Signs of illness and health checks

It has and still is an amazing adventure with pretty much every client at varying degree's. It is clear now that where NEXUM's sits in an organisation determines our ability to accurately monitor the health of their business.

Recently a large client placed NEXUM towards the front end of the business monitoring the 'customers financial journey'. This was a great opportunity for us as we were not just capturing problems i.e. bills/invoices outstanding and query's/disputes - otherwise known as bad news, we were able to track the customers as they initially hit the clients business and monitor their own adventure and experiences.

With credit/revenue management we all often see the symptoms of illness on the surface, the repetitive cough or the rash! Debtor days and write offs are signs of the illness, they are often symptoms of something far more serious. In our profession we tend to help clients manage the symptoms, make it less painful and slowly track back to identify root causes of issues. Then the project and our work really begins as we start to re-engineer the process. One of our corporate clients, First Utility is an excellent example of a forward thinking corporate reviewing, changing, implementing and improving - Herbert Smith Freehills take the process further with us. For both organisations the ultimate goal is to achieve the highest levels of financial health possible.

Capturing the client at the front end of the business and tracking them through the bill to cash cycle enables us to monitor signs of health and as soon as one of their customers/clients signs the slightest chance of a negative symptom NEXUM acts.

Good credit/ revenue management is about helping the 'business' take on and continually develop customers/clients that offer the highest levels of financial health to the business. Financial health is not just about the money as it points to the quality of the relationship and the product/service supplied.

A healthy business is one that delivers a high value, quality service to customers/clients that are able and willing to pay because they feel that they have received value and are satisfied.

One of current projects involves working with a client on a range of issues, on the face of it they are burdened by them and were initially reluctant to implement a solution like NEXUM as they felt they never had the capacity or the energy to do so. The simple solution from us was to create a battle plan tackling individual areas with a quick fix to rapidly repair an area of the business then move on to the next...

Credit and revenue management is changing at a dramatic pace, we are fast becoming financial medics to our clients and no longer cleaners mopping up the mess!

RevenuePatroller V2

Version 1 of the RevenuePatroller was amazing, Version 2 is scheduled for a year end release and turns the table upside down in terms of our Mobility=Agility strategy. 

The key to reducing lock-up and managing WIP is intelligence and foresight. Hindsight would be a great ability to have, foresight even better! Version 2 of the RevenuePatroller incorporates a range of new features aimed at giving your firm a Revenuetion Crystal Ball. 

We will also be launching our PPEP challenge in the New Year!

More news to follow. Viva La Revenuetion!

But you have already had revolutions now its time for a Revenuetion!

Date: Last week

Location: Large UK City

Meeting with: Large UK Firm

In Attendance: CFO, COO, CIO plus supporting managers

Purpose: Present the Revenuetion

Meeting Notes:

I am always impressed by the amount of effort and funding invested in turning one of these top firms reception areas into an inspirational and impressive environment. Great feeling waiting for an extra 15 minutes looking out over a vast skyline. 

First meetings are never awkward, in fact I thrive on them. Within the first few minutes I try and work out the personalities then as the minute develops make a real effort to gather information about what is important to them. It is 'them' that is important. 

Within 30 minutes of the meeting I had a great feel for the issues and the opportunity. They were certainly impressed by our approach and what we could deliver; then 'brick wall'. 

"The trouble is we invested a large amount of money three years ago in XXXX and on top of that we have no IT resource till next July due to other projects" commented the COO.

"What are the other projects consuming your IT resources for nearly a year" I asked

"The other projects are really not your concern" added the CIO

"You are right, I apologise for asking. But you should not be concerned you should be in a state of panic" I added.

"What!?"  interrupted one of the managers, who clearly saw an opportunity to demolish and slaughter a supplier in the presence of his masters. Interestingly the CFO remained silent all the way through. 

"I apologise, I do not what to be confrontational and there is no intention to be. I am often amazed why sometimes these initial meetings can be so prickly, but I recognise my unconventional approach can cause friction. My point is I have looked at your financials, which are public domain. Net profits are down and PPEP is stagnant, you are being overtaken. I know we can work together and save £million within the next 6 months. You assume I need a lot of IT resource so block me with the lack of availability. The reality is I need little. We know the systems you use and are not planning to replace them at all, just add bits around them. We understand the data and already integrate with them. If you leave this for a further 12 months your losses continue. What other projects do you have that can be delivered within a few months and can give you £x million back?"  I do my hit or bust comment in hope it resonates. 

"Bold statement from you. If correct we would need to review and prioritise projects accordingly. We have no budget in place for such a project though, that would be a big problem" said the CFO finally.

"I understand. First if I gave you £1M now and asked for £xk in return would you take it? I guess you would. Secondly we work on a model with you, you pay us when you get the benefit".

I send the NEXUM Revenuetion project team in to them in two weeks time to discuss details prior to contract. 

Barriers are used by people afraid, they try to keep danger out, but their previous projects that were high cost and high resource caused a revolution. They soon dropped the barriers and were no longer afraid when they realised that were The Revenuetion - We work with you not against!

Viva La Revenuetion

The Revenuetion is about change, no denying that. But "it is not what you do but how you do it" that matters.

Surely most organisations would relish an opportunity to reduce debtor days, write off's, operational costs and financial risk, but many make the mistake of trying to do too much too soon.

It is a wicked world with suppliers keen to satisfy sales targets, their clients then buying a load of 'stuff' that then takes an age to implement and provide a return on the investment. But there is another way. An agile way representing low risks with certainty of benefits, this is the Revenuetion way.

Simply put the Revenuetion methodology is a collaborative frame work between us and you (the client), where we identify areas of opportunity and then put in place short, direct projects to deliver small bursts of benefit within a very short period of time. To achieve this level of agility and speed to benefit we create a special forces team with you, known as the 'Revenuetionaries', consisting of our people and your people working in harmony. It is amazing and very very dynamic.

Welcome to The Revenuetion! Not a revolution, but an evolution within months!