BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - June 8, 2010) - Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (
"As companies focus more on internal strategies for driving working capital improvement, they should remember that working capital should be managed with a view of end-to-end supply chain process optimization," said Nari Viswanathan, Vice President / Principal Analyst, Aberdeen Group.
The research revealed that top companies were able to blend both supply chain management and financial management strategies in order to optimize their working capital. "On the supply chain management side, top companies are more likely to be trying to improve forecast accuracy and pursuing Just-in-Time (JIT) capabilities. Also, top companies are more likely to be trying to optimize inventory routes, making better decisions on where and how much inventory to store," said Nari Viswanathan, Vice President / Principal Analyst, Aberdeen Group. "On the finance side, top companies are more likely than all others to pursue a series of strategies: improve accuracy of operational budgets like transportation spend, raw materials spend, and improve overall cash management through better use of cash on hand and increase the return on short-term investment."
Furthermore, Aberdeen's research found that forty-six percent (46%) of top companies have cross functional teams to lead working capital improvements." Companies need to establish an complete view of working capital management by taking into account inter-relationships between operational processes impacting working capital throughout the entire supply chain, including sales, operation, and manufacturing planning, demand and supply synchronization, inventory management, customer and supplier relationships, and financial management," said Nari Viswanathan, Vice President / Principal Analyst, Aberdeen Group.
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About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company
Aberdeen provides fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having queried more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen for insights that drive decisions.
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