In Focus Collections Looking to the future
Last month, CCRMagazine and Else Solicitors brought together an industry panel to debate the prospects for the commercial credit sector. They were: Steve Mayos, credit manager – EMEA, NACCO Materials Handling; Louise Sackey, solicitor, Else Solicitors (LS); Nigel Fields, international credit director, Twentieth Century Fox International (NF); John Burke, credit manager, National Grid (JB); Darren Allardyce, credit manager, Adler and Allan; Gail Armstrong, cash collection services GB & IE, Siemens (GA); Alan Brown, credit manager, BP Oil UK; Victoria Herd, value director, Beyond Funding (VH); Colin Baldwin, credit risk manager, Smartest Energy; Laura Charles, acting head of debt recovery, Else Solicitors (LC); Kevan McGerity, trade finance manager, Terex Aerial Work Platforms (KM); Rob Cresswell, manager, Mazars; Paul Maloney, senior manager, Mazars; Kay Brennand-Millington, group credit manager, EMR (KB); Chris Else, managing partner, Else Solicitors (CE); Atul Vadher, international credit manager, French Connection (AV); Gary Brooks, head of credit, Hitachi Europe (GB); Brian Lewis, credit manager, Hanson UK (BL); Patrick Langley, group credit manager, CMS Distribution (PL); and Paul Gordon, credit manager, Securitas
What are the biggest challenges and opportunities facing the commercial credit sector at the moment? VH: Cashflow constraints are really forcing businesses to juggle both sides – what can they pay versus what can they collect. Clearly that has a knock-on affect with the Prompt Payment Code and new quarterly payment statistics. So, for me, it is quite significant.
AV: It is very much a case of the industry that you are in and the power that you have. If you are in telecoms and you can just cut them off, then you are in a better position. If you are providing a service and it has already gone, then it is tougher. If you have a product that can be recoursed or reclaimed, then you have a different situation. It is a question of your industry and what works for you within your industry.
KB:We have a similar issue: we have retention of title, but the end product is not going to be there by then time of claim – it will probably be in a foundry! Also we cannot put people on stop early in the collections
In a later phase, I intend to build in a self-service payment element, thus offering another method of payment for our customer base
cycle because they will just go somewhere else. They will come back to us eventually because we have the best product and a continuous supply, but will go somewhere else in the meantime.
AV: When you go to the supermarket, you self-serve; when you get tickets, you self-serve; we are heading towards a combination of head count and self-serving. I was at a conference prior to Article 50 about Brexit, and animosity with workforce and jobs going. Now, what we have is technology changing so much that things are becoming
self-sufficient. Job-wise, we are losing jobs because we are replacing head count with an automated system, but that creates other jobs. The only way that you can fill those other jobs is by upskilling the population.
CE: The underlying thing is, do you really want those customers? There may be customers that you do not want, but for those that you do want to keep, you need to give some thought to actually training those customers to work in the new way that you are offering, to work in a different way.
GA:We are in the final stages of developing an all-encompassing cash-collection tool. In a later phase, I intend to build in a self- service payment element, thus offering another method of payment for our customer base, hopefully reducing the number of cheque payments we receive.
GB: A lot of companies are building supplier portals where customers can go to pay, and to pick up their invoice and statement.
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Left-right: Alan Brown; Laura Charles; Brian Lewis; Colin Baldwin; Darren Allardyce June 2017
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