The solution has enabled us to put in place a real collection strategy and to have excellent visibility over our customers and our €1.2 million in overdue receivables.
The specialist in industrial packaging
A market leader, Bulteau Systems, a subsidiary of Bulteau Développement, offers products and services for securing parcels and pallets.
Renowned for its know-how and technical expertise, Bulteau Systems employs 80 people and generated sales of 47 million euros in 2013.
Bulteau Systems markets its products both in France and internationally. To guarantee responsiveness and proximity, the company has its head office in Arnas, near Lyon, as well as a number of other sites in France.
With more than 25 years’ experience, Bulteau Systems guarantees consistent, impeccable product quality thanks to its ISO 9001:2008 certification.
Securing customer risk – Managing reminder strategies
Bulteau Systems issues almost 2,000 invoices a month to its 100% B to B clientele. “We have over 4,500 active customers”, explains Alain Aujoux, financial manager, “with a lot of people coming in and going out: this means we have to qualify our customer base efficiently and continuously, right from account creation”. One Bulteau Systems employee (80% of an FTE) devotes her time to :
- registration of settlements
- issuing invoices
- recovery work.
“Before implementing CashOnTime Collection, dunning work was based on a statement produced by our ERP every 10 days,” explains Mr Aujoux. “It was not uncommon to dun customers who had already paid. Promises of payment, exchanges with customers and other departments were recorded in our ERP or on a notebook, post-it notes…”. In these conditions, keeping track of receivables was more than complex.
“To support the company’s growth, it was essential to gain visibility on our customer risk and implement a genuine recovery strategy,” explains Mr Aujoux. The aim is to instill a genuine cash culture within Bulteau Systems:
- centralize customer financial information (credit rating, outstandings, etc.) to limit non-payments
- set up personalized reminder strategies (systematic reminders for certain customers, staggered reminders for export and DOM customers, adjusted reminders for partner customers, etc.).
- carry out preventive reminders and optimize telephone reminders (more targeted, more qualitative)
- facilitate the sharing and enrichment of information within Bulteau Systems
- better manage promises to settle and disputes
- ensure that customer actions are taken into account (tracking).
The choice of CashOnTime Collection & DIMO Software
After studying 3 debt collection solutions on the market, Bulteau Systems opted for CashOnTime Collection and DIMO Software. “Not only were we seduced by the solution, which is modern, ergonomic and offers broad functional coverage, but we also chose to place our trust in DIMO Software and its expertise in receivables processing,” explains Michel Pelletier, IT Manager at Bulteau Systems.
In addition, the cost of implementation (SaaS offer) and the simplicity of the interfaces between CashOnTime Collection and the company’s ERP (Distel) were also decisive factors in this choice.
From invoice dunning to customer dunning
In just one quarter, the solution was chosen, installed and put into production.
“The tool was very well received by users,” explains Mr. Aujoux. “It meets all our needs perfectly, and has enabled us to implement a genuine collection strategy and gain excellent visibility over our customers and our €1.2 million in overdue receivables.”
“Today, we have stabilized our DSO at 64 days, which is satisfactory given the economic climate and the fact that our customers are mainly in industry with 60-day payment habits,” adds Mr. Aujoux.
“We’re particularly pleased with the rapid integration of daily entries into CashOnTime Collection (invoices, settlements, PDFs, etc.),” emphasizes Michel Pelletier. “We were able to retrieve our data very quickly, and the tool provides us with all the latest information. We’ve also had excellent feedback from our customers on the quality of the CashOnTime Collection notification e-mails they receive.
By centralizing information in a single tool, the person in charge of dunning has gained in productivity and traceability. Customer reminders are now automated and processed by customer account rather than by unpaid invoice.
In conclusion, Mr. Pelletier would like to emphasize DIMO Software’s attentiveness and CashOnTime Collection’s responsiveness: “We asked for a few adjustments, which were implemented very quickly. And for the others, a roadmap was put in place and respected”.
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