The Last Word Comment
The right place at the right time?
A time of great technological change may well be a good time to be a credit manager
Elaine Simpson Credit services manager, Evo Group
Elaine.Simpson@
evo-group.co.uk
Changing times and emerging technologies have sparked a wide range of reactions from various industries. Some people welcome the change and some people fear it will take all of our jobs and kill our economy. These fears have been around at every
turning point in the history of our economy. Mining, weaving, agriculture, factory workers all faced them, and yet we are still here to tell the story.
Facing the facts There are probably valid arguments in all corners of the ring, but the fact is that these changes are happening whether we like it or not. I have seen these changes emerge significantly over the last five years throughout the finance sector and now, as a credit manager, I can see the up-and-coming wheel of change in the face of credit control. Things like auto cash-allocation tools,
self-service portals, which automate the process of copy invoices, logging invoice queries, customers can even create and download their own spend reports. With the overall aim to reduce headcount,
the understandable fear is that soon there will no longer be large teams of credit controllers to manage. But does that mean the extinction of cash-collection teams, or just a change to function as we know it? Lower overheads equal more competitive
pricing, which, in turn, means more business. More business equals higher profit, which can result in higher wages; there are many examples where automation has proven this to be true. If the price of goods drops in general due to the introduction of robots, then people buy
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more and contribute more to the economy. Amazon is the perfect example of how automation equals growth. Where jobs decline in one area due to
automation then they increase in another, so we need to keep an open mind and be willing to accept that our roles may change.
A new skill set What if these changes introduce a whole new required skill set to the role of credit control? Rather than cash collections being a manual job, it becomes more of a specialist role integrated with technology bridging the gap between finance and IT, allowing the role to command more in terms of salary. What if the new norm for a credit-control
What if the new norm for a credit-control function was to maintain the systems and updates of the robots? The background knowledge of cash collections would give credit controllers an added edge over your standard systems IT workers
function was to maintain the systems and updates of the robots? The background knowledge of cash collections would give credit controllers an added edge over your standard systems IT workers. Credit managers may have increased
involvement in risk management due to an increase in business opportunities. Yes, there will be some casualties along
the way, but, if we accept the changes coming ahead, rather than burying our heads in the sand, we can choose whether we want to learn new skills, and be utilised and rewarded for our flexibility and innovation, rather than being averse to change and being left behind. This is, of course, only the tip of the
debate, but it is good to look at things from a different perspective, so that we can hopefully help to show those less open to change that it does not have to be all doom and gloom. CCR
January 2018
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