If you are a new player or an existing player in the CRM marketplace in Latin America, I strongly suggest that you offer a collection solution as part of your CRM software. Why?, due to the ups and downs of the economic situations and realities in Latin America, collecting funds is a CRM priority.
When you look at the main CRM packages, the collection process is a back office process, part of ERP or Accounting. This is not the case in Latin America, collection is a front office process. As soon as you invoice or sell something, you start the collection process.
As of today, there are 300k references to "Soluciones de Cobranza" in Google, and 172k references about "CRM, Cobranza". There is a need for collections as part of CRM.
In the late 90s, I had the opportunity to implement Genesys and Vantive for a major telco in Ecuador,and part of the functionality implemented, was to provide alerts to customers via a predictive dialer and provide payment options 10 and 15 days before the bill due date. This helped minimize late payments and lowered the collection rates significantly. This process evolved by providing alerts via SMS, emails and screen pops in the call center.
Regional CRM software vendors like Telesoft CRM, ProcessBlitz, Engage and Tellware already have collection processes and functionality as part of the out-of-the-box functionality. These are CRM packages that have been created and adapted to the business realities of selling and collecting funds in Latin America. There are many other packages like these in the region, but I still have not seen Oracle or SAP CRM offer a collection module as part of their CRM solution.
Take a look at the Engage architecture, it comes integrated with collection and recovery processes, it is part of the CRM solution. The same goes with Telesoft Collections. And Salesforce.com in Latin America has partnered with a local distributor to provide a Force.com App for collections.
Having Collections as part of the CRM solution is a best practice in Latin America. It is a front-office process and it is part of managing the customer relationship in Latin America.
Happy are the families where the government of parents is the reign of affection, and obedience of the children the submission to love.Do you understand?
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