Automated dispute management provides strategic resolutions
Emagia Corporation
www.emagia.com.
866-362-4421
Product: Emagia Collections Management, v. 2.3
Originally known as Solix Internet, Emagia was founded in 1998 with funding from key executives employed in the enterprise software and financial services arena, including PeopleSoft, Cisco, Oracle and Providian Financial. Similarly, Emagia's advisory board is populated with leaders in the financial solutions arena. The company also has established alliances with Oracle, Microsoft, Crystal Decisions and HP, among others. Emagia boasts more than 50 installations.
Pricing for Emagia Collections starts at around $150,000, and increases with the number of modules, users, interfaces and sites deployed. Emagia contains five primary modules: collections, receivables, deductions, reports and administration.
Features
Emagia's collection solution is very flexible; the user can rearrange the information displayed in the task list. Work then can be sorted by collection stage, aging balance, credit risk or any other column heading assigned to the task list. This allows the individual collector a great deal of freedom in terms of organizing their work beyond the user-defined collection priorities established by management.
Clicking on a task brings up an account information screen - nicely laid out and easy to navigate. A row of buttons control collection activities and access to detailed information, making it very easy to record activities and advance strategies with a minimum of keystrokes and mouse clicks. On the open item listing, colored buttons indicate whether an item is overdue, a deduction or something else. External documents or other electronic images are linked at either the account or item level, and are accessible from here as well. Information on multiple contacts is stored by the system, as are transaction histories. Mass dunning also is facilitated. It can be set to run automatically or can be reviewed by the user before sending as emails, faxes or a printed correspondence.
Although tasks have been grouped by account in the work queue, the assignment of tasks goes down to the item level. Viewing the workflow history for a specific item is as simple as double-clicking on the workflow stage indicator associated with that item, a useful tool for either the collector or manager to use when considering future actions outside the automated workflow. Similarly, the system displays graphical workflow maps that aid in the development and modification of automated collection strategies.
Emagia also does a nice job of automating dispute management. Once an item is identified as a particular type of deduction, an appropriate resolution strategy is assigned, routing the item, based on customer and sales data, to the responsible party for handling. The software also automatically escalates and delegates dispute handling in accord with user-defined workflows. After identifying the problem type, about all the collector needs to do is add his or her notes.
Emagia's collection software comes with 53 standard reports - including cash in-flow forecasting that can be easily customized on the fly. These also include drill-down functionality. Crystal Reports (Web version) serves as the primary front-end reporting tool, but Emagia also has created a back-end reporting engine that can interface with other tools, including Actuate. Because of this, Emagia is able to offer a high-end package that includes trending reports in a multi-dimensional reporting environment.
Support
Emagia offers both Gold (includes upgrades) and Silver levels of tech support. Both programs include phone, fax and 24/7 Web-based customer support. Annual license fees range from 15 to 18 percent (Silver) and 18 to 22 percent (Gold) of the installation cost.
Summary
Emagia is a robust product. Additional features such as EIPP (electronic invoice presentment and payment), a customer care portal for facilitating online interactions and credit risk management tools only make it more so. In addition, Emagia provides EAI tools that facilitate connections with credit rating systems and financial partners, as well as a host of other back-office systems. And, don't forget Emagia's other working capital management tools. Medium- to large-enterprises needing to automate collections should consider Emagia a strong contender, especially if they have other working capital needs.
