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Our Subscribers Say...
I think Credit Today is fantastic. You cover many practical topics in the credit field that I use regularly. Just one recent example—a conversation on the ListServ about preferential payments—gave me tips that I used in an actual case. The specific information I picked up from this one discussion saved me $10,000, enough to cover my membership for many years!
- Steve Savino
Manager of Credit & Collections, ASSA Abloy Americas Division, New Haven, CT
Credit Today's Resource Directory and their online e-mail forum (ListServ) provide information on almost any credit-related topic you can think of. It is a great way to exchange information with other credit professionals. As the saying goes, "You don't know what you don't know."
- Scott Goen,
Credit Manager, Big Lots Stores, Inc., Wholesale Division
"We've recently started using the ListServ tool within Credit Today. This is phenomenal and powerful forum for gaining immediate feedback, ideas, and suggestions, relative to any credit topic under the sun, all in a real-time e-mail format."
-Javier Vela, Senior Credit Manager, Global Credit Services, JDA Software Group Inc.
"Being a part of the Credit Today online community is like having the expertise of hundreds of credit managers at your fingertips. These credit execs are willing to help you solve topical business issues as they arise. In the current environment of ever increasing competing priorities which reduce our opportunities to meet peers out of the office face-to-face, this is the most valuable tool you can have on your desktop! It's important that we have a mechanism to reach out to our counterparts quickly to exchange knowledge as well as to stay on top of industry trends."
- Victoria Artis, Director of Customer Financial Services, Pfizer, Inc.
"Over the last 10 years I've seen Credit Today evolve from a monthly credit publication into a quality source of information and guidance for the B2B credit community. The website, with its user friendly form downloads, will take you from examples of new account credit applications to bankruptcy forms and everything in between.
The Credit Today ListServ has become the pre-imminent online forum, providing an opportunity for discussion and comments (and occasional humor) from an impressive list of credit professionals."
David Dungan, Director of Credit
Justin Brands, Inc. (A Berkshire Hathaway company)
Fort Worth, Texas
"There are numerous credit periodicals available to the credit professional today. How good is Credit Today? Is it relevant? I always have to read it late, or online because my credit analysts want to read it the minute it comes in. When my staff wants to read a publication before I have a chance to read it then something is working in that publication. We have cancelled our other subscriptions. When you have the best you do not need the rest."
Ron Woods
Corporate Credit Manager-World Wide
Thales Navigation, Inc.
"The newsletter, coupled with the website and the ListServ, are to us, more valuable than any other credit publication, bar none. I try to use at least one article out of each newsletter for departmental training/discussion sessions."
D. Mark Constantine
Corporate Credit Mgr
Fulton Paper Company
"I love Credit Today and read every issue cover to cover. For me, the greatest perk of a subscription is ListServ. I believe Credit Today's ListServ members may be the most knowledgeable Credit brain trust in existence today. I have saved and categorized hundreds of contributions on a wide variety of topics which I refer to often. It's an easy and cost effective way to network and learn."
Doug M. Thomas
Kimberly-Clark Customer Financial Services |
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Using the Intranet for Credit Training
Staff training should be--but seldom is--an on-going process. That major stumbling block is usually the lack of training materials and information, readily and conveniently accessible when staff members have time to use them. This credit department has overcome this problem through creative use of the Intranet. Your Intranet--if you have one--can be a potent tool for training your staff. We found abundant proof of this at Reynolds Metals Company (Richmond, Virginia) where the credit department takes full advantage of its intranet not only to make credit and collections more efficient but to enable employees to continually enhance their knowledge and upgrade their skills.
The credit department's home page offers a wide range of credit-related information including all the resources employees need for learning. The company decided to use the Intranet for training to enable credit employees to have the information they need right at their fingertips, according to Ron Borcky, Corporate Director of Credit.
"We provide people with an exact learning tool," he says. "A lot of people lack direction in terms of competencies that are required to do the job. We provide exact direction in terms of what they need to know as credit professionals and then provide, right at their fingertips, the tools to actually begin the learning process."
Key aspects of the program include:
Individual responsibility for learning. The credit department's home page is divided into four sections, one of which is "learning and growth." This section includes virtually all the resources employees need for learning. All resources are available to all credit employees. No one is limited by rank or seniority.
Depending on the individual's position, he or she must achieve a certain core level. After that, they can learn as much as they want.
Employees are responsible for their own learning. They're free to learn at their own pace, but they are encouraged to spend 10 to 15minutes a day on learning rather than trying to absorb too much information at one time.
Competencies. To determine core competencies (i.e., what employees are required to know) as well as extended competencies (i.e., what employees should learn in order to advance) the company first identified its major activities. These are:
- Account risk assessment
- Collections
- Cash application
- Account maintenance
- Reporting.
From that, the company determined the following core competencies:
- International risk management
- Bankruptcy
- Collections
- Financial analysis
- Technology. (This was included among the core competenoies in order to make the credit department more efficient.)
"Training in technology is incredibly important so people know how to use their computer," Borcky says. "Many people use 30% of their computer's capacity because they don't know how to use everything on their computer. Technology helps us to be more efficient and to run leaner."
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Each core competency is further broken down into specific subjects. Individual employees researched web sites that provide information on specific subjects within each competency. Their findings were organized so all employees can easily access information.
"When they click on 'bankruptcy,'" according to Borcky, "they see they have to know about proof of claim, notice to creditors, and automatic stays. All they have to do is click it and up come the web sites that discuss each of the subjects."
To get specific information online--for example, articles on collection methods or alternate methods of risk management--Reynolds approached several publishers. Now, the CRF Technical Reference Manual and Credit & Collection Manager's Letter are online.
Subjects are indexed and organized into core and extended competencies. This enables employees to easily locate information and solve problems quickly.
Hands-on learning. To train employees to use spreadsheets, databases and the Internet, the company uses Ziff-Davis' Learn-It-online.
The company Intranet is used to inform employees of required competencies in technology. The Ziff-Davis program provides hands-on learning. The required competencies are:
- Electronic mail
- Microsoft office 95 and 97
- Web browsers
- Windows operating system
- Online corporate credit systems.
With technology, our people are better able to use their accounts receivable system," Borcky says. "They're better able to use an Excel spreadsheet which may help them do a better financial analysis.
"They don't have to input numbers. They knew the sites to go to to draw financial information, and they download it into a spreadsheet. What might have taken 5 hours in the past new takes a half-hour."
Tests. Online credit information is accessible through use of a laptop. Learn-It-Online requires a Web-based computer and a modem. When purchased for the entire company, the Ziff-Davis program cost the company about $70 per person per year.
Learn-It-Online also includes tests. Each employee has an ID and a password which must be entered each time the employee logs on. This allows the program to tack each person's progress and provide reports to each person's manager.
Employees are encouraged to take the test upfront to identify weaknesses. If they pass, they may skip that particular module.
Employees' progress in learning credit information is monitored by team leaders. Employees also under go periodic assessments.
Upgrading information. When relevant web sites are uncovered, they are put on the Intranet with links. This saves time since employees are often looking for the same information. Individuals are assigned a particular competency and are responsible for finding new web sites with information in that competency.
Besides the Intranet, the company also uses traditional learning methods such as conferences.
As a result of this training, both DSO figures and bad debt write offs are down. "We're turning our receivables faster than in the past," Boroky says. "We are better organized. People know what their goals are. They knew their job and they focus on what's important."
Editor's Note: The above article originally appeared in the Credit & Collection Manager's Letter, a newsletter purchased by Credit Today in 2006. This article originally appeared prior to 2000.
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Credit Groups 2012
Wonder What the ROI is on Credit Groups?
Find out here...
It's been 4 years since our original ground-breaking survey on credit groups and we're revisiting this most important topic. Among other topics, we're investigating:
- What are the top services being offered by credit groups
- How much credit groups cost
- What the value of credit group services is
- What the value of credit group services is in comparison to credit reporting services
- How data is submitted
- What percentage of credit groups reveal terms
- What percentage of credit groups share data outside the credit group
And much more...
Click here to participate!
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