn de zaken echter niet goed op orde. De omloopsnelheid voorraden is 4. Dat wil zeggen: de gemiddelde verblijftijd van de voorraad is circa 90 dagen. Ook betalen de debiteuren structureel te laat door onvoldoende debiteurenbeheer. De overeengekomen betalingstermijn is 30 dagen. Maar de betalingstermijn is gemiddeld 60 dagen.
Waarderingsmethodiek Adjusted Present Value
De waarderingsmethodiek Adjusted Present Value is bij uitstek geschikt om business modellen en strategische opties door te rekenen. Met name om te beoordelen of er optimaal aan waarde-creatie wordt gewerkt. Zo geeft De APV methodiek handvatten voor de evaluatie van strategische opties.
Een omloopsnelheid voorraden van 15 x lijkt theoretisch haalbaar. Praktisch gezien kan 12 x worden gerealiseerd. Door stringenter debiteurenbeheer lijkt een debiteurentermijn van 35 dagen haalbaar. Wanneer deze verbeteringen over een periode van 2 jaar worden geïmplementeerd wordt waarde toegevoegd. Met management begroot incidentele ontwikkelingskosten van 0,5% van de omzet gedurende jaar 1 en 2. Daarbij valt te rekenen met structurele beheerkosten van 0,9% van de omzet. De waarderingsuitkomst komt nu uit op 40: een verbetering van 33%. Deze verbetering wordt enkel en alleen bereikt door de implementatie van een beter cash management.
Kortom: op weg naar bedrijfsoverdracht? Evalueer eerst uw cash management!
Peter Schuitmaker van BBO&F BREDA is Register Adviseur Bedrijfsopvolging. Hij is auteur van diverse boeken over bedrijfsoverdracht. Onlangs verscheen zijn boek “Een bedrijf overnemen? Keuzes maken en stappen zetten”. Dit boek is geschreven voor professionals die zich willen oriënteren op bedrijfsoverdracht.
Peter Schuitmaker
Registered Advisor for Business Transfer and Succession
Blockchain: how to make it operational in your company?
| 29-11-2016 | Carlo de Meijer |
Now the decision has been taken to adopt this technology, there comes a new challenge: how to integrate blockchain and implement this technology into the existing business and incorporate it within your legacy enterprise applications. In other words: how to make it operational!
Making blockchain work: the Challenges
That is where the real work starts. Making blockchain applications work in the real day-to-day world. That may prove as much of a challenge – or even more than that – as building the blockchain application itself. Because blockchain is a complete different and unprecedented, technology, corporates are confronting problems related to integration of the blockchain into the enterprise. Most financial organisations have to take into account their existing complex business lines and the legacy (and mostly old) technology they use. But also the various regulatory obligations have to be taken into consideration.
And there is another – maybe even bigger – challenge. Most banks nowadays heavily depend on massive and (capital-) expensive financial processing systems. These are often 15 years old (or even older!). But these systems do power the many transactions between the world’s major businesses and governments. Trying to overhaul them altogether is a formidable task, and may come with a huge risk. Disrupting them, even for a short time, could be disastrous.
Blockchain integration: points of attention
When deciding to integrate blockchain in your company, you should take a number of important issues into consideration. Every financial company that is serious about blockchain needs also to be serious about issues such as: compliance and regulatory requirements; Enterprise integration with internal systems and data repositories; connectivity to a partner ecosystem; interoperability requirements and access layer; visibility into—and real-time monitoring of—blockchain-based transactions; automated process orchestration; life cycle events; access controls; governance, and more.
Compliance and regulatory requirements
In the near term, KYC/AML models should be developed that could be integrated into enterprise blockchain. Without a thoughtful consideration of KYC/AML and other related regulatory applications, it will be a difficult story to realise that. These models should include concepts such as an inter-ledger, side chains etc. But in such a systematic way to take advantage of blockchain’s way of processing transactions. These models should enhance existing AML/KYC processes thereby overcoming shared data/ledger challenges.
Enterprise integration with incumbent internal systems and data repositories
Another consideration is: how to integrate blockchain with incumbent record systems. Corporates have been creating their own business systems to better measure and manage the business. These include issues such as reporting, analytics, business application management, dashboard, counter-fraud management, etc. Many of these systems “feed off” of the enterprise’s System(s) of Record (SoR) with all kind of information. Integration blockchain in an enterprise suggests a system design around integrated transaction systems (trust systems) and record systems (shared ledger); any application that is either transitioning or originating using blockchain technology would need to consider the enterprise systems for tangent business activity.
Interoperability and access layer
And there is the interoperability issue; may be the most important one. Interoperability of blockchain within an enterprise will be key. Every enterprise has legacy technology that must be interoperable with blockchain, from KYC to risk management and settlements. These applications have to engage seamlessly with the new blockchain applications. In order to make that possible, organizations need to use a so-called access layer to ensure complete interoperability. Such an access layer makes it possible to abstract the complexities of blockchain and smart contracts; expose the functionalities of the blockchain application; and, communicate them to legacy applications.
Automated process orchestration
Although private blockchain transactions occur in a closed environment, they however may impact events both inside and outside the chain. Technology is thereby critical to make these on-and off-chain applications interoperable in an automated fashion. Automated process orchestration is thereby needed, as it enables blockchain events to trigger processes across multiple off-chain and on-chain applications.
Life cycle event
Lifecycle events need to be managed too. Through a total surveillance module, the access layer has complete visibility of every event in the blockchain network; with that visibility the analytics engine can detect anomalies and gather intelligence. For example, when a counterparty exercises an option on a smart derivatives contract in the blockchain, that event needs to be captured and propagated to the same downstream systems. Similarly, external events, such as those relating to market data, will also need to be monitored and applied to the smart contracts. You will need to plan for integrating those systems. But before doing that you will have first identified what systems are affected and how.
Governance
And there is the governance issue. What happens in a blockchain application can have an impact across the whole enterprise. So careful monitoring off- and on-chain is necessary in order to enable proper governance, risk management and security of the entire network. Integration that is technology-neutral and the ability to establish and execute the policies required for good governance are key to the blockchain access layer. API-based integration could thereby be of help.
Other requirements
But here it does not end. New higher-level processes may also need to be established to exploit the benefits from the blockchain ecosystem. The interoperability between systems will have to be agile, secure and have robust governance. It should be prevented that enterprise applications would be exposed to any complexities of the blockchain. Operationalizing blockchain also addresses the need for access controls over the participants, from both an application and business context, be it internal or external to the enterprise.
Integration: steps to be taken
To gain the real advantages of blockchain technology, a company must be able to rapidly, but seamlessly utilize blockchain. Without having to run complex, costly and lengthy re-architecturing programs. But what is the best approach to operationalize blockchain?
Here are six steps you should keep in mind:
First, you need to connect to a (private or public) blockchain ecosystem and/or with external parties using the blockchain.
Second, you have to integrate blockchain applications with existing technology.
Third, you will have to decide how to interact with the blockchain ecosystem, with regards to security and access controls.
Fourth, you have to figure out how to monitor transactions and events on the blockchain and react to them in real time.
Fifth, you have to decide how to reconcile data that exists in blockchains as well as legacy applications.
Sixth, you have to automate, coordinate and manage the processes that span both existing technologies and blockchains.
Conclusion
While blockchain technologies are viewed as a disruptive force for the existing financial systems and market infrastructures and may fundamentally change the way the financial services industry operates day-to-day business, the challenges of enterprise adoption and integration need to be addressed as well.
The introduction of blockchain in your company will require the well needed time. You will have to address the enterprise issues around transaction audibility, visibility and integration into existing business functions. Without this, a profitable integration of the blockchain in the company will prove to be a difficult storey.
Of course this story is not yet complete. I will definitely have forgotten things that must also be considered. But this is a start!
Carlo de Meijer
Economist and researcher
New norms in banking: more than 30 new areas emerging. Pick your Fights!
| 28-11-2016 | Hans de Vries | treasuryXL |
Blockchain, PSD2, Bigdata, Crowdfunding, Bitcoins: never a dull moment in the banking world. The McKinsey Panorama provides a perfect overview of the rapid technological changes taking place in the banking world today. However it’s hard to predict the impact of all these developments on the day to day operations of the corporates. Over the years we have seen trends like the “Holy EDI Grail” never coming fully of the ground due to a lack of general acceptance and interoperability. Some corporates stepped-in really early and now finally reap the benefits as a result of a generic acceptance of for example XML standards for the information exchange. This does not mean that you’ll have to lean backwards and wait for the future developments to start materializing. The challenge is to keep moving forward while optimizing the internal processes according to the latest more or less standardized techniques. In some cases you may not be using the latest technical solutions, however you achieve the goals in a more practical way and it leaves room for further improvement on the way. The main message should be: don’t get overwhelmed by all these new developments, keep moving forward and pick your fights carefully.
Hans de Vries
Sales Consultant at PowertoPay