Commercial and consumer credit management is a transparent and profitable business that is relying more and more on its customer service and management skills to stay competitive.

Collection House Ltd started in Brisbane in 1992 as a mercantile agent servicing the Queensland business community. It has grown to become one of the two leading mercantile agencies and the largest consumer agency in Australasia with over 750 personnel in 15 Australasian sites.

The company offers a comprehensive receivables management solution to corporate and government clients in Australia and New Zealand - offering its clients the benefits of a seamless, end-to-end receivables management service - eliminating the need for further outsourcing. 

Services include accounts receivable management, consumer and commercial debt collection, legal services, purchased debt, business information services, credit reporting, corporate credit rating, tenancy database, process serving, field calls and insurance claims management.

As an Australian Stock Exchange listed company operating in a highly regulated industry with many blue-chip clients and the wealth of data associated with this, the company needed to manage its tasks and associated information, as well as its workflow processes more efficiently.

Rapid growth

Sam Forbes, assistant general manager IT, explains. "Two years ago, we experienced rapid growth after listing on the ASX and having made a number of strategic acquisitions, our staffing levels soared in a short space of time.

In the Technologies Department we were using a combination of paper, Microsoft Outlook and proprietary systems to manage our tasks. There were no standards or templates and clearly, the room for improvement was an opportunity to revolutionise the way we conducted our business."

Finding a solution
The company considered an open source in-house system and some other vendors, but realised that these options would be complex to configure and would require on-going vendor maintenance, which would prove costly.

Instead, Collection House chose FrontRange's HEAT, based on cost-effectiveness, ease of installation and configurability. Following an initial four week pilot in the Technologies Department and a successful implementation into production late last year, Forbes has received a number of requests from other departments wanting HEAT for their teams to achieve similar results.

Unexpected applications
The Compliance & Complaints, and Legal Counsel Departments have now successfully implemented HEAT, and it is currently being developed for Finance. 

HEAT Service & Support software delivers an easy-to-use, full-featured customer service and support solution with a single view of the customer, allowing organisations to reduce labour and systems costs, streamline customer support interactions and improve customer retention.

Collection House staff working at remote sites are able to access the HEAT system through their web browser using  iHEAT. Through both iHEAT and HEAT Self Service users can log or update calls at any time. 

Collection House use HEAT Asset Tracker to scan the network for up-to-date information on the configuration of PCs, to identify recurring issues/problems and to manage software licensing. 

This information integrates into the HEAT database and is readily available to Support Desk Analysts when troubleshooting service issues. This has enabled Collection House to provide a more cost-effective and efficient level of service to its end users.

"We literally wanted a plug and play tool that would suit our requirements, without a lot of business process re-engineering," says Forbes. "The financial and business process benefits of HEAT are considerable and I see that as the business grows, the potential is there for future implementations in a number of other sections of our business."

In the Technologies Department, Forbes says HEAT enables Collection House to assess tasks and allocate them to those with the most suitable skills. "The Support Desk used to be the last port of call for users with problems. It now has a fantastic reputation for its serviceability and effectiveness. Our processes and communication flow has improved immensely. The benefits for the company have been tremendous."

April 2004