John Robinson III Open Access

Open Access
Anita Hawser. Global Finance. New York:Jun 2007. Vol. 21, Iss. 6, p. 37-39 (3 pp.)
http://proquest.umi.com.proxyau.wrlc.org/pqdweb?did=1294726761&Fmt=4&clientId=31806&RQT=309&VName=PQD

The article explains how Sarbanes Oxley has made companies push for more transparency when documenting their finances. To help manage their treasuries companies have put together treasury management systems (TMS). The TMS helps companies manage their cash, cash forecasting, finance and investments, ensures sufficient funds for acquisitions, and interest rate and FX management functionality. TMS seems like a great tool for companies because the IT allows more control and away to forecast or choose projects a company should invest in. In addition, TMS is suppose to replace excel spreadsheets.
I think TMS is a great tool for companies looking to get an edge in their perspective industry. However, with all the new financial tools emerging it seems companies will have to expand their IT budgets. It seems like every few months there is a new financial tool coming out and companies are forced to go out and purchase it to maintain transparency and to abide by the Sarbanes Oxley Act. In addition, if TMS is suppose to replace spreadsheets companies are going to have to spend more money on training their employees to run the system and it could lead to the lost of jobs and creating new jobs.
To help companies who may not have the funds to support TMS a company called Salesforce.com started delivering software applications via the Internet through a system called ASP, which means software on demand. Companies can go online and use the different software applications to help maintain their financial departments without drastically cutting into their IT budget. Furthermore, if a company has faulty software they can determinate the service or uninstall the software immediately. It is basically a pay as you go approach.
Even Wall Street is investing in the ASP systems. The Wall Street Sytems invested millions in upgrading the infrastructure and enhancing its capabilities. The ASP system has over 30 custormes including Adidas and other MNC. Moreover, ASP providers are experimenting with offering separate application model. It allows companies to use many different hardware resources but it is shared among many companies. The problem that arises is that not all of the applications differ among the ASP. It is hard to maintain the connectivity between the applications. SunGrad and AvantGrade found a solution called eTreasury eXchange (eTX). eTX allows for the connectivity between banks and corporations uses the software. The problem that I see is security. How are they going to maintain a secure connection between banks and corporations using the software? Banks and Companies are dealing with trillions and trillions of dollars everyday and someone could hack the system and steal pennies here and their right under the ASP systems nose.