CMS Sponsor Retail Week FD Summit - September 2008

On Wednesday 10th September 2008, CMS sponsored the Retail Week Finance Directors Summit. Held in London, the one day summit focused on the issues currently facing retailers in today's volatile economic climate.

Many retailers attended the day and listened to expert speakers including Eamonn O'Hare (FD of Tesco) and Trevor Williams (Chief Economist of Lloyds TSB), who addressed topics such as how to maximise profits and manage rising costs; providing strategies for success.

As associate sponsors of the event, CMS were keen to offer their specialist knowledge; focusing specifically on cash flow optimisation. Speaking at the event, Brendan Doyle (CEO of CMS) discussed the new software CMS has developed to identify and calculate inefficiencies in the till-to-bank supply chain.

Mr Doyle highlighted how using this software has allowed CMS to identify delays of as much as 10 days for cash to reach the bank accounts of some of the UK's largest retailers. As Mr Doyle pointed out, “through the utilisation of CMS' unique proprietary software, these inefficiencies can be identified and removed, freeing up cash flow and achieving substantial bank balance increases which can run into many millions of pounds. We are currently assisting one retailer to put an extra £30million + back into their bank account where it belongs.”

CMS emphasised how inefficiencies can occur at many stages in the till-to-bank supply chain, anywhere from inefficient cashing up, cash office rostering, CIT schedules, missed/late CIT collection services to late processing and value giving through weak supplier contracts.

According to CMS, this is an area that retailers can focus on, in conjunction with cost cutting and revenue enhancement, to help ride the economic down turn. Mr Doyle commented “With the current economic climate as it is, this is proving an extremely valuable tool for our clients.”