Las Vegas, Nev. Collection Advisor magazine today announced its selection of the Top 100 Collection Technology Products for 2007. The announcement was made by Harry A. Strausser III, president of Remit Corporation in Bloomsburg, Pa., former chair of the ACA and emcee of the Tech '07 event.

This is the third year the magazine bestowed an honor of this kind on products and services in the collections industry, and was a highlight of the Tech '07 event, an educational forum for the collections profession sponsored by the magazine.

All of the companies honored as of the Top 100 Collection Technology Products represent not only market leaders, but smaller, niche companies who present true innovation and insight within the industry, says Editor/Publisher T. Allen Rose. On behalf of the magazine, we are very pleased to bestow this honor on these very worthy companies.

The Top 100 Collection Technology products are spread across 13 categories, including Commercial, Small Office, Mid-Range and High-End Collection Software; Scoring; Legal; Medical; Banking; Mailing Services; Electronic Payment; Skip Tracing; Predictive Dialers; and Interactive Voice Response. The comprehensive list will be featured in the magazines January/February 2008 issue, along with a companion story honoring the Top 50 Most Influential Collection Professionals for 2007.

Here at Comtech, we're always looking for ways to streamline our operations and improve the quality of your service. In our quest to do so, we've reviewed our historical practices and discovered some interesting trends.

We found that in Member Services, the 80/20 business rule really showed through. 20% of our customers were using 80% our time. Those customers who had been diligent in taking advantage of online help and tutorials were paying the same price for updates and services as companies who had not taken the time to explore these important resources. Member Services dedicated a great deal of time to customers who had not taken advantage of our product documentation. This left less time for those customers who had made use of the online help resources on the rare occasions that they phoned us for additional assistance.

Once the facts were tallied and the numbers were on our desks, we knew something had to change. We decided to lower the cost of Membership by up to 30% depending on when you purchased and your current configuration. Now, companies that run like well-oiled machines get a real benefit - everything they had before and at a lower cost. If you do require consulting, we offer a $200.00 discount over those who choose not to invest in a membership package.

Between 90% and 95% of calls to our technical consultants are configuration and reporting questions. Historically, we considered these areas part of the more expensive membership service package. In our new membership model, we serve you better by offering savings to those companies who rarely need our services. Those who require our consulting services on a regular basis can purchase consulting time at a very reasonable price.

We have also changed our policy for serving non-member customers. Previously, non-member customers were not able to interact with our Technical Consulting team. Now, we will offer non-member customers the option of purchasing consulting time, but they will not get the discount our members are entitled to. If you have any questions about our new Membership and Consulting model, please contact us sales@collect.org or 1-800-661-6722.

What Is My IP Address
New option in System menu, Diagnostics enables you to find out your external IP address. This is very useful if you are operating behind a firewall and are attempting to set up a web site so that your clients can access the Web Host.

The What Is My Internet Address option goes behind the scenes to the web site, www.whatismyip.com/ Then Collect! displays the IP Address fetched by the site.

New Check Digit 2097
Two new commands in the Report Writer enable you to generate Australian Post Office Modulus 97 - 20 weight Check Digits. Use <cd2097> to output the field data as well as the check digit. Use <cd2097c>to ouput the check digit only.

Examples:

@de.ac<cd2097>
@de.ac<cd2097c>

We use the following weights to support up to 20 digit numbers: 20,19,18,17,16,15,14,13,12,11,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1

Please refer to Help topic, How to Generate A Check Digit, for details.

Run NCOA Update in Scheduler
You can now update NCOA From File using the Scheduler. Configure a Scheduler Task to read your NCOA return file during off hours and automatically update your database. This is the same functionality that you can perform manually, using the File menu, Import/Export, Import NCOA option.

Please refer to Help topic, Scheduler Task, for details.

Consumers Looking For Real-Time Payment Processing

More than in the past, consumers are looking to pay their bills at the last minute and expecting the company they are paying to post their payment as soon as they pay it. With real-time posting of electronic bill payments to the system of record consumers can avoid late fees and service shut offs. Beyond increasing consumer satisfaction, companies can experience reduced payment exceptions, lower call center volume and savings on system shut off and reconnection. Despite the benefits, companies should ask some challenging questions when evaluating the move towards real-time payment processing. What are the steps necessary to connect the payment acceptance Web site and phone systems to the system of record? What is the notification process to tell the consumer their payment has been received on time?

By allowing payments to be entered and automatically posted within Collect!, EPP allows collectors, managers, and business owners to focus on other areas and work more efficiently. By importing this data directly to the consumer record rather than relying on manual entry, a business can effectively post website and phone payments while servicing customers more efficiently. Ask your Collect! Representative about this powerful payment interface today or contact EPP directly at (800) 377-2677.

If you or any member of your organization would like more information, please contact EPP at (877) 377-2677 or visit our web site at http://www.expresspayments.com/.

Team Business Solutions offers Qlik2Collect, a powerful building block of business analytics containing ready-made dashboard and reporting solutions, featuring rich data visualization components that convey the performance and trends of your KPI's. Effectively communicating key financial and operational metrics to decision makers across the organization is the demand of today's hands-on manager. Qlik2Collect provides access to corporate performance data, thereby bringing in transparency into daily operations of the business. Qlik2Collect has multiple views available:

* Premier iView Qlik2Collect
* Standard iView Qlik2Collect (scalable version of the Premier iView)
* WebServer Qlik2Collect (agencies who need multiple users to view their performance)

Packed with additional value:

- Integrated with Collect!, both editions provide companies with insight into the transactions produced by your business.

- Turn actionable insights into informed decisions and compare actual performance to plan comparing present to historical data

- Low cost and rapid implementation increases the probability of success to a certainty, driving the quickest "time-to-value" in the industry and fastest return on your investment

- Full package can be added - integration of data from multiple, disparate data sources

The Premier iView Qlik2Collect contains transactional information pertaining to batch liquidations to forecasts to inventory management (limited customization is included).

The Standard iView Qlik2Collect is a scalable version of the Premier edition. The Standard edition contains limited transactional information from batch liquidations to forecasts. Does not include inventory management and cannot be customized (basically a "viewer" reporting option).

Our WebServer Packages are perfect for multiple users of mid sized organizations.

Companies who choose the Premier or WebServer views have the option to choose ongoing support services and are setup on the company's objectives.

Our services meet user reporting requirements, free up IT resources, and empower business users with information necessary to perform their jobs.

Contact Doreen Anderson to schedule a Qlik2Collect demo and gain additional information that could be helpful to you.

Contact Information: Doreen Anderson, Director of Business Development, US Operations
Phone: (716) 909-7986
Email: doreen@teambusinesssolutions.com
Website: http://www.teambusinesssolutions.com/.

To explain the difference, a process is simply a series of actions, changes or functions that bring about a result, whereas a program is a system of services or projects designed to meet a need. The main difference between a process and a program is that a program, by definition, is ongoing. In order for your agency to be successful, it is imperative that you have a training program.

So, the logical question would be, Where do I start? I am mainly referring to collector training here, but the same principles can and should be used in every area of your business.

Appoint or hire an in-house trainer

Depending on the size of your agency, you may not have the need to designate someone full time, but regardless of the situation, the trainer should be experienced. Depending on the size of your agency, it may be more cost effective to appoint someone internally, who will only do the training on a part time basis or simply on a need basis. If that is the case, it is often a good idea to appoint one of your top collectors as the trainer. The person will have to be a very good time manager though, since he or she will still be responsible for their normal duties. Regardless of what you do, I feel that it is important, if possible, to only have one person that does the training for everyone, rather than having Sally do it this time and Bob do it next time, etc.

The reason for this is consistency. Each person that you hire should be trained in the same manner. This will help to ensure success and it will also help to prevent compliance issues. If you are a larger agency, you may need to have multiple people that do the training, simple because of the volume, but if that is the case, each trainer needs to be a clone of the other as far as their methods and their information.

Develop your training materials

This may sound simple, but it can be a very tedious process. I would encourage you to take advantage of industry specific products that are available to purchase, but you also need to put your own spin into the materials. One of my mottos is, People do not learn from books, they learn from people. As an example, it's like that teacher that you had in school that just had you read from a book and then take a test. How did you do? Depending on the way that you learn, you either did great, or your failed miserably.

Once you have the materials developed, make sure that you use them. Once again, that sounds simple enough, but you would be amazed at how many companies spend valuable time and money in the development process and then the materials sit and gather dust. Also, the materials need to be living documents. They need to change with the times and they need to change with your company. I would recommend that you review the content at least every 6 months and make updates and changes at that time.

Make a Plan

How is your program going to work? New employees are trained for how long until they the hit the floor? What are you going to cover in the initial training verses the ongoing training? I do have some suggestions.

With new collectors, regardless of experience they should be run through a sort of boot camp, where everything is covered. The FDCPA, collection techniques, dealing with irate consumers, sales techniques (yes sales techniques they are selling the concept of paying a bill), your computer system, your office policies and anything else that you can think of that may benefit the employee. If it benefits the employee, it benefits you.

The new employees should also have a review every 30 days, for the first 90 days and their progress, or lack of progress should be closely monitored. After the 90 day review (if the employee is still with your company), you should schedule another training class for them and you should do that at least every 3 months, usually just as a refresher course, unless the employee has more detailed needs, and then you may need to go back to square one or worst case, let them go.

The refresher classes can be a simple overview of the original items and can also be a time that you can inform the employee of late breaking issues in the industry and of course, answer their questions. The FDCPA will probably be the focus in most refresher classes, but at times, the employee either needs to or wants to fine tune his or her skills and that is the time for you to help them do that. I think that the refresher classes could be one-day things and possibly even half-day things as the employee progresses. The initial training, however, could easily be 3 days of classroom type learning and then maybe 2 days where they sit with and observe a few collectors, so that they can see everything in action. You may have to work with the timing a little bit, but this should give you a place to start.

Execute your plan (and stick to it)

This is the important part. You went through all of the time and effort to get this is place, now just do it! If you have existing collectors, that are holding their own, I would simply start them in the refresher classes. You may have a collector from time to time that you want to start at the beginning, but it should be rare.

Expose your collectors to third party training

Whether you send them out to a seminar every once in awhile or have a third party come in to do the refresher class or something like that, it's important to have that third party influence. Your program is great and it's running smoothly, but a third party influence can be very effective. It also shows the employees that they are important enough for you to not only invest time in them, but to also invest money in them. It may seem silly, but that will go a long way.

Have Fun

I always save this for last, because this is the bottom line to any training program. If it's not fun, the employee will become bored, they won't learn anything and rather than it being productive and profitable, your program will end up being a waste of time and money. Some ideas to make it fun are to offer little giveaways during the sessions. They don't have to be big things, just little things like candy bars, a five-dollar bill or some sort of small token. You can have all of their names in a fish bowl and just pull out random names for the prize. You could also tape an envelope to the bottom of one or two of the chairs and have a sheet of paper inside with the prize written on it. Be creative. Regardless of what you do, your employees will appreciate it.

This business is all about collecting money and at times, we may focus too much on that part of the business and not enough on the part that actually gets us there; the employees. A quality, detailed and ongoing training program will not only get you there, it will keep you there.

Bill Lindala
Premier Consulting Group, LLC
blindala@pcgroupllc.net
http://www.pcgroupllc.net/

Collectors may use predictive auto-dialers and prerecorded calls to contact consumers on their mobile phones, the Federal Communications Commission announced in a ruling handed down late Friday.

Prior to this ruling, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) had generally prohibited auto-dialer and prerecorded calls to a mobile phone unless there was prior consent by the consumer. The ruling goes into effect immediately and applies to collectors, debt purchasers, and creditors, according to collection industry trade group ACA International.

The decision is being viewed as a victory for collectors and the ACA as more consumers move to wireless-only communication. This is wonderful news. The TCPA was instituted when there were about 50 cell phones in the country, said Gary E. Wood, president of Collins Financial Services Inc. and debt purchasing trade association DBA International.

This ends a tremendous amount of litigation over auto-dialer prohibition, said Rozanne M. Andersen, executive vice president and general counsel at ACA. But Andersen cautioned, This is not a 100 percent win, there are some remaining questions. But we are analyzing the ruling and providing members with details to ensure they abide by the ruling.

Indeed, an attorney with a consumer rights organization noted that the creditor, debt purchaser and collector still have the burden of holding, or having access to, a record of the debtor's proof of permission.

And keep in mind that cell phone numbers turn over quickly. (An agency) may call the wrong person, said Lauren K. Saunders, managing attorney of the National Consumer Law Center. They need to ensure the number is still good for the right person. In addition, the FCC ruling applies only to the TCPA, not the FDCPA, and a collector could mistakenly violate one of its provisions if he isn't careful, she said. There are a lot of landmines that collectors could step on if they use this for broad-based permission, said Saunders.

In the ruling, reached on Dec. 28, the FCC determined that autodialed and prerecorded calls made to wireless numbers provided by the called party in connection with an existing debt are made with the express prior consent by the called party.

ACA filed a petition with the FCC in October 2005 seeking clarification that the prohibition against autodialed or prerecorded calls to wireless telephone numbers did not apply to collection calls. The FCC ruling was a direct response to the ACA petition.

At issue was the express prior consent clause in the TCPA governing the use of wireless numbers. Due to the fee applied to users for incoming mobile calls, the TCPA had been previously interpreted as not granting consent for automated calls.

Providing a creditor with a cell phone number during a credit application reasonably evidences prior express consent by the cell phone subscriber to be contacted at that number regarding the debt, the FCC wrote. Collectors may also use the mobile numbers if a consumer gives the number as an alternate contact.

Debt collectors have always been able to use predictive auto-dialers and rerecorded messages to reach traditional wire line numbers, and collectors have also been able to manually dial wireless numbers to reach consumers. But the combination of using those advanced call center technologies on wireless numbers was interpreted as forbidden under the TCPA.

In 2003, the FCC banned the use of auto-dialers and prerecorded messages for calls of any kind made to wireless numbers. The Commission was responding to what it called a greater nuisance and invasion of privacy than live solicitation calls in using wireless numbers which were gaining popularity. The fact that consumers were charged for the incoming calls punctuated the FCC's finding.

2008 ACA International. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted with the express permission of ACA International, the Trade Association of Credit and Collection Professionals.