Fortis: Supply in Demand - Jan Dirk van Beusekom

In the good times, driving out costs through increased efficiencies is a way for businesses to boost performance. However, with strong order flows propelling the bottom line, the process can always be viewed as optional. In an economic downturn it becomes a necessity, explains Jan Dirk van Beusekom, global head of financial supply chain for Fortis.

The Financial Supply Chain (FSC) is the last bastion of inefficiencies and unnecessary costs. These have survived in part because of the sheer complexity of taking hold of the entire process.

Unlike the physical supply chain where the efficiencies come from better traditional logistics, the financial supply chain relies of the effective capture of information throughout the order process, relating to payment methods, early payment discounts, days purchase and sales outstanding, currency hedges, and factoring.

These data flows, when integrated seamlessly with the information on goods movement and if acquired in a timely and reliable manner, boost cashflow and reduce the cost of funds.

The Fortis vision is to target European supply chain leaders with an integrated FSC package providing a unique solution that brings together a wide range of Fortis financial functions, including factoring, leasing, trade finance, accounts receivable and payable and trust.

To this Fortis will add a B2B virtual market place. In a strategic agreement with Venda Ltd of the UK, it will not only provide customers with e-commerce but also the ability to monitor supplier inventories and set up FSC e-invoicing solutions on the e-commerce side of the supply chain. These last are to be handled through the Fortis payment service provider Neos.

TRADITION MISSION

This is old-style relationship banking with a new-style range of integrated and highly automated financial supply chain solutions. Working with its finance, procurement and marketing professionals the Fortis FSC team analyses every part of a client’s supply chain by country, financial strength, reliability and communications.

From this complex but essential task Fortis will implement for the supply chain leader highly automated data capture, aligned with its full portfolio of trade finance and cashflow products. It will also address the legal, accounting and regulatory implications, for instance discussing the possibility that an auditor would re-allocate a guarantee into bankdebt if certain prerequisites are not met.

An essential part of this melding of traditional banking with advanced technology is that Fortis provides strong relationship managers working not just with the CFO but with the procurement and commercial functions.

However, the Fortis FSC solution does not presuppose an exclusive banking link - it will work with the IT platforms of any other banks a company uses.

The intricate and careful building of an efficient FSC creates value at any time. Yet until recently most companies have often simply been too busy to re-engineer themselves with a potent FSC solution. However, as funding opportunities reduce in a tough financial environment, the imperative to drive costs out and value in to the FSC becomes supreme.

Now is the time to look at the exercise and in particular at the original solution that Fortis is building. The ROI on management time not only pays off in the short-term but promises that every company that has undertaken the construction of a powerful FSC, will be in prime position to take advantage of the economic up-swing.

ASSET BASED FINANCE

Fortis has invested considerable effort into bringing its financial products into a single integrated operation – Asset Based Finance, of which Fortis Financial Supply Chain and Cash Management is a key part. Each product of course remains available on a stand-alone basis.

Fortis is proud to be among Europe’s top five factoring providers and one of the top ten leasing companies.

It is, however, the combination of these discrete centres of banking excellence into a single FSC product which Fortis believes gives it an unique, high-powered offering to maximise efficiencies and drive out costs from the finance function, right down through the total supply chain.