CFOs, treasurers, and otherfinance professionals are under constant pressure to make the bestpossible decisions with their company's working capital “in themoment.” This pressure can be especially intense within a globalcompany that has liquid assets residing around the world.

For example, an organization may have several foreign accountsin which it holds a significant portion of its assets, liabilitiesdue (which may or may not include incentives to pay early), and stocks in foreign corporations.The company must optimize performance of all of these accounts,keeping in mind exchange rates, taxes (factoring in transfer pricing and related issues), and a number of othervariables.

The more complicated a company's financial picture, the moredifficult it is for finance managers to know when they should moveliquid assets between countries, when to reinvest or sell stocks,and whether the organization should pay off liabilities or take ondebt. That's why, for many complex global organizations, usingtechnology to gain a consolidated, real-time view into the company's cash positionis not the next “best practice,” it's just the nextpractice.