ICTF's Global Trade Symposium – Florida

During the Global Trade Symposium, multiple cutting-edge hot topics and trends in the field of global credit management were discussed. Both the theoretical and practical aspects of global credit, collections and A/R improvement initiatives were presented in an environment that promoted sharing experiences and ideas with one another. Among the speakers was Dr. Hans Belcsák, who is capable of taking you on a trip around the globe to discuss the global economy within a single hour. Dr. Belcsak’s always manages to give great insight with fascinating details about different countries in a very short and concise presentation.

Another very interesting key note speaker was Dinesh D’Souza, who is listed as one of the nation’s 500 leading authorities on international issues. He’s also known as a former policy analyst in the Reagan White House. D’Souza spoke about America and its place in the Global Economy, why they are loved and hated the same time.

As always during credit forums that OnGuard attends, they recognize new dynamics in the credit market that often are already embedded in the Credit management software. For example, the customer scoring functionality, which is a standard feature of our software, enables customers to combine internal and external information about their customers into one scoring.

This functionality is often emphasized at these forums because looking at external information from vendors is not enough; you also have to look at your customers payment behavior as well. It is important to go beyond focusing on DSO only and to look at the margins you have with a customer, what the collections efforts are and, of course, to not forget about the demographics.