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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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Expert: Look Within For Non-Traditional Sources of Credit Intelligence
Alice Knight, VP of Finance & Administration at Paper Products Marketing (USA) Inc.
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We spoke recently with Alice Knight, VP of Finance & Administration at Paper Products Marketing (USA) Inc., on how she uses information from non-traditional sources to make credit decisions. After all, sometimes credit reports - especially when dealing with international accounts - just don't have everything you might need.
Knight has found that some of the best and most current information is available right within her company. And she recommends that, no matter what your market or industry, you should work on a two-pronged approach to gather the best information quickly and to use it to reach the right decisions.
First, she says, you need to develop a culture where all information important to credit decisions flows unimpeded to the credit department. "Sales and marketing generally are great sources of information, since they're dealing daily with people in the field."
Now, you might ask, will Sales tell you?
Knight believes that at most well-managed companies they will.
"In the past five or six years, the economy has placed more value on the fact that Credit and Sales have to work together," she says. "Credit isn't there to impede sales. It's there to enable sales within the risk parameters of the company."
One factor that has prompted this Credit/Sales cooperation, Knight believes, is the tightening of bank credit within the U.S. More companies are becoming aware that their receivables are their biggest asset, so a lot more value has been placed on the value of credit work.
Earning the Right
But this cooperation isn't automatic. You have to earn it, often by making your credit function more visible, especially by providing help and information to other parts of the company.
"For example," she says, "supply chain management has become very important. Risk assessments must be made of the companies you're buying from overseas, and that's exactly the same kind of assessment that an international credit person does on the sales side. So do the same service on the purchasing side. You can work with Purchasing, and, in turn, have them bring customers to you. Building this kind of reciprocal relationship makes the credit job that much easier."
"We buy from mills in Brazil," she continues. "We try to determine if the infrastructure within the potential supplier can provide the services that we need on a timely basis. We also watch the exchange rates closely. What effect will that have on our future buys? A number of companies that I've talked to say their purchasing areas are very pleased to get this information because they're normally not set up to evaluate country risk.
"If their critical supply is coming from, say, Malaysia, they're not set up to evaluate the possibility of a transportation problem, a typhoon, a government coup. If the international credit department is selling into that country, they already have the information available. You strengthen your own supply chain by providing this information back to them."
These interrelationships are both invaluable and natural because international credit interacts with every department in the company: Logistics, Traffic, Legal, Sales and so on. "If the sales department is thinking about expanding into a new country and they're used to selling net 30--and if you know from your contacts in your industry that it's a net 60 day country--Sales and Marketing need to know that before they go in."
And that kind of hands-on attitude will do wonders for your ability to get help from other departments when you need it!
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Outlook 2012
This month's survey explores...
- What the top problems are facing credit execs currently, and
- What the top improvement initiatives are.
Click here to participate!
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February 2012
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