The willingness to conduct business-to-business e-commerce initiatives is as strong or stronger today than it was one year ago, according to 70 percent of corporate CFOs, controllers and money managers in a new study.
In addition, 80 percent of the respondents think the Internet ultimately will influence payments, collections and investments, according to a survey conducted by the Association for Financial Professionals, JP Morgan Treasury Services and Ernst & Young. Seventy percent said they expected a major influence on borrowing and foreign exchange practices.
The respondent pool included 1,000 professionals from a variety of industry segments, with more than half working in the treasury profession for 10 or more years.
Fewer than one-third of respondents thought that e-commerce and the Internet had an “extremely” or “very important” impact on their treasury area in the past 12 months. However, they listed improved workflow efficiencies, including more “real time” information, sharing access to data and working from multiple locations, as the Internet's biggest impact on their companies' treasury operation.
More key findings:
· More than three-quarters of respondents cited “access to more real time or updated information” as the Internet benefit that has most affected treasury. Seventy percent think the Internet makes data integration easier for treasury.
· Smaller majorities also think the Internet is saving treasury money and that major financial service providers have taken care of security issues. At present, treasury departments are more likely to have a role in decisions related to presenting and receiving invoices than those related to purchasing or selling via an e-marketplace.
The AFP supports more than 14,000 individual members from a range of industries throughout all stages of their careers in various aspects of treasury and financial management.
