In 2000, during the heady days of the Internet bubble and the rush to e-everything, I was preparing a presentation for the Treasury Management Conference of the South's annual meeting in Atlanta. The topic was–appropriately enough for a contrarian like me–"Back to Basics: Old-Time Values in an E-Commerce World." One of my slides referred to an article from e-commerce magazine Revolution on human beings as the next killer app. No doubt, this was an incredibly quaint vision at a time when the Web could solve any and all ills.

Fast forward to 2005. Our dreams of e-splendor have been downscaled–along with almost every treasury department and budget for new systems and training at the nation's largest companies. The question must now be: Has that pendulum of running lean and mean swung too far as well?

In this first decade of the 21st century, major consolidations in the banking industry have resulted in changes in the way data is transmitted to the treasury workstation. New developments, such as Check 21 and the regulatory demands of Sarbanes-Oxley, have put increasing pressure on treasuries to upgrade systems and develop innovative approaches to conduct day-to-day business. Creative strategies, such as "order to cash," in which treasury is responsible for accounts receivable from invoice to cash settlement, require a well-trained staff skilled in problem solving and flexible enough to meet customer needs.