Arlington Industries

"It is very gratifying when your VP of Finance comes out of his office to congratulate your team on their improved metrics. Our partnership with Cortera has really helped us to achieve these results." Traci Stryker, Credit and Collections Manager

Challenge

• Replace several disparate tools used to manage credit and collections with a single, centralized system
• No standard processes existed and all activity was based off of a weekly aging balances report
• Reactive approach – collectors started from the top of the list and worked downwards and there was no follow-up tool for phone calls
• Account contact information was kept in a separate system and collectors set up follow-up reminders through their email program.
• As a result of this decentralized processing, bad debt and DSO were creeping up and deductions were getting unmanageable

Solution

• Implement a web-based, real-time credit & collections automation system from Cortera
• Automate routine decisions based on Arlington’s credit policy through scoring and workflow
• Accounts that require in-depth reviews are routed to analysts automatically

Results

• Bad debt and DSO have been reduced
• Improved credit and collections processes mean that the same number of people are able to accomplish much more
• Only two months of using the system, Arlington was able to exceed its goal of 8% past due accounts to achieve only 4% past due