Interview with Anna Tomaszewska, Head of Group Credit Management at Questel

Anna Tomaszewska

Head of Group Credit Management

Questel

THE CHALLENGE:

Our company, Questel, experienced rapid growth, quickly becoming a global leader in intellectual property management, with 17 acquisitions within five years. This expansion introduced significant complexity in terms of credit management as it became a large group with approximately 20,000 clients across 30 countries.

Questel faced the following challenges:

Organizational Complexity: The acquisitions created a diverse array of entities, with each company having its own systems and processes, making it difficult to standardize operations.

Decentralized Processes: Credit management, cash collection, and accounting were scattered across multiple entities, and not yet centralized due to the sensitivity of merging companies.

Different ERP Systems: The company had not yet consolidated its ERP systems, which added complexity in tracking financial data across multiple platforms.

Manual Workflows: Some entities had no established credit management process, relying heavily on manual work with Excel and ERPs, resulting in inefficiencies and lack of visibility.

Growing Operational Needs: As the company expanded, new functions like global treasury, consolidation, and credit management were created. These functions needed better tools to handle their responsibilities, especially as the volume of clients and transactions grew.

In our financial department, we were tasked with building a credit management team from scratch and standardizing processes across different entities, all while selecting a software solution that would meet the group's growing needs.

THE SOLUTION

We conducted extensive research, evaluating 11 providers, before deciding on your software. Your solution was chosen due to its:

Your solution has been selected thanks to:

User-Friendly Interface: The software stood out for being intuitive and easy to use, especially for credit managers, allowing them to quickly familiarize themselves with its functions.
" Your software is the most user-friendly for a credit manager who can have really fun with the software! "
Unlimited User Access: This feature enabled seamless collaboration, between all stakeholders, from giving access to the CFO, commercial and accounting staff, etc. who could access the platform, all the relevant data, reports and account statements.

Support for Diverse ERP Systems: The ability My DSO Manager to link with multiple ERP systems, even lesser-known ones, was crucial given our company's fragmented systems.

Flexibility in Workflow Scenarios:My DSO Manager allowed for the creation of customized scenarios, such as setting different reminders or contacting specific groups of clients on designated days. This flexibility was especially important given our diverse client base.

Enhanced Visibility: My DSO Manager provided better transparency on unapplied cash and other financial data, which allowed the credit management team to easily track and resolve issues.

Collaboration Across Departments: The platform bridged the gap between credit management, accounting, and billing teams, helping these groups to work more closely and efficiently. The ability to track the status of invoices, disputes, and other key data within the platform streamlined communication and efforts across departments.
" My DSO Manager's user-friendliness and support functionality was also highlighted as a major strength, with no complaints from the team and frequent positive feedback. Even some members of our team, who had been less familiar with credit management digital tools, quickly became advocates of the software after experiencing its ease of use. Every time I connect with a colleague in the U.S., they say: we like this software more and more! "

THE RESULTS

The implementation of your software across four entities delivered significant improvements in operations, including:

Improved Cash Collection: The team was able to reduce overdue invoices by 25% within six months, focusing particularly on those aged over 90 days. This marked a dramatic decrease, in overdue items, leading to improved cash flow.

Increased Efficiency: One of our team members, who previously managed 600 clients manually, is now able to handle the same workload more efficiently with the software, resulting in the lowest overdue levels across the entire group.

Transparency and Accountability: The ability to track invoice statuses and disputes within the platform provided clarity on where issues lay, making it easier for teams to collaborate and resolve problems. This functionality replaced outdated processes, such as managing everything in Excel.

Enhanced Reporting: My DSO Manager's reporting capabilities helped the team to evaluate situations more effectively, for example providing detailed aging balance reports that aided in decision-making and planning. The reporting is intensively used by our CFO:
" I connect to My DSO Manager nearly every day and it takes me a couple of minutes to evaluate where the company stands in terms of DSO, ageing balances and cash receipts. "
Time Savings: We noted a huge time reduction in calculating bad debt provisions. With My DSO Manager, this process took only two days.
" It took us two days to calculate the bad debt provision, we significantly reduced the time necessary to perform this activity. "

This saved a considerable amount of time and effort, which was previously spent on reviewing invoices and contacting clients.

Positive Feedback and Adoption: Your software has received only positive feedback, even from teams that were typically resistant to new tools. There has been no resistance to adoption, and users across departments are requesting access to the platform on their own initiative. Simply as our U.S. team who has become increasingly enthusiastic about the platform, with team members consistently finding new ways to utilize it more and more in order to improve their workflows.