Credit Department Digital Transformation: Past, Present & Future

Overview:

As a profession, the number of credit management practitioners has been shrinking for over 50 years with no reduction in responsibilities, while at the same time assets under management have soared. This has been enabled in large part by incremental software automation, but we are approaching a tipping point where digital transformation will substantially change the composition and capabilities of the corporate credit function. These changes involve the credit staff to be more focused on process management and portfolio analysis as opposed to account management. As such credit will be able to provide the organization with valuable insights and risk mitigation on an organization’s customers, while also supporting the supply chain management function with supplier financial risk assessments. The result for treasury and finance will be better visibility and control over the receivables asset and supply chain. This will in turn translate into better cash forecasting and risk mitigation.

Attendees will gain an understanding of how things like ubiquitous supply chain finance, receivables finance, and real time payments will impact receivables management as well as how technologies such as AI, ML, and RPA are facilitating greater credit and collection productivity. Attendees will also get a glimpse into how receivables management can be better organized to meet the risk management needs of the enterprise by developing a perspective for better applying the 80/20 rule to credit management in order to analyze and position your AR Portfolio (and vendor portfolio) for an increasingly dangerous liquidity and credit environment.

Why you should Attend:

While the principles of credit will remain the same, how they will be carried out within a corporate credit function are going to change dramatically in the near term. The result will be a leaner, more capable credit and collection operation that will also assume responsibilities for monitoring credit and related third party risks in the corporate supply chain. 

This session will explain how payments innovation, hyper-automation, AI/ML capabilities, supply chain finance, and the elevation of corporate risk management, to name a few, will impact the structure and organization of the corporate credit function. Anybody working in the area of credit and collections, or who is responsible for accounts receivable management, needs to understand the dynamics that are transforming the credit function or risk underperforming their peers and not generating the cash flow their ventures needs to thrive.

Areas Covered in the Session:

• Part 1: Setting the Stage/Context (8-10 minutes)
• • Overview of Credit Department from 1960 to Present
  • Overview of AR Technology Trends from 1960 to Present
  • Review the Impact of Technology on Credit Staffing 
• Part 2: The Current State of Affairs (8-10 minutes)
• • High Level Overview of Available O2C Automation Tools/Solution Types
  • Current Challenges Facing Credit Organizations in terms of people, process, and technology
• Part 3: Catalysts for Change (18-22 minutes)
• • More Data 
  • Automating the next mile
  • Payments Innovation
• Part 4: Impact on the Future Credit Organization (6-8 Minutes)
• • Responsibilities
  • Needed Skills
  • Staffing
  • The Importance of Focusing on CX Throughout any Transformation

Who Will Benefit:

• CFOs 
• Controllers 
• Treasurers 
• AR Supervisors 
• Collectors 
• Collection Managers 
• Credit Analysts 
• Credit & Collections Executives 
• Customer Financial Service Representatives 
• Accounting Managers etc