The context
Groupe Delambre is a family company nearly 130 years old. It is organised into four divisions: food, industry, environment (horse breeding) and real estate (15 property companies). The group’s accounting is fully handled at holding level by a team of five people.
In September 2018, the group faced significant payment delays, unsettled governance, a lack of trust from partners and demotivated employees. The group’s Banque de France rating fell, and a climate of uncertainty set in following the alert procedure launched by the statutory auditor.
The needs
The problem was the lack of a reliable, comprehensive and automated cash management system providing short-, medium- and long-term forecasts for the group’s 70 bank accounts.
“Forecast to reassure, forecast to steer”: the new CFO’s goal was to spend less time on the income statement and more on managing and analysing cash, because it is essential to steering a company.
The project
Create and implement an IT tool for cash management that met my expectations. With a defined budget of €30,000, the project steps were: building a team, writing the specifications, contacting providers, choosing a solution, choosing sponsors, presenting to the governance bodies, then deploying the tool.
Despite the difficulties to overcome (my credibility with the teams, the number of projects to manage and the lack of IT resources), the fierce determination of the project team was our greatest strength.
Choosing E-Finances
We chose E-Finances and its E-Trésorerie solution for its ease of use and engaging interface. Above all, because E-Finances was honest about its doubts from the start, and was responsive on that point afterwards.
The gains
The results are clear: fewer banks, easier flow transfers thanks to EBICS TS, a global real-time view of all bank balances, and indicators that raise early warnings. E-Trésorerie saved half a day per week and genuinely made decision-making easier.
In conclusion
To conclude, I can say that E-Trésorerie was one of the tools that improved communication within the team. Beyond its features, I used this software to move from a perception based on chronic doubt to one based on shared and recognised trust.
“I used this software to move from a perception based on chronic doubt to one based on shared and recognised trust.”
