CM July_August 2019

REVIEW
Technically speaking
Credit Management asked members of the CICM
Think Tank what tech they can’t do without and why.
Stuart Knock MCICM,
EOS Solutions
WHEN I think of the piece of
technology that we just couldn’t do
without and that also had one of
the biggest positive impacts to this
business when it came on stream, it
has to be our field services application,
Dator.
This proprietary app sits on a
smartphone or tablet and allows us
to communicate in real-time with our
field agents. It’s secure, reliable and
very adaptable. One of the biggest
benefits that we generated when it
went live was that we no longer had to
hand over our agent’s mobile number
when connecting a customer to the call
centre – we just enter the customer’s
confirmed number and the call centre
(ours or our client’s) dials them.
Productivity and security were
improved at a stroke and the customer
benefits from being able to take a call
without our agent having to remain
with them, which de-stresses the
situation.
Jo Kettner,
Company Watch
THE one system that the Company
Watch team consistently uses is
the web-based software Slack.
It’s a powerful tool that makes
communication within our team
fast and easy. Whether it is project
discussions, important documents
or office cake announcements; they
all live together in Slack. Having our
team and information in one easily
searchable place means collaborating
online is as easy as collaborating in
person.
Team members join and leave Slack
channels as and when they need to
(different to lengthy email chains).
There is also integrated file sharing;
ideal as team members are in the office
on different days or working overseas.
By using Slack we ensure all the
team are constantly in the loop and
don’t miss important announcements
and business queries. We think of it as
our online office workspace. Without it,
communication would be much slower
and we like to be efficient at Company
Watch!
Dan Hancocks MCICM,
CoCredo
ON a day-to-day basis the team here
at CoCredo couldn’t live without our
internal control panel – basically our
version of a CRM system.
It is a versatile piece of technology
and not a standard out of the box
system. It has been built by our own
talented technical team and holds
customer and business information
that enables us to carry out our jobs.
The benefit of it being an in-house
system means that if we need
additional features, the tech team can
implement these easily.
It is used daily by every member
of the team ranging from sales to
marketing to customer services and
HR. Sales use it as a CRM system,
marketing use it to update the
website, for mailshots etc and HR
use facilities such as the holiday
planner. It enables us all to do our jobs
efficiently with the information we
need at our fingertips.
Debbie Nolan FCICM(Grad),
Arvato
I took a poll around the office and while we all rely on our hand-held gadgets
to check email, take phone calls, use an app of one description or another, the
one thing that we cannot run our business without, is our CRM database.
It is essential that we have consistent, real-time access to our customers’
details and that they are validated, up-to-date, reflect the most recent
interactions and provide easily accessible historical transactions so that we
can ensure the best customer journey at any stage of the collections cycle.
It is essential that our system is flexible so that we can continually innovate
the way in which we interact with our customers. Our system drives our daily
activity and allow us to track process outcomes to construct analytics that
help us drive continuous improvement.
The Recognised Standard / www.cicm.com / July/August 2019 / PAGE 40