January and February 2016 Credit Management

CICMQ NEWS
SMASHING TARGETS
FIRST-time accreditation for Ageas Insurance
Limited was achieved after it smashed a
monthly collections target, showing the
quality of its processes to CICMQ assessors.
The leading provider of award-winning
insurance solutions challenged its 48-strong
Financial Operations Credit Management
Team (FinOps CM) to collect £100 million
in September, says Sue Copling, Head of
Financial Operations:
“Even by our high standards, this was
a highly aspirational monthly collections
figure,” she says. “And the team beat it,
collecting a total of £123 million and creating
a new company record.”
Sue continues that CICMQ accreditation
combines with Ageas’ customer-centric
corporate culture: “It reinforces the customer
service elements of the team and helps to
create stakeholder engagement, driving
innovation to facilitate even better-practice.”
COMPUTERS UNLIMITED CELEBRATE SUCCESS
THE eight-strong collections team at
Computers Unlimited, distributor of
specialised technological products and
accessories for creative professionals, has
been awarded CICMQ re-accreditation.
Managing the credit control function
for the UK, Paris and Barcelona branches,
the team collects an average of £10 million
every month, serving 210 employees from a
centralised location:
“Having a team that understands the
importance of key focus areas and who
are keen to display best practice is a great
motivator to achieve accreditation,” says
Gary Grant, Group Credit Manager.
“CICMQ is a fantastic accolade,
putting the department on the path of
development and challenging everyone to
do better, to contribute more, and to align
with company objectives to have a greater
impact.”
FIRST NOTCH TOWARDS BECOMING BEST-IN-CLASS
OFFERING oil and environmental expertise
and operational capability throughout the
UK, Adler and Allan’s credit team is the latest
to achieve CICMQ accreditation.
Despite only being formed two years ago,
the team has implemented solid policies
and focuses on getting the basics right to
facilitate high-class results.
Credit Manager Darren Allardyce
explains: “We fully intend to use this firsttime
accreditation as a milestone for further
improvement,” he says.
With a focus towards becoming best-inclass,
Darren says the CICMQ Best Practice
Network proved invaluable: “It means we
can share ideas with other, perhaps more
experienced companies, so we can find
out what effect a particular process change
might have – and that’s a resource that can
deliver even greater benefits for everyone.”
Delivering significant benefits,
accreditation has raised the external
perception of the department. “By making
others in the company aware of our actions
we can push for closer cooperation and
drive better results for the company,” Darren
concludes.
ACCREDITATION RAISES THE PROFILE OF CREDIT TEAM
PEARSON, worldwide provider of
educational products and services, has
joined the ranks of CICMQ accredited
companies.
Its 20-strong credit team manages
the collections of over 40,000 employees
throughout 70 countries, and used the
CICMQ process to consolidate the various
credit and collections policies across
Pearson’s numerous operating companies.
Finding out about accreditation from
social media website LinkedIn, Matthew
Walters, Group Credit Manager, explains
the process helped to achieve Pearson’s
aim:
“Having one policy ensures we can
maintain effective processes throughout,
meaning we work closer together to reach
our common goal,” he says.
“The team’s profile has also been
raised within the business, and we have
subsequently been invited to more
operational meetings.
“CICMQ matches our performance
against the industry standard and shows that
we can stand out as a quality team,” Matthew
concludes.
16 Jan/Feb 2016 www.cicm.com
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