Canon Business Center

Jasper Schot has been a Credit Management Consultant within CBC Netherlands for over 4 years. The credit management team is part of the Customer Finance department. He started his interim assignment at a time when CBC was exploring how to implement a number of professionalisation measures in terms of credit management.

The standard dunning process through their original book-keeping package was not producing the desired results, so a decision was made to carry out an investigation into implementing dedicated credit management software. Jasper Schot invited three credit management software suppliers to pitch their solutions, and following an internal evaluation, the decision was made to adopt Onguard’s CreditManager.

Jasper Schot joined the credit management department at CBC as an interim consultant in November 2017. “At the start of my assignment, the regional offices’ records had just been merged. Chasing on the basis of Excel lists and scheduling was very time-consuming. In previous assignments I had been accustomed to working with credit management software so that the credit managers have their hands free to address major issues.” Based on this, Schot invited three software suppliers to show what they had to offer. “Onguard was one of the companies. I had worked with Onguard's CreditManager before and was very satisfied with it. They are the market leader, and there’s a reason for that- they offer the quality that our clients also expect of CBC. CBC was going through a growth phase - we were acquiring more clients and therefore experienced more turnover. A reliable software package was essential for us. That brought us to Onguard, and so we got started.”

CBC Netherlands has now been using CreditManager from Onguard for over 3 years “We are very satisfied with the software and the relationship with Onguard. In our first six-month period the DSO had already fallen by 400%. That is an enormous drop, and results in a steady cash flow for CBC. Naturally we’re very happy about that. We have also been able to set up a standard dunning process with the software.

By regulating dunning workflows, CreditManager is making a massive contribution to the professionalisation of our credit management process. If an invoice remains unpaid, a first reminder is sent by email. This is often followed by a telephone call, although this depends on the size of the amount outstanding. If the client does not respond to this, the software sends a demand, possibly then leading to a telephone call. If there is still no response, the software sends a notice of default, which is sent by both email and post. Then there follows a final attempt to contact the client by telephone and we inform the account manager that the client is being placed in the collection process. The account manager can then make another attempt through their sales contacts. In addition, complaint handling is also simple thanks to CreditManager. Previously it was almost impossible to document complaints, but now it is clear at a glance why an invoice has not been paid and what the outcome was. Outstanding invoices, DSO and complaints are important aspects of the report that we can now generate at the press of a button and forward to the CFO. In short, acquiring CreditManager has given us massive time-savings and an increase in our cash.”

“We managed to achieve a very rapid and successful implementation in close collaboration with the Onguard consultant,” says Schot. “Onguard did a good job for us. They have a particularly high level of in-house understanding of all IT-related systems, resulting in the smooth implementation.” CBC Netherlands also has a wish list. “We would find it very useful if we could easily select a different e-mail address for the client via CreditManager. Reminders to clients often need to be sent to a different e-mail address than the invoice. At the moment we still have to amend that by hand. Those are issues for the future. Right now, we are very satisfied with CreditManager - and Onguard, of course. We are pleasantly surprised by what the combination of people and system has already done for us so far.”

• Decline in Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) by 400%
• Realisation of continuous cash flow (CEI > 90%)
• Reports are generated at the press of a button
• Smooth implementation