Many companies are making treasury management systems apriority this year, and with good reason. Thesesolutions have the potential to improve cash forecasting, protectcompanies from fraud, and generally boost the efficiency ofcorporate treasury.

But actually implementing them can be more difficult thananticipated, es­pecially for businesses that have never selected orused a treasury workstation. Treasury teams may find that if theydo not plan carefully, they miss oppor­tunities to get the most outof this cru­cial investment. Proper planning from the higheststrategic levels to the most minute details can go a long waytoward guaranteeing success.

Damien McMahon, a partner in the Fi­nancial & TreasuryManagement practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers, recounts hisexperience of working with clients who rush into implementationwithout con­sidering what they really need from their treasurymanagement system. According to McMahon, sometimes clients finishone part of an implementation only to find themselves out of time,over budget, or just plain overwhelmed.