Credit Today's Credit & Collection Technology Buyer's Guide
There's not much more important these days than the intelligent application of technology to improve efficiency. But that's no easy task, with the rapidly changing landscape in credit, collections, and A/R management. With that in mind, we set out to put together the first PLAIN English guide for anyone purchasing or upgrading technology in any phase of the order-to-cash process. We explain how technology designed to improve efficiency throughout the quote-to-cash process works in easy-to-understand English, along with many useful diagrams, tables, and charts. The report features 9 Comparison Tables in 6 key parts of the OTC process from 40 different vendors (Oracle, GETPAID, eCredit, PredictiveMetrics, etc.) plus a 130-item checklist to create your own specs. If you are planning on improving the productivity in any phase of the OTC process selling, or if you want to upgrade your current systems Credit Today's Credit & Collection Technology Buyer's Guide will help you:
- Figure out whether to build in-house, buy off-the-shelf software, or outsource to a hosted ASP.
- Determine what your costs might be.
- Quickly compare functions and services in 9 categories from 40 vendors who specialize in providing technology for various phases of the quote to cash process (A/R management).
- Easily spec out your needs using any or all of the items from our 130-item checklist for custom-built software.
- Understand how all the pieces fit together: application processing, risk management & credit scoring tools, collection tools, dispute management tools, invoice accuracy, content management, remittance processing, reporting & analytics, etc.
We spent nearly a year on this project, beginning with a breakdown of every possible item in the quote-to-cash process that can be (or has been to date) automated. From there, we organized those 130 processes into 6 broad categories:
- Application Processing & Risk Assessment Tools
- Application processing & data gathering tools
- Risk management & scoring tools
- Collection Tools
- Strategy & workflow tools
- Collector productivity tools
- Reporting management tools
- Deduction & dispute management
- Invoice accuracy tools
- Remittance processing tools
- Reporting & analytical tools
We demo'd many of the products in the guide to help us develop our comprehensive vendor questionnaire, and studied the back-end of how technology in the A/R space really works, and who's the best vendor to provide it. We gathered their data into this easy-to-review Buyer's Guide for you, featuring 13 tables, useful diagrams, and appendixes. The Buyer's Guide is written specifically for the non-technical executive responsible for credit, A/R, or collections - really any phase of the quote-to-cash process. Includes a "Who's Using Whom" List of What Vendors 72 Companies Are Using Ever wondered what technology your competitors use to manage their A/R processes? We list 72 specific companies across a broad spectrum of business types along with the name of the software vendor they use. Use our Easy-scan Comparison Charts to pick a vendor: We quizzed 40 of the top tech vendors who are in the quote-to-cash space -- ranging from inexpensive programs suitable for smaller companies on tight budgets to the most expense programs, aimed at Fortune 500 firms -- to learn all about their offerings for you. You can review detailed answers from: 9ci, Inc.
Aceva Technologies
Arch Development Corp.
Cforia Software
CGI-AMS
Chargeback Support Group
C/LECT Consulting Inc.
Columbia Ultimate
Comtech Systems Inc.
Comtronic Systems, LLC
Credentrust Software, Inc.
Credit & Management Systems, Inc.
Credit Strategy, Inc.
CR Software, Inc.
ECredit
eFinance Corporation
Emagia Corporation
Experian
Experian-Scorex
ezBackOffice Inc.
Fair Isaac
Financial Risk Analysis Inc.
GETPAID Corporation
Global Visions Solutions
I-many
Investortools, Inc.
LiveCapital, Inc.
MicroBilt Corporation
NMC Technologies
Nortridge Software
Ontario Systems
Oracle
PAR3 Communications
PredictiveMetrics, Inc.
Receivable Management Services
Sceris, Inc.
SedTec, LLC
Spectrum-Prime Solutions LP
Synectics Group, Inc.
Vision Software Solutions Plus, Vendor Profiles on all 40 vendors, including key data such as: This section gives you detailed product information in a consistent format on all 40 vendors, making it easy to compare critical metrics. Note: not all vendors were willing to answer each question (we really grilled them!), but in many instances, it's instructive to note what they didn't answer!
- Company background and demographics
- Address
- Contact info
- marketing contact
- # of employees
- # of locations
- Key offices
- 2004 revenues
- Year-to-year revenue growth
- Key investors
- Software solutions offered
- names of software
- Initial launch date
- latest version No.
- Latest release date
- Licensed clients
- total seats (users)
- Key data on their solutions
- Client interface
- Platform/database compatiblity
- Web delivery methods
- ERP system compatibility
- ERP systems that they have already integrated with
- Which reporting products the software interfaces with
- Pricing
- Maintenance and Support fees
- Speed of implementation
And more:
- Target market (Do they target Fortune 500, Fortune 2000, or mid- to small-market, or a particular industry?)
- Competition
- Enterprise capabilities
- Multi-currency and multi-language capabilities
- Is solution configurable for multiple companies/clients?
- Data feeds supported from multiple sources?
- Integration & compliance tools
- What data mapping tools provided?
- Are specific Sarbanes Oxley (SARBOX) compliance tools included?
- General comments & strengths
All of this is designed so you can sort out who's who, and focus on the vendors who most meet your needs. Pull-out Version of the Questionnaire
And here's something that's probably worth far more than the price of this guide, all by itself, our exclusive "Pull-out version of the questionnaire." Creating a spec sheet of every aspect of the order-to-cash process is no easy undertaking. So we provide a replica of the 130-item questionnaire we developed for the vendors in this survey, which you can adapt to your situation and give to the vendors you're considering. If you did it yourself, can you imagine how long it will take you to break your order-to-cash processes down into the 130 parts that can be automated? Some other goodies in this report:
Ten Tips to Help You Get Off on the Right Foot
The Vendor Selection Process - a detailed article on what you'll need to do
Click here to download this report immediately! See below for related articles and links:
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