With the current economic crisis significantly impacting consumers and business alike, the increased strain on resources and profit margins has led credit managers in Banks and other Institutions to find efficient ways of managing external collections partners. Here, Martijn Groot, collections control specialist at Aryza, discusses how the technology from Aryza can help.
As the cost of living in the UK continues to rise, many consumers are cutting back on everything but the essentials. Businesses, already grappling with lower consumer spending power and rising costs, could also see more of their customers default on pre-agreed payments.
This means to avoid cash flow problems and businesses falling into debt themselves, credit managers must become more efficient at managing debt. As a result, more arrears will be handled by external collections partners, therefore the way debt collection partners are organised and run becomes even more important.
Bring everything together for greater visibility
Managing an arrears portfolio of credit records is rarely an easy task. With recording being handled by a mixture of different collection partners, the information provided, and formatting varies with each. Aside from this, accounts are all at different stages, and each is assigned to an individual with their own, unique circumstances.
Overseeing the collections process for each of these accounts — whether there are ten or 1,000 — demands significant resources. Those unable to keep the debtor informed of their position and options will, over time, damage their reputation and potentially lose businesses.
This is where technology can help with performance management software able to provide banks and other companies with full visibility of the entire process, rather than having staff browse through several disparate sets of information.
The ethos of these systems is to bring all the information from multiple collection partners, databases, and locations into one centralised place. It can then be displayed in a consistent and easily understood dashboard with predefined KPI’s.
Having a handle on your collections process
Healthy cooperation along the credit management chain depends on shared ideas and understanding.
Aryza Control creates a uniform view of case data and offers powerful tools for analysis and cooperation – all vital elements for an effective partnership. Gaining insight is the key to achieving an optimum spread of the benchmark portfolio and improving yield.
Comparable reports, not disparate ones
One of the most time-consuming tasks in any business is the creation of reports. In the sensitive and tightly regulated field of debt recovery, it can take even longer.
Through the deployment of specialist technology, businesses can generate more than 50 different types of reports in a matter of minutes, depending on the information that’s needed for the client. These can be generated automatically or in line with each client’s requirements.
This also means that businesses hold an objective data set for each account and collection partner, allowing them to easily measure and benchmark how well each service provider is doing.
This data is automatically monitored and can provide powerful insights to enhance the decision-making process. For example, it allows businesses to see how their relationship with individual collection providers is faring in terms of a cost-benefit ratio, and whether that company is in line with standards for socially responsible credit management.
Technology has boosted efficiency in many different sectors of business, yet credit management firms sometimes lag behind. However, now the systems are available, and these firms are taking them on, they should be able to deliver a better service for their clients during the cost-of-living crisis and beyond.
For more information, please visit https://www.aryza.com/product/aryza-control/
