J
.P. Morgan Chase is committed to supporting the growth of companies along the Front Range of the Rockies by enhancing their commercial real estate (CRE) treasury operations. This involves advising organizations on how to become more efficient.
Partner Insights spoke with Grace MacLeod, vice president and treasury management officer at J.P. Morgan Chase, who's working to change the way companies view their treasury departments. Many CRE companies are focused on growth but may overlook their treasury operations until it becomes a pressing issue.
As companies scale up, they need to review their processes, including how they leverage enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and treasury management workstations. We can assist them in developing a blueprint for integrating technology into their business, focusing on automating certain elements of their operations.
Commercial real estate companies face several challenges in their treasury operations, such as managing extreme volumes, executing quickly, and dealing with joint-venture partnerships. Effective communication between partners is crucial to ensure that everything is set up correctly.
Operating risk can permeate every internal process within an organization, especially when handling money that's not yours. Technology risk shows up via payment fraud, cyberattacks, and liquidity risk due to higher interest rates.
Management typically recognizes the need to sophisticate their treasury operations when complexity becomes inefficient and starts to invite more risk. Some firms work with hundreds of accounts across multiple banks and ERPs due to acquisitions of different business lines.
Inadequate treasury reporting standards can hinder a company's ability to operate, especially when dealing with institutional capital that requires higher standards. Creating manual cash positions in Excel worksheets is cumbersome, and managing individual bank portals hinders effective cash management.
Sophisticated treasury systems and automated processes help build efficiencies by reconciling transactions on an automated basis, providing current and accurate reporting. This allows companies to harness data for intelligent forecasting and deploy cash more effectively.
Companies are focusing on two distinct areas in payment processing: the collection, storage, and approval workflow, and the payment origination process itself. They're streamlining and automating vendor onboarding processes and converting payments from paper checks to automated clearing house (ACH) platforms or virtual cards.
The long-term benefits of investing in treasury operations include increased satisfaction levels within staff roles, improved productivity, and profitability. Automation can free up team members to focus on quality and process improvement, making the case for investment a compelling one.
