Martin Germanis

"Analytics is all about making decisions. Focus on what decisions you have to make and what actions you have to take rather than starting with data or systems." That’s what Jim Bander, national manager of decision science at Toyota Financial Services, told InformationWeek. And he knows what he’s talking about — Toyota FS just won the InformationWeek Elite 100 award f…

This is the last in my list of 10 things most vendors won’t tell you that are absolutely critical to selecting the right collections system. Don’t forget about an escrow account. Source code for the system must be held in escrow, protecting you against unforeseen issues, such as the code owner ceasing business operations or other extreme circumstances. That’s…

This is the second-to-last item in your handy guide to shopping for a collections system. I’m offering 10 tips — things most vendors won’t tell you that are absolutely critical to selecting the right system. How will you provide an exit/roll-back strategy for our legacy system? Legacy data roll-back strategies are critical safe¬guards for a responsible application m…

This is item 8 in your handy guide to shopping for a collections system. I’m offering 10 tips — things most vendors won’t tell you that are absolutely critical to selecting the right system. Document the manual AND automated processes your SMEs perform. Detailed functional requirements should be gathered from your subject matter experts (SMEs). Based on these requir…

This is question 7 in your handy guide to shopping for a collections system. I’m offering 10 tips — things most vendors won’t tell you that are absolutely critical to selecting the right system. How does this system meet regulatory and legislative requirements? How fast can I change the system when regulations change? Changes in the political environment and increas…

This is question 6 in your handy guide to shopping for a collections system. I’m offering 10 tips — things most vendors won’t tell you that are absolutely critical to selecting the right system. How do data extracts work — and how much will they cost? Can your team extract data from your systems? Can the selected vendor? Is there a third-party vendor that can get at…

This is question 5 in your handy guide to shopping for a collections system. I’m offering 10 tips — things most vendors won’t tell you that are absolutely critical to selecting the right system. How can I set up my month-end requirements for clients and vendors? Like the reporting scenario mentioned earlier, no two businesses manage month-end processing in the same…

This is question 4 in your handy guide to shopping for a collections system. I’m offering 10 tips — things most vendors won’t tell you that are absolutely critical to selecting the right system. What features I currently have will need custom development? While many of the features you require may be available in a new system, don’t expect them to all be there. For…

This is question #3 in your handy guide to shopping for a collections system. I’m offering 10 tips — things most vendors won’t tell you that are absolutely critical to selecting the right system. What’s required in the infrastructure build? The details of the underlying system infrastructure are critical to success, which is why the implementation lead should take t…

This is question 2 in your handy guide to shopping for a collections system. I’m offering 10 tips — things most vendors won’t tell you that are absolutely critical to selecting the right system. 2. What reports do I get? How can I create reports myself? No two firms want the same exact reports package, and no two software companies offer the same reports. To meet th…

Buying a new collections system isn’t like buying a car. It isn’t fun. But it does have something in common with buying a car. The people selling the system may not be telling you everything you need to know. For example, some vendors offer free licenses, giving you the impression the cost of the new system is much lower than another provider with a higher up-front…

Remember when things were easy? Me neither, but it sure seems like they’re getting more complicated. Sometimes, things seem so complicated you just want to ignore them. That brings me to today’s topic — optimization. I know that’s a ten-dollar word that analytics companies like to throw at you as the answer to all your problems. A lot of agents ignore it because it…