Ferguson Enterprises Keeps Credit Flowing with Cortera

“We’re very pleased with our association with Cortera from an IT standpoint - their software really works well - and at a personal level where we feel they really care about improving our processes.” John Culbert, Vice President of Credit

Challenge:

• The credit management structure at Ferguson was decentralized, with credit managers in local branches and regional credit staff covering specific geographies and working with the credit branch managers. This decentralization led to inconsistencies in the decision-making process, with some information being available in some branches but not in others.
• There were no tools to manage systematic file updates, and when there was turnover in a branch, the branch suffered from the poor credit decisions that had been made or from the discovery that no decisions had been made at all, hurting Ferguson’s mission of providing superior customer service.
• During busy times, credit applications would be put aside for more collections-oriented work and subsequently were not getting the attention they deserved, even though many decisions were “slam dunks.” There was no system to effectively prioritize credit applications requiring more attention.
• Average processing time was a lengthy 2.5 days, with 20% of the applications taking 3 days for a decision to be returned

Solution:

• Implement Cortera’s eCredit web-based credit decision automation and analysis software
• Leverage multiple business credit information sources
• Automate Ferguson’s credit policies in a centralized manner for consistent credit decisions and turnaround time across all branches
• Route more complex decisions to analysts’ work queue for immediate follow-up and escalation

Results:

• Credit decisions can be now rendered within minutes of submission and that the branch is freed from the burden of time-consuming manual processes
• The management team is only a few clicks away from a complete view of customer and portfolio risk
• Branches have maintained the flexibility and power it needs to make decisions in the field
• Consistent, accurate credit decisioning identifies undersold sales opportunities and reduces credit losses
• All transactions are time and date stamped and consistently documented for Sarbanes-Oxley reporting
• Local staff can view the customer’s file on-line to analyze the credit decision and scoring while the customer waits if a decision is needed immediately
• Centralized file processing alleviates the pains of inconsistent data, and credit managers can now be confident that an account’s information is current and accurate.
• With Cortera, the credit manager can concentrate on marginal decisions and on identifying undersold accounts
• By using multi credit bureau instead of a single provide, Ferguson was able to also add an extra level of cost savings
• Best of all, the eCredit software lets Ferguson carry out its corporate mission by leaving more time for relationship building and personal visits and freeing up certain staff to be re-deployed to more customer-oriented duties