Gresham Computing, the financial applications specialist has extended its Clareti Cash Reporting Service to enable supply chain financing. Cable and Wireless, which provides the secure hosting for the service, has also confirmed it is the first customer for Gresham’s new supply chain financing solution.
Building on Gresham’s Clareti Cash Reporting Service, which enables banks and their corporate customers to gain visibility of their global payments in real-time, this service extension enables suppliers to see what future payment commitments have been made by their customers and, if available, request early payment for a discount.
“The amount of cash tied up in post dispute invoice working capital in the UK alone exceeds 76 billion,” says Andrew Walton-Green, the chief executive of Gresham Computing plc. “The majority of companies want to collect their debts quickly and pay their creditors slowly. As a result, businesses at the bottom of the supply chain and many of the companies in the middle end up being squeezed for cash. Over a third of European businesses use some form of funding for trade finance; a route which is often restrictive, cumbersome and expensive. Unlocking the financial supply chain represents a huge market opportunity. Even just knowing when you are going to get paid is a huge step forward and enables a supplier to better manage its cash flows.”
Cable & Wireless UK (spanning Europe, Asia and US) will both host the service and be the first customer for the new service.
“Our mission is to provide excellent levels of service to our top end corporate customers,” adds Ivan Gunatilleke, the Director of Enterprise Markets at Cable & Wireless. “This is a great endorsement of the robustness of our hosting and security services and means we can offer an even richer portfolio of services to our customers.”