A. Schulman is a leading international supplier of high quality plastic components, raw materials and additives. Technological centres in North America and Europe are dedicated to product development and research. A. Schulman has a global customer base and delivers its products to every corner of the world. Some 2000 staff are employed at the headquarters in Ohio, USA and the 16 production companies in North America, Europe, Mexico and Asia.
Structure
A. Schulman started to professionalise its Credit & Collections with OnGuard in early 2009. Marc Vandenbosch has held the post of Lead Credit & Collections since September 2010. A team of ten staff work on Credit & Collections from Londerzeel, Belgium, and another seven people at other locations are also involved in credit management activities. Dunning activities are scheduled on the timeline, and dunning letters are then sent automatically. OnGuard offers a complete overview, but also shows the activities by location. The structuring of Credit & Collections has substantially improved the monitoring of outstanding accounts.
Result
Vandenbosch says about the results achieved: “The biggest results are the overview and the structure which the software provides. The monitoring of debtors in OnGuard immediately highlights deviating payment patterns amongst customers. The credit management tool helps by limiting risks, as a result of which write-offs and collection actions are also less common.
In practical terms, the user-friendliness is the most important thing. Employees can learn the method easily and quickly. Enthusiasm amongst the employees contributes to the results. It is nice that there is insight into the status of one another’s activities.” Vandenbosch stresses that the professionalisation of credit management is still in full flow: “At the moment we are expanding our hardware performance. Optimising profiles, greater utilisation of reporting options and updating payment status more frequently are still on the wish list.”