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Changing Ways of Managing Collections And Deductions
Besides technological solutions to help keep track of and speed up collections, there are management techniques that help to streamline and perfect the process. Terry Jordan, Sr. Credit Executive for Volt Information Services, employs a management approach called Six Sigma, which she said has helped her make her collections operations more efficient. "It's a methodology that helps you look at processes and procedures to help you improve what you're doing," she said. She pointed out that Six Sigma requires a detailed analysis of any business process to eliminate to the fullest extent possible deviations in intended outcomes of each individual activity, "to be able to have the least amounts of defects possible." She said with Six Sigma, you can "provide the best customer service possible," by using it in your day-to-day operations. "You have to do a lot of analyzing to get to the root cause; it's really a dynamic methodology. When you're finished with it, you know you have some very good information that can drive your decision about the solution." In order to implement Six Sigma, Jordan said, "Volt hired a fulltime Master Black Belt to conduct the Black Belt training." Jordan herself earned a Six Sigma Black Belt, which certifies her as attaining the highest level of training in the process.
Software solutions for collections and deductions have been developed over the last several years to help automate these functions. While there are differences among the many products available, they all serve to help tie together the resources and personnel about collections and deductions tasks so they can be performed in a timely fashion and make available the necessary documents, such as invoices and notes, in digital form so they can be conveniently pulled up on a computer screen with just one click of a mouse. These software products are also capable of producing various reports to help monitor the process and effectiveness of collections and deductions process. Jordan said, that after her Six Sigma training, she changed her mind about the software she was going to purchase and instead chose a product from Emagia. "We've been using Emagia for two years: we're using it for all our collection needs. We also utilize the deduction module which helps us manage all disputed items." She noted that the software is designed so that items are automatically disputed in the system if the invoice is not paid in full. After this happens, notice is sent into the workflow so it can be resolved by the appropriate personnel. |
