CREDIT MANAGEMENT
Signs Your Organization
Needs Debt Collections
Software
By Wasilwa Miriongi
T
hrough my experience within
a credit department and credit
industry I can authoritatively
allude that many people, including debt
collectors, find collections very difficult
without a Debtor’s Software that makes
credit administration easy to manage.
One of my clients has very many
disorganized debtors records that I have
always had a bad feeling of how credit
issues are handled in his company and on
some occasions, I have decided to render
unsolicited advice on a number of credit
issues.
One area that came out clearly in our
discussion is digitalization of the entire
data and credit processes albeit the
fact that some seem so reluctant when
mentioning of installation of a suitable
software that would address a number
of challenges faced by their staff, it has
also served as an opportunity to counsel
the organization on a number of credit
management challenges facing them.
All said and done the debt collections
process involves countless data points,
multiple people and numerous channels
of communication. For those reasons, it is
also fraught with friction points. Perhaps
it is the overburdened Excel spreadsheet
from which they run their collections,
or maybe it’s a lack of cohesive strategy
holding back their ‘Bad Debts” results.
If you ever thought to yourself, 'there must
be a better way', your instinct is correct.
Specialized collections software is one of
Collection is always a customer service
challenge. The process should not be ad-
versarial. It is precisely when a customer
is struggling that they need your help the
most. No one wants to be in debt. And
by relying on an old-fashioned model of
collections, organizations often do not
empower consumers. Collections soft-
ware flips this equation with self-service
portals, transforming debt recovery into
a collaborative process.
66 MAL30/19 ISSUE
the savviest investments an organization
will ever make. And there are quite a few
red flags that signal you’re in dire need
of it. Here-under are ten good indicators
your company needs to take the leap.
Running collections off a
spreadsheet
Many organizations today use a variety
of enterprise IT systems, but surrounding
these systems are clusters of “shadow
IT” systems, usually taking the form
of end user computing (EUC) tools,
particularly Excel spreadsheets. Excel, in
many financial institutions, is part of the
furniture. And while it’s a metaphorically
luxurious sofa for some applications, for
debt collections it resembles a creaky old
chair with a broken leg.
Excel is a wonderful tool, but it is
not built with the complexity of debt
collections in mind. When Excel becomes
overburdened, either by the number of
users or complexity of the business, it
becomes notoriously prone to error.
When you are constantly flicking between
99 tabs, you lose the ability to think and
act quickly. Not to mention Excel grinding
to a halt as it struggles to contain your
debt portfolio. For a modern collections
department, dealing with a diverse debt
portfolio, centralized and specialized
software becomes a necessity.
Collections software makes it easy to store
documents, data and related insights in
one place, making the process efficient and