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Microsoft's treasurer leads his company in a revolution in cash management

By Richard Gamble | Updated on January 01, 2007

For much of the past year, the treasury at Microsoft Corp. has been actively pursuing a single global communications platform for its cash management. While the treasury team knew about consolidation services, such as Citigroup’s award-winning TreasuryVision, Microsoft ultimately wanted something it could control in-house. The software giant began the process by joining member-administered closed user groups (MACUGs) at six banks where it did not already enjoy electronic connectivity. But before Microsoft could piece together its vision, international banking network SWIFT opened its doors to corporate members through a new program called SCORE (Standardized Corporate Environment), and Microsoft saw a ready-made solution.

Of course, Microsoft is pushing the envelope as one of the first multinationals to take advantage of SCORE and bypass MACUGs in favor of the SWIFT single direct link to the vast majority of Microsoft’s 1,000 bank accounts worldwide, pulling in next-day and even intraday bank account data. “By getting electronic visibility in one snapshot of nearly all of our cash in something approaching real time, we are finding a tremendous opportunity to move that cash and make it more productive,” says Microsoft’s treasurer George Zinn. “We’re looking at a powerful infrastructure play.”

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