Credit Today’s Weekly eNews – Tip of the Week
One of our favorite places to walk around and look for ideas and see what’s new in credit is the Expo floor at NACM’s Credit Congress.
And this year was no exception. Despite the tough economy and markedly down attendance, we spotted a number of noteworthy new trends and technologies in the credit world, some that were astonishing, actually. And we don’t use the word “astonishing” lightly.
This week we’ll look at what Cortera (formerly eCredit) is doing.
As a business, they focus solely on traditional credit and collection activities. Best known for their risk management software, Cortera is a growing player in the credit reporting arena. At this year’s Expo, we got to see their new business profiles, which provide a compilation of public and proprietary data on all sizes and types of companies including small- and medium-sized private businesses.
Cortera’s CEO Jim Swift blogs, “There are millions of daily interactions between buyers and suppliers that are begging for better intelligence. Our objective is to provide a new level of insight into private companies to support these interactions at either free or near-free price points.” Since the Expo, Cortera has begun distributing these profiles, which contain basic demographic data and a payment rating on 6 million firms, for free, obviously with the hope that you will upgrade to their $3 CPR Business Report.
At that price, it’s certainly worth trying out and comparing the payment data provided by Cortera with that of D&B, Experian and Equifax on a sampling of your customers. You may find yourself hard pressed to determine whose reports are superior or inferior. Chances are each vendor will do a better job with some segments of your customer base, but probably not with all.
While the price of information in general has fallen dramatically, the price of credit reports has not, with the exception of Cortera’s entry into the credit reporting business. It will be interesting to see if they are able to shake up their competitors. And if they do, the trade credit community will be the beneficiary.
To see if the reports are helpful for your business, click here: http://www.cortera.com/
The Editors at Credit Today
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"I've been a Credit Manager for over 30 years and what Cortera is doing with their credit reporting community is amazing. It's totally revolutionary."
"Cortera has given us increased access to better information and has helped ensure that credit decisions are issued quickly and consistently."
