Omnicom, Brocade, Republic Services Win Pinnacle Awards for Treasury Excellence

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Association for Financial Professionals

Aug 23, 2010, 02:58 ET

Prestigious Finance Prizes Recognize Innovation, Risk Management, Strategy

WASHINGTON, Aug. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Omnicom Group, Brocade Communications and Republic Services won the three categories of the Association for Financial Professionals 2010 Pinnacle Award, which recognizes excellence in treasury and finance. The Pinnacle Award is sponsored by Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC).

AFP selects annual winners in three categories – innovation, risk management and strategy – and then chooses a Grand Prize Winner. This year, Omnicom Group won for innovation, Brocade Communications for risk management, and Republic Services for strategy. The organizations will receive their awards Nov. 7 at the AFP Annual Conference (www.afponline.org/annual) in San Antonio, Texas, where AFP will announce the Grand Prize Winner.

Wells Fargo will make a $10,000 donation to the Grand Prize Winner's charity of its choice. Danny Peltz, executive vice president and head of Wells Fargo Treasury Management, and Jim Kaitz, AFP President & CEO, will host the ceremony.

"AFP is extremely proud to honor the 2010 Pinnacle Award winners," said Kaitz. "The solutions presented by Omnicom Group, Brocade Communications and Republic Services demonstrate transformation of the treasury function as well as forward-thinking in a year of great change. "

Omnicom Group, Inc. Wins for Innovation

Omnicom Group's treasury department moved all client receipts from 141 distinct U.S. operating units to an electronic-based process by implementing remote deposit and electronic receipt capture, a process that covered 130 separate deposit accounts and 29 lockbox accounts. The entire progression – from planning, to RFP, to conversion – took only six months to complete and resulted in a standard for best practices. In the end, Omnicom saved more than $1 million in annual fees.

Brocade Communications Wins for Risk Management

Brocade Communications' treasury and risk management team developed a method for converging strategic liquidity planning with Enterprise Risk Management. In the course of disaster recovery planning, the Brocade team went into great depth to calculate the impact of prioritized scenarios and to incorporate that information into its long range liquidity planning. Brocade's approach was comprehensive and first of its kind.

Republic Services Wins for Strategy

Throughout the integration of its merger with Allied Waste, Republic Services' treasury and risk teams maintained their investment grade rating, issued new debt, and integrated the processes and infrastructure of the two organizations. They reduced the cost of their debt, integrated two technology platforms into one new Web-based system, and consolidated treasury functions into a centralized unit.

ABOUT AFP®

The Association for Financial Professionals (AFP), headquartered outside Washington, D.C., serves a network of more than 16,000, members with news, economic research and data, treasury certification programs, networking events, financial analytical tools, training, and public policy representation to legislators and regulators. AFP is the daily resource for the finance profession (www.afponline.org).

AFP's global reach extends to over 150,000 treasury and financial professionals worldwide, including AFP of Canada; London-based gtnews, an on-line resource for the treasury and finance community; and bobsguide, a financial IT solutions network.

SOURCE Association for Financial Professionals