Ebureau Service

Collect!'s eBureau process enables you to work your accounts more efficiently and profitably by providing you with a wealth of information for any accounts you process using the eBureau Service module in Collect!.

Information is returned for the current location of your debtors, their latest scores and other information, such as bankruptcy details and deceased status. eBureau uses various pieces of data to identify consumers, such as, a consumer's name, address, social security number, date-of-birth and telephone number. Data from literally billions of records across numerous databases is examined to find information related to the data submitted by Collect! for each account. eBureau utilizes a robust multi-index, parallel searching process to ensure that all the relevant records are gathered for evaluation.

The eBureau Service is only available for clients in the United States. It is not functional internationally at this time.

The eBureau Service is an add-on extension module enabled in CV11.3.1.1 and newer. If you have upgraded from an earlier version, you may need to request a new license from Comtech Systems to enable the feature. You also need to register an account with eBureau.

Requirements

To use the eBureau process in Collect! you will need several things:

• License the eBureau add-on extension module for CV11.
  
  
• Register an account with eBureau.
  
  
• Enter your eBureau userid, password, and the eBureau Server address in Collect!'s eBureau Setup form. Please refer to Help on eBureau Setup for details.
  
  
• Copy the "ca-cert.pem" certificate file provided to you by eBureau into the CV11\bin folder. This is used to authenticate your connection with eBureau.
  
  
• eBureau will ask for the IP address that you will be submitting from. Your network technician can help by providing this information.
  
  
• Pick lists and control files for the cosigner and attachment forms have special modifications to ensure that eBureau specific fields are labeled appropriately. These are provided for you by Collect!.

Accessing Submit To Ebureau

The eBureau process is one of Collect!''s batch processing choices. You can select Tools from the top menu bar and then select Batch Processing OR select DAILY BATCH PROCESSES from the Daily Administration menu. Please refer to Help topic, How to Submit Accounts to eBureau for detailed steps.

Batch Processing

Ebureau Batch Results

Debtors may be submitted to eBureau via Batch Processing. For each debtor submitted, the following information may be returned. Collect! handles returned information as described for each type of data below.

Debtor Address And Contacts

You may receive any number of addresses, phone numbers, or possible dates of birth. These are returned with rankings, where 1 is the best ranked info. When you submit a debtor to eBureau, the information on the Debtor form will be updated to match the top ranking data in eBureau's databases. If your existing debtor form did not contain the results, any new information will be added. If the fields returned were already filled in your existing CV11, the old values will be logged to Notes and the Debtor will be updated.

eBureau Address Update Logged to Notes

Use the " Update Debtor Information" switches in eBureau Setup to control whether or not Debtor addresses are updated automatically. You can leave the switch OFF and and review alternate address information in the Attachment Collect! creates. Or, you can switch ON "Update Debtor Information" if you want Collect! to update the Debtor automatically. Then switch ON "Address," "Phone," and/or "DOB" to tell Collect! which parts of the Debtor information you want updated on the Debtor screen.

If you do not wish to update information on the Debtor automatically during the batch process, you can review and update information later on using the Update Debtor feature.

Debtor Uuid

Each debtor which has results returned will have a "uuid" which is a unique value eBureau uses to track the transaction. This uuid is recorded in the Notes for each Debtor.

eBureau Debtor UUID Logged to Notes

Alternate Address

For each set of data returned, an attachment will be created on the Debtor with a Class of "eBureau" and a Type of "Alternate Address". The Rank will be indicated on the Attachment form.

eBureau Alternate Address Attachment

Use the " Update Debtor Information" switches in eBureau Setup to control whether or not Debtor addresses are updated automatically. Switch ON "Update Debtor Information" if you want Collect! to update the Debtor automatically when a Rank 1 alternate address is returned. You then switch ON the Address, Phone and/or DOB switches to tell Collect! which parts of the Debtor information you want updated on the Debtor screen. You can also switch ON additional Phone options.

Please ensure that you have the 4.pck, 12.pck and 13.pck pick list files and the attach.ctf modified for use with the eBureau module. If you have your own custom pick lists and control files for the Attachment form, you may want to make modifications to make them work with eBureau returns, as well. Collect! Member Services can help you with this.

If the Debtor has been previously submitted and you already have "Alternate Address" attachments, the Ranks on the older addresses will be cleared and the new attachments will reflect the current rankings from eBureau. If the new information matches previously created "Alternate Address" records, but with additional information, then the new information will be appended to the existing record. Otherwise new records will be created.

If you do not wish to update information on the Debtor automatically during the batch process, you can review and update information later on using the Update Debtor feature.

Advanced Phone Updates

Four settings on the eBureau Setup form are used with the "Phone" check box to give you more options for writing Phone information to the Debtor form during eBureau processing. Using these settings, you can tell Collect! to update the Home Phone field "Only if empty." Then, you can tell Collect! what Phone fields you want to try next. If no empty Phone fields are found, Collect! will write the new Phone number to the Debtor's Notes.

DOB

If eBureau returns a DOB on the highest ranking address info and the user has the " Update debtor information" and "DOB" options enabled, if the date returned contains information that does not contradict the existing DOB on the Debtor, but contains less info, it does not overwrite the existing value.

For example, if the Debtor contains July 1st 1970 (700701) and eBureau returns simply 1970 (700000), the old value will be retained. However, if eBureau returned 1926, it would overwrite (and log to notes).

If you do not wish to update information on the Debtor automatically during the batch process, you can review and update information later on using the Update Debtor feature.

Cosigners

You may receive information regarding Relatives, Neighbors, and Associates of the debtor submitted. Each of these will have Cosigner records created under the submitted debtor. These cosigners will have the Class set to "Other" and the Type set to "Relative", "Neighbor" or "Associate" to reflect the relationship as indicated by eBureau.

eBureau Cosigner Record

If the Debtor has been previously submitted and you already have "Relative", "Neighbor" or "Associate" cosigners, and if the new information matches previously created records, but with additional information, then the new information will be appended to the existing record. Otherwise new records will be created.

Bankruptcy Details

If eBureau's records indicate that the Debtor has declared bankruptcy, then up to five attachments may be created on the Debtor, depending on how much information is returned. The Attachment records will be class "Bankruptcy" and the Type will indicate either "Bankruptcy Info", "Creditor", " Attorney", "Trustee", or "BK Court." Each of these records will contain information related to its type.

eBureau Bankruptcy Information

eBureau Bankruptcy Attorney

eBureau Bankruptcy BK Court

If the Debtor has been previously submitted and you already have "Bankruptcy" attachments, these will be left intact and new records will be created to reflect the information received in your current submission.

Deceased

If eBureau's records indicate that the Debtor is deceased, then information regarding the date of birth, death, and contact details for a surviving spouse will be used to create and populate an attachment of Class "eBureau" and Type "Deceased".

eBureau Deceased Attachment

If the Debtor has been previously submitted and you already have "Deceased" attachments, these will be left intact and new records will be created to reflect the information received in your current submission.

Scores

Multiple scores may be returned by eBureau. Each Score returned will have an attachment record created with a Class of "eBureau" and Type "Score". The "Date 1" field will reflect the date the score was returned. If the Debtor has been previously submitted and you already have "Score" attachments, these will be left intact and new records will be created to reflect the information received in your current submission, so you will have a history of all scores received.

eBureau Score Attachment

The most recent score is also written to the Score field on the Debtor form. If you query this Debtor again and a new score is returned, this field will be updated with the latest score. Previous entries are logged to notes whenever the score is updated.

Latest eBureau Score on Debtor Screen

Ebureau Summary

An "in progress" Review Contact is scheduled for each debtor for whom results were returned in the eBureau batch. This Contact displays each of the message codes returned. The message codes are listed in the Description field and their extended meanings can be viewed when you open the "eBureau Message Descriptions" metafile attached to the contact's Data field. This Review Contact will be created for the operator who owns each account, or to a specific operator, as selected during the eBureau batch process.

eBureau Review Contact

eBureau Message Descriptions

Attachment Subclass

A hidden field on the Attachment form is written to whenever an eBureau attachment is created. This field holds a description that fits the Attachment Type. This is necessary because of the dynamic nature of the Attachment's pick lists. The result is an easily identifiable entry in your Attachment list in the Subclass column.

Attachment Subclass Field

Attachment Control File And Pick Lists

The eBureau Service creates several attachments. To make it easier to use these, there are special pick lists and an updated control file that work with eBureau Service.

If you have upgraded from a previous version of Collect!, you probably will not have the pick lists or the updated control file that work with eBureau. These are provided in a zipped file with instructions and are also available for download at our Member Center.

Get Files

Processing Ebureau Results

Please refer to Help topic, Update Debtor for details about processing alternate addresses and phone information returned from eBureau.

Collect! enables you to run a contact plan when phone numbers change on your accounts. You can use this feature to change your account status and then process the accounts, for a call campaign, for instance. You can set a delayed status change to revert the status back to ACT after your call campaign has completed.

Please refer to Help topic, Screen and Messages for details about "Run plan when phones change."

Conclusion

Using eBureau Service in Collect! helps you work your accounts more efficiently and profitably. The eBureau batch process updates your accounts with all relevant information including related parties, bankruptcy details and other data based on results from thousands of databases. Up-to-the-minute scores are returned as well, enabling you to quickly pick the debts that offer you the best chance of recovery.

To use the eBureau Service add-on extension module, you must have the option enabled, and you must register an account with eBureau. Once you have the information from eBureau, you can set up your configuration in the eBureau Setup form. To submit accounts to eBureau for processing, run the Submit to eBureau batch process.

See Also

- Batch Processing Topics