Credit intelligence and insolvency diligence
A good turn out for a Wednesday night in November saw the Aston Hotel host a double speaker evening. Following introductions by Laurie Beagle and Simon Johnson from the Branch committee, the event started with Andy Craven from D&B providing an overview of the new DNBi software.

This software has been imported from the US and provides a number of features not seen in other UK credit agency products.

Features of DNBi include the ability to link customer accounts on different systems and show where shared accounts exist within the overall group business. It also includes existing accounts and identifying shared accounts, for example if one division has a new application which already exists at another location. Other features the DNBi has is the ability to customise the layout of the information/data per individual user so that specific items can be displayed first according to 'taste'.

A shared notes facility enables a closed/secure user group to share information on a particular account; for example, a note might read 'account rejected at division A due to poor management accounts received'.

A dashboard style report also provides an overview of the user's ledger and breaks this down into various risk bands and other categories, which are updated in real time whenever the report is viewed.

Andy closed the presentation by discussing one of the major features of the product which involves the ability to generate accept/reject/refer decisions based on your own set of customisable rules. This type of facility is not unique to the UK, but with built in escalation/authorisation software this enables an SME credit policy to be loaded onto the DNBi platform, therefore providing much more than just a yes/no decision.

The next speaker was John Paul Sugden, an Insolvency practitioner from Auker Rhodes, and aided by David Hodgson also of Auker Rhodes, which is based in Bradford.

John informed the audience of how he started out in the world of insolvency and talked about his particular mentors at the time, recalling how one particular creditor would regularly attend meetings of creditors armed with a plethora of difficult and well researched questions.

On this occasion, John asked an individual to provide the background to the company's demise, with the individual in question having a very broad Scottish accent and presenting to an audience with very broad Yorkshire accents, John found to his good fortune that not many questions were asked that day - on account of the fact that nobody could understand what had been said and everyone was too embarrassed to ask.

John and David then went on to explain the company and individual insolvency routes from Members Voluntary Arrangements to Debt Relief Orders, illustrated with anecdotes, interesting case histories and stories. Inevitably pre-packs were also discussed which to no one's surprise led to some interesting debate.

All in all an excellent evening of speakers and thanks to D&B for their kind sponsorship of the event.

The Sheffield branch of the ICM had a fantastic attendance for a focus event on Social Media and IT Security.

Adam Harris delivered a compelling 45 minutes on how to apply Social Media in business, whilst aligning proven strategies for success and discussing the extreme blunders businesses and individuals have made through lack of planning or thorough consideration.

Gavin Whittaker later discussed the growing need to consider your IT Security in all online endeavours, whether business or personal with a focus on specific Social Media. The last five years have seen a significant increase in online targeted attacks, and Gavin highlighted some of the most severe cases where businesses have ceased trading, lost significant amounts of money or in the worst cases, the loss of human life.



Adam Harris has been in the IT and business sector for the past 15 years having ran a number of successful businesses, and delivers informative and educational seminars.

Gavin Whittaker is an IT Security professional and Social Media specialist. Known for delivering attention grabbing presentations and consulting on Social Media strategies, Gavin has 15 years experience and has founded and sold two Nottinghamshire businesses focused on introducing new technologies to the region.

ICM joins with CIMA to focus on quality
Members and guests of the Sheffield branch of the ICM hosted a joint meeting with the Sheffield branch of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) earlier this year.

The evening was held at the Carlton Park Hotel, Rotherham and began with a buffet and drinks, with time for ICM members and guests to meet their CIMA counterparts before the introduction of the evening’s guest speaker on the subject that had drawn both organisations together: ‘Credit Control or Quality Control’.

As the strap-line of our joint event suggests, the subject covered in some detail by Richard Houlbrook, Director of Recovery Services at the Legal Services Commission, explored what quality is and its place in the customer value chain, and more specifically, if debt is customer feedback on quality, do we harness it?

Richard took his audience through some recent real life examples to demonstrate the significance of quality in the supply chain and how that affects the complete cycle from order to payment. We heard about the Trotter matrix and the importance of leadership and buy-in at all levels of management to ensure workplace design commitment capability and satisfaction.

Following on from some interactive sessions when members provided specific feedback to illustrate stages from complaint handling to benchmarking, Richard detailed the well studied example of Motorola’s TQM (Total Quality Management) strategy and how this had revolutionised the company’s performance at every level.