FUTURE-PROOF: SCHMIDT-GEVELSBERG SUCCESSFULLYOPTIMIZES ITS CREDIT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Schmidt-Gevelsberg GmbH, headquartered in Schwelm (Germany), is one of Germany’s most traditional freight forwarding and logistics companies and is a partner of CargoLine, a flexible, intelligent logi-stics network. Schmidt-Gevelsberg currently employs a workforce of over 300 and provides services to around 16,000 customers worldwide, including around 5,000 regular customers. In fall 2010, the company took the decision to introduce DebiTEX credit management software in order to be able to process the large quantity of orders quickly and effectively, while also ensuring secure credit decisions were made and existing customers were effectively managed. Since that time, credit management has been continually improved and professionalized – the success of the initiative was confirmed one year on when certification was granted by TÜV Rheinland.

Challenges:Schmidt-Gevelsberg GmbH has a wide and varied customer base and is active in a continually changing and intensely competitive market environment. In addition to customer-oriented credit decisions that securely take into account creditworthiness risks, speed and flexibility are also important factors for the company. In the past, the logistics company primarily managed both new orders and existing customers manually and only referred to external riskrelevant information in indi-vidual cases when making decisions. The manual workload was signi-ficant and this lead to a high risk of insecure credit decisions and bad debt losses, which could influence the company’s liquidity.

Brief overview of the project:

Objectives:• To make fast and secure credit deci-

sions for new customer applications • To improve the management of exis-

ting customers

Solution:• Introduction of DebiTEX credit ma-

nagement software• Preparation of a company-wide

credit policy• Evaluation of suitable internal and

external information for assessing the risks associated with a customer

Outcome:• Standardization, automation, and

professionalization of credit ma-nagement

• Improvement in credit management key figures such as debtor days and numbers of bad debt losses

• Improvement in customer relation-ships thanks to customer-oriented decisions

• Certification from TÜV Rheinland

“DebiTEX supplies us ad hoc with the in-formation we need to make well-founded, welldocumented credit decisions. What’s more, in the future we will be able to make decisions that take into account the individu-al situations of our customers.”

Klaus P. Böhme, Head of Finance and Cont-rolling at Schmidt-Gevelsberg

Objectives:In order to successfully avoid payment defaults in the future, it was necessary to ensure that quick and secure decisions were made for applications from new customers and that existing customers were managed more effectively. It was also important to the company to have a customer-oriented approach and to remain flexible, in order to be able to react quickly to changes in the logistics market.

Solution:In fall 2010, Schmidt-Gevelsberg decided to introduce Debi-TEX credit management software. The software automati-cally bundles all risk-relevant information from internal and external data sources, such as credit agencies, and uses this to calculate an individual credit limit for each customer. In addition, with the support of SHS VIVEON – the internatio-nally active business and IT solution provider in the custo-mer management sector – a credit policy was developed and appropriate internal and external information was evaluated that would be used for risk assessment.

“DebiTEX supplies us ad hoc with the information we need to make well-founded, well-documented credit decisions. What impressed us most was the capability for system-based con-

solidation of highly diverse types of information for making decisions and how this enabled quicker and better decisi-ons to be made. What’s more, in the future we will be able to make decisions that take into account the individual situa-tions of our customers. To give one example, instead of sim-ply refusing orders that appear to be risky, we are now se-lecting suitable payment scenarios. This builds mutual trust and loyal, long-term relationships with our customers,” says Klaus P. Böhme, Head of Finance and Controlling at Schmidt-Gevelsberg.

Outcome:The credit-granting processes at Schmidt-Gevelsberg are now being standardized and automated using the credit ma-nagement software. This has led to significant improvement in credit management key figures such as debtor days and numbers of bad debt losses. Employees have been relieved of routine tasks – meaning they have more time for making customer-oriented decisions.

Since the software was introduced, Schmidt-Gevelsberg has been continually developing its credit management system. In November 2011, the company received the seal of approval from TÜV Rheinland for its effective credit management. The certification confirms that the credit management system fulfills the minimum requirements (referred to as ‘MaCM’) set by the Bundesverband Credit Management e.V (German credit management association). In response to the seal of approval there has been a boost in the reputation of the credit management system both internally within the company and externally among partners and interested parties.

“We can now assess risks more effectively – and risks that you know about can be managed. This is something that has also been recognized by the sales team. They are now more conscious of the risks associated with any payment defaults and are cooperating with us in a more active way,” says Klaus P. Böhme.

Klaus P. Böhme, Head of Finance and Controlling, and Silke Stöhr, Head of CreditManagement are very happy about the TÜV Rheinland certificate.

About SHS VIVEON: SHS VIVEON AG is an internationally active business and IT solution provider for customer management solutions. The company offers market-leading ex-pertise in customer value and customer risk ma-nagement. Other core competences include: custo-mer analytics, big data and business intelligence, and data warehousing.

For more information please contact our DebiTEX-Team.

www.SHS-VIVEON.com

Contact:

SHS VIVEON AGClarita-Bernhard-Strasse 2781249 MunichGermanyT +49 89 74 72 57 - 0F +49 89 74 72 57 - 900info@SHS-VIVEON.com