Best Treasury Transformation Project: Ocean Network Express

Established in 2017, Ocean Network Express (ONE) is a global container shipping company and the sixth largest player in the global shipping market.

ONE has been on a multi-year transformation journey. Following its establishment in 2017, ONE took the first vital step of integrating the workflows and operating models of the previous three separate entities, by adopting an ERP system that’s integrated directly with SAP HANA to connect ONE’s finance operations to the 226 accounts it manages across 44 countries – including both regulated and non-regulated markets.

With the maritime industry becoming increasingly digitised over the past few years, the next critical step in ONE’s transformation journey was to adopt a digital value proposition. But as a leading shipping player processing more than 250,000 payments a month, ONE was still operating at 25-30% automation ratio. The target was to increase this to 75%.

There was also a growing need for ONE’s treasury to play a more strategic role by enabling swift decisions in the areas of liquidity optimisation and hedging. ONE recognised the need for a full-fledged treasury transformation to stay ahead amid a highly competitive industry.

The solution

ONE embarked on an ambitious transformation project focusing on introducing automation and real-time capabilities to modernise its front- and back-end systems, to streamline cash, payments and supply chain management as well as improving the overall experience for its customers.

Real-time shipment tracking – on the customer front, ONE rolled out a state-of-the-art digital portal that facilitates real-time tracking of shipments while offering automated documentation processes and instant support for customers.

Transitioning to digital payments – from a banking perspective, ONE worked with HSBC to integrate a payment gateway into its e-payment portal, ‘ONE ePayment’, enabling customers to make payments digitally via options such as QR payments, request to pay, pay by link and bank transfers for a more seamless, convenient and secure payment journey.

Real time notifications to speed up cargo release – by implementing ISO 20022 camt.054 credit notifications and camt.052 through API integration, ONE can now obtain details of payment transactions completed by the end customer promptly to further automate the reconciliation and document/cargo release process.

Liquidity optimisation – ONE adopted HSBC’s Omni Channel solution to offer newer payment methods which enable the company to directly collect from shipping lines, moving away from traditional methods of collections via agents, where regulations permit. The company also established global liquidity structures across three regions to automatically centralise cash across GBP, USD, JPY and EUR where possible, helping to maximise internal cash use to minimise external borrowing.

Best practice and innovation

Seven years ago, ONE’s treasury structure was made up of differing and manual workflows and fragmented operating models inherited from three separate entities. Fast-forward to today, ONE has completely transformed its treasury function to one that prioritises centralisation, automation and optimisation, with a critical role that contributes towards the firm’s strategic decisions and revenue generation.

Key benefits

• Cost savings
• Headcount savings
• Process efficiencies
• Improved key performance indicator (KPI) metrics
• Increased automation
• Risk mitigated
• Improved visibility
• Errors reduced
• Manual intervention reduced
• Increased system connectivity
• Future-proof solution