Success Stories

“Your knowledge and insight have been invaluable to our project. We would not be anywhere near where we are without you.  You are truly an expert at what you do and we are lucky to have you as part of our project team!”

Gina Prill * Senior Director, Finance * Smithfield Foods

CLIENT: $1+ BILLION / Interactive Software Company

Business Issue

  • Company experienced on-going deductions from key customer due to unresolved EDI and labeling issues
  • Another key customer deducted over 6,000 individual claims which were felt to be invalid, but needed to be researched
  • Deduction reporting from company’s financial software was limited and did not provide management with visibility to the information necessary to understand recurring issues, or evaluate deduction performance.

Actions Taken

  • Created and managed cross-functional team to resolve compliance issues.
  • Worked together with trading partners to create & execute recovery strategies / settlements.
  • Redesigned reason code structure and implemented Business Intelligence software to provide robust, user-friendly reporting and “data mining” capabilities without manual reentry.

Results

  • Collaboration between company and trading partners led to over $1.5 million in settlements as well as improved customer relationships
  • The open deduction balance > 90 days was reduced by 80%.
  • Improved visibility to deduction information – weekly and monthly Flash Reports & Scorecards prepared for senior management.

CLIENT: $1+ BILLION / Educational Toy Company

Business Issue

  • Company had experienced large chargebacks from key customers due to shipping problems at a new warehouse
  • Certain open chargeback balances were quite aged, due to difficulties in resolution and cross-departmental cooperation across multiple departments
  • Chargeback reporting from company’s financial software was limited and did not provide management with visibility to the information necessary to understand recurring issues, or evaluate deduction performance.

Actions Taken

  • Redesigned reason code structure and implemented Business Intelligence software to provide robust, user-friendly reporting and “data mining” capabilities without manual reentry
  • Created and executed resolution / recovery strategies for key customers, through cross-departmental involvement.
  • Created a Claims Department to focus on chargeback prevention / resolution
  • Increased accountability by developing and documenting task lists.

Results

  • Focused efforts by cross-departmental team led to the recovery of over $2 million from key customers within the first 8 months
  • The open chargeback balance was reduced by 80%.
  • Improved visibility to chargeback information – weekly and monthly Flash Reports prepared for senior management.
  • Improved relationship with key customers due to open dialogue and joint “clean up” efforts.

CLIENT: $100+ MILLION / Home Furnishing Company

Business Issue

  • Insufficient deduction reporting resulting in poor senior management visibility to recurring deduction issues.
  • Limited accountability and cross-functional cooperation leading to minimal prevention efforts and ineffective recovery strategies.

Actions Taken

  • Developed improved deduction reporting using company-owned reporting tools. Focused on top / recurring deduction issues & customers as well as tracking performance over time.
  • Created cross-functional steering committee to focus / prioritize improvement efforts and foster ownership and accountability.
  • Developed recovery and prevention strategies for key customers, including preparation of settlement meeting packages, negotiation training and identification / resolution of key issues.

Results

  • Initial settlement meetings with key customers resulted in recovery in excess of 100% of disputed deductions (due to partial recovery of valid deductions where “fixes” can be shown).
  • Implemented revised allowance policies which can reduce deductions by >$500K.
  • Reduced the time it took to process and research deductions by 75%
  • Implemented process changes to “fix” recurring deduction issues which had resulted in >$250K of chargebacks during previous 12 months.

CLIENT: $600 MILLION / Apparel Company

Business Issue

  • Company had ineffective processes & procedures in place to resolve and manage deductions. It took up to 1 month after a deduction was received for reason code to be identified and entered into the system
  • Deduction reporting was limited and did not provide management with visibility to the information necessary to understand recurring issues, or evaluate deduction performance. In the COO’s own words: “I don’t sleep at night because I don’t know what kinds of deductions are out there.”

Actions Taken

  • Developed detailed policies and procedures by reason code for collectors to follow when researching deductions. Provided improved policies and training on identifying and classifying deductions.
  • Implemented Business Intelligence software to provide robust, user-friendlyreporting and “data mining” capabilities without manual reentry

Results

  • Focused efforts by senior management using improved reporting capabilities led to the recovery of over $1million within first year
  • Reduced the time it took to identify unknown deductions and get them properly coded in the system by 50 – 95% (15 – 30 days)
  • Revised policies and procedures reduced collector workload 30-40% by eliminating non-value added activities.
  • Visibility to information vastly improved. In the COO’s own words: “I don’t sleep at night because I know exactly what kind of deductions are out there.”

CLIENT: $125 MILLION / Apparel Company

Business Issue

  • Company had over $3.3 million in open deductions
  • Limited visibility to issues – 66% of open deductions were coded as “unidentified”
  • Minimal reporting capabilities to track and manage deductions

Actions Taken

  • Redesigned and remapped reason codes for deduction information electronically received from factor
  • Implemented Business Intelligence software to provide robust, user-friendlyreporting and “data mining” capabilities without manual reentry
  • Facilitated cross-functional group review open deductions by reason and develop specific recovery and prevention strategies.
  • Developed collector procedures for reviewing and analyzing new deductions.

Results

  • Using improved reporting information, over $100K in delivery related deductions was recovered within the first 3 months of implementing improvements
  • Root cause analysis resulted in process improvements which prevented close to an estimated $50K in ASN deductions annually.
  • “Unidentified” deductions were reduced to 3% of open deductions

CLIENT: $150 MILLION / Consumer Electronics Company

Business Issue

Large volume of chargebacks > 120 days. Initial review identified the following:

  • Chargeback reporting was manually prepared and too limited to allow for adequate tracking and root cause analysis – losing $ on potential recovery & prevention
  • Cycle times to process physical returns were often 90+ days
  • Only 1/3 of allowances and “program” discounts were processed at cash application requiring non value-added follow up for approval

Actions Taken

  • Implemented Business Intelligence software to provide robust, user-friendlyreporting and “data mining” capabilities without manual reentry
  • Facilitated cross-functional returns team to identify & implement process improvements including RMA pricing and customer “keys” to facilitate matching
  • Identified opportunities to increase “same-day” clearing of allowances and programs

Results

  • Open chargebacks > 120 days were reduced by 60% within the first 3 months of implementing improved reporting, due to visibility of information and focused recovery efforts. Ability to easily create standard and ad hoc reports.
  • Reduced cycle time to process physical returns for key customers to < 30 days. Allowed faster follow up / recovery of pricing discrepancies.
  • “Same-day” clearing of allowances and program deductions increased to 85%. Invalid program deductions quickly identified and resolved. “Cleaner” A/R