Custom Developed Collections Module Reduces Bad Debt And Increases Cash Flow

Company Profile:
Cablevision / Lightpath is a leading Business Telephone Provider on the East Coast.

Situation:
A lack of functionality within the collections module of our clients billing package was causing significant challenges for the Business Telephone services segment. Calculating, tracking and prioritizing bad debt was a manual, labor intensive process. Our client was faced with purchasing a stand alone collections application or an expensive and untested upgrade.

Solution:
Kansys developed a custom Collections Management module that was tightly integrated with the existing version of their billing software. We provided better functionality than the proposed upgrade at a fraction of the time and cost.

Results:

• Improved A/R cash flow by 15%.
• 10% reduction in bad debt.
• Prioritized CSR collection queuing system.
• Real time calculation of bad debt.
• Automation of collections letters.
   

"Since we implemented the Collection Module within Cablevision / Lightpath Business Telephone Services, we have had significant improvements in the collections process and bad debt. We improved cash flow by almost 15% in the last 3 months in addition to collecting current months billing.

Also, I have seen tremendous improvement of collections on current and 30 day receivables. The automation of collections letters to customers who are slightly past due has improved the payment process on these customers. This helps by not allowing receivables to creep through 30 to 60 to 90 to 120. Also, the automated queuing system which forces collector's to call customers in priority order allows us to contact customers with large balances first and work through collections issues in a timely manner. Now that my team is much more mature with the system and has uncovered and resolved many accounts which had been missed or lagging, the true effectiveness of the system is being realized.

Also, it allows me to produce in timely manner reports of the amount of letters, calls and work statistics on the system. Most importantly, it has been an extremely useful tool to calculate bad debt and manage bad debt. This was a three day manual process prior to the implementation of the system.

Overall, the system is extremely simple yet powerful and allows us to manage our collections portfolio with much automation. It has allowed us to increase cash flow, decrease accounts 'falling off the radar', decreased the creep of customers to the 90 and 120 buckets, better utilized the collectors time, and put in one system, all I need to know about my receivables with easy access to the data.

In my opinion, I have never seen a system have such a profound and significant impact on an organization in such a short period of time as the Collection Module has had within Cablevision Lightpath. I feel confident it will allow me to manage my portfolio effectively and be an extremely effective tool for my collectors".

Chris Novak
Director of Billing and Collections
Cablevision Lightpath