About 365 Retail Markets

About 365 Retail Markets 365 Retail Markets provides self-service retail technologies for food service operators, powering food retail spaces at corporate offices, manufacturing facilities and other sites. As 365 Retail Markets rapidly expanded, it faced increased financial complexity, driving the need for streamlined cash management solutions

‍The challenges

1. Manually Building the Cash Flow Forecast Became More Challenging

One of 365 Retail Markets' biggest treasury challenges was building an accurate and granular cash flow forecast, pulling data manually from many siloed systems. As the company scaled to new and emerging markets, generating reliable forecasts took hours of resources, especially when managing direct and indirect cash flows. 

The ability to obtain granular, transaction-level details in emerging markets and new business segments posed additional challenges. Steven Miller, Sr. Manager, Treasury Services, saw that the challenge in planning and resource allocation would only grow as the company scaled. He wanted to maintain the same rigor of cash flow forecasting, even at rapid growth rates and increasing complexity. 

"It became clear we had to move away from managing multiple spreadsheets and systems through a manual process in Excel."

2. Managing Financial Complexity Across Multiple Banks, Entities and ERP

In the meantime, managing a diverse financial ecosystem—eight banks, multiple currencies, and unique processes—created significant operational inefficiencies. The finance team spent countless hours manually consolidating data from different systems into Excel spreadsheets. 

This manual process consumed valuable resources, reducing the time available for more strategic financial activities and increasing the risk of errors. On top of the risk of human error, the cash data remained siloed between the banks and ERP. Some important liquidity data only existed in the ERP, and incorporating that data into their cash flow forecast took a lot of work to streamline across systems.

“You want to have not only a real-time view of your cash but also of your forecast. With Nilus, as transaction activity occurs in our ERP, we can instantly adjust our forecasts.” 
Steven Miller, Sr. Manager, Treasury Services.

3. Fragmented Cash Management Systems Delayed Decisions

Even after much effort in building a cash flow forecast, 365 Retail Markets struggled to get a clear, real-time view of their overall liquidity, forcing them to go tab by tab on their spreadsheets to extract the most critical insights to drive the business. Scenario analysis on investment opportunities and debt management remained manual. This lack of real-time visibility prevented 365 Retail Markets from focusing on strategic opportunities.

“We needed to consolidate all our information into a summarized view that allowed us to pivot, layer in scenarios, and focus on cash management.”

The solution

To address these challenges, 365 Retail Markets turned to Nilus for an AI-powered treasury management system (TMS) that could integrate with their existing financial set-up, provide real-time visibility, and optimize cash flow forecasting. Nilus' platform was tailored to meet the unique requirements of a rapidly growing, multi-entity organization like 365 Retail Markets.

1. AI-Driven Forecasting and Real-Time Insights

Nilus' AI-powered cash flow forecasting allowed 365 Retail Markets to automate their process, removing manual input and providing valuable insights into cash flow patterns. Real-time data from their ERP and banks generate more accurate cash flow projections. With automated, up-to-date cash flow forecasts, the finance team can optimize liquidity and debt, lower costs, improve resource allocation and focus on higher-value tasks.

"We always need a sense of a true cash view to meet our obligations—just relying on FP&A or accounting data isn't enough. The Nilus platform uses live bank data and actual ERP payments, projecting cash flow forward for an accurate bottom up forecast. It delivers an Excel-like experience, minus the manual effort."

‍2. Streamlined Integration of Financial Systems

Nilus provided seamless integration across 365 Retail Markets' existing financial systems, enabling the controllers to have visibility into all operating accounts and merchant accounts across multiple currencies and entities in their respective U.S. and European operations.

By connecting their ERP and accounts spread across eight different banks, Nilus saved the team over 40 hours of work monthly, reducing manual errors and freeing the finance team to focus on more strategic tasks. This integration simplified the handling of complex workflows and improved efficiency – and by connecting their ERP, 365 Retail Markets can now track the movement of all AR/AP transactions and inventory purchase orders. 

3. Unified Cash Management and Operational Efficiency

Nilus provided a centralized platform that gave 365 Retail Markets a unified view of cash positions across all banks and entities. This eliminated the need for Excel spreadsheets and manual data entry,  allowing the team to monitor liquidity more effectively. This unified data allowed the team to take advantage of Nilus' predictive analytics to improve forecasting and create both direct and indirect cash flow projections.This allowed for true cash visibility using a bottom-up approach, not just on an accounting basis.

“With Nilus, we finally had a complete, summarized view of our cash, allowing us to strategically manage and time our cash flow with just a few clicks. We were no longer spending hours piecing together data; instead, we could focus on the strategic aspects of cash management.”

Conclusion 

365 Retail Markets was able to fully implement the Nilus platform in just weeks instead of the months it usually takes to onboard a treasury management system (TMS). This rapid deployment allowed them to simplify their cash complexity by automating forecasting, empowering them with real-time cash visibility, and reimagining their cash flow management.

Despite the cash complexity resulting from natural growth, seven mergers and acquisitions, and partnerships with over eight international banks, 365 Retail Markets has successfully optimized its financial efficiency.

Want to learn how Nilus can optimize your treasury operations? Book a 1-on-1 product tour today.