The right call at the right time – for Ronnie Mars at Cogas, Payt came just when it was needed. Together with his colleagues, the Finance Team Lead had been looking for a smart solution for the organisation’s debtor management for quite some time. There was even talk of building something in-house. Fortunately, that wasn’t necessary: since January 2016, Payt’s platform has been meeting Cogas’s needs.
Regional network operator
Cogas is a regional network operator that provides electricity, gas, cable and fibre-optic connections in the east of the Netherlands. It is a utility company that delivers the transport network up to the meter cupboard and operates both semi-publicly and commercially.
Cogas had been searching for a system that would allow the finance department to quickly and easily check the status of (outstanding) invoices and communicate smoothly with debtors. Since January 2016, they have been using Payt’s platform with complete satisfaction.
Ronnie Mars explains:
“Payt has built a great piece of software, giving us a central overview of the current status of Cogas’s portfolio. Payt’s system shows exactly which customers we need to take action on. That means my colleagues responsible for debtor management can take targeted action every single day. It makes the work effective, transparent and structured.”
Debtor management and amicable collection process
Mars confirms that Payt’s software not only brings structure and support, but also saves money:
“We have automated both the debtor process and the amicable collection process with Payt. As a result, we no longer need to hire expensive collection agencies, which saves us a lot of work within the department. Before implementing Payt, we needed 2.5 FTE for debtor management. Since January, that has been reduced by half an FTE.”
He continues:
“The strength of Payt’s platform is that you can communicate with customers at invoice level and make payment arrangements directly, which you then register in the system. Cogas provides one of life’s basic necessities, which means customers almost always prioritise paying our bills. For us, the issue wasn’t so much speed of payment, but communication with debtors and having a clear overview. Payt has a handy dashboard that shows outstanding invoices at a glance.”
Since implementing Payt, Cogas is also able to contact customers far more easily and assess whether someone cannot pay or simply does not want to pay.
“There’s a fundamental difference, and it was harder to judge before. With the communication options Payt offers, we can determine more quickly whether a case should be passed to the bailiff or whether we can agree a payment plan with a customer. The fact that customers also pay faster thanks to Payt’s structured process is a bonus.”
The implementation
The implementation process was not without challenges – but Mars is more than satisfied with the result:
“Because of privacy legislation, as a network operator we have to deal with strict rules and requirements when linking systems. On top of that, our systems are complex, and integrating them is a challenge in itself. Payt was very flexible during the implementation process and ensured that both the implementation and Cogas’s debtor management and collection processes now run smoothly.”
Would you, like Cogas, also like more insight into your credit management process through automated debtor management and easily communicate with customers about outstanding invoices? Then contact us, and we will be happy to tell you more about the possibilities of the platform!
