By Mark Brousseau
Senior financial executives say cash flow forecasting is the top area where better technology and/or more outsourcing is needed, according to Treasury & Risk's 2009 Strategic Treasury Survey. Thirty-six percent of respondents cited solutions as lacking in cash flow forecasting. Other areas seen as wanting: accounts payable (cited by 16 percent of respondents), accounts receivable (14 percent), budgeting and planning (13 percent), and cash management (13 percent).
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Friday, January 2, 2009
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Recession Impacts Gift Card Sales
By Mark Brousseau
Gift card sales haven't been spared from the global recession.
Store gift cards are expected to generate $61 billion in sales in the fourth quarter of 2008, down from $70 billion in 2007, according to Brian Riley, senior analyst at research firm TowerGroup.
The silver lining: those from financial institutions, like Visa gift cards, are expected to edge up to $28 billion in sales from $27 billion in last year's fourth quarter.
Consumers snapped up gift cards in prior years, USA Today reports. Last December, market research firm NPD Group said about 61 percent of Americans bought at least one holiday gift card in 2007, up from 31 percent the year before and just 16 percent in 2005.
What do you think? Post your comment below.
Gift card sales haven't been spared from the global recession.
Store gift cards are expected to generate $61 billion in sales in the fourth quarter of 2008, down from $70 billion in 2007, according to Brian Riley, senior analyst at research firm TowerGroup.
The silver lining: those from financial institutions, like Visa gift cards, are expected to edge up to $28 billion in sales from $27 billion in last year's fourth quarter.
Consumers snapped up gift cards in prior years, USA Today reports. Last December, market research firm NPD Group said about 61 percent of Americans bought at least one holiday gift card in 2007, up from 31 percent the year before and just 16 percent in 2005.
What do you think? Post your comment below.
Mergers: Easy Way Out?
By Mark Brousseau
It wasn't that long ago that scores of payments solutions and services providers seemingly were in play, and private-equity firms and big companies were tripping over each other to buy them.
Now with the credit crunch and global recession forcing retrenchment everywhere, PricewaterhouseCoopers forecasts that 2009 will bring "mergers of necessity."
"Troubled companies will look to align with larger, stronger players in order to survive," says Robert Filek, a partner in the consulting firm's Transaction Services group.
Thomson Reuters says the value of announced transactions in the United States was $1.1 trillion for the first 11 months of 2008, down from $1.6 trillion for the same period in 2007.
What do you think? Post your comment below.
It wasn't that long ago that scores of payments solutions and services providers seemingly were in play, and private-equity firms and big companies were tripping over each other to buy them.
Now with the credit crunch and global recession forcing retrenchment everywhere, PricewaterhouseCoopers forecasts that 2009 will bring "mergers of necessity."
"Troubled companies will look to align with larger, stronger players in order to survive," says Robert Filek, a partner in the consulting firm's Transaction Services group.
Thomson Reuters says the value of announced transactions in the United States was $1.1 trillion for the first 11 months of 2008, down from $1.6 trillion for the same period in 2007.
What do you think? Post your comment below.
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