What is CollectSmart?

CollectSmart is a powerful, modular, enterprise-wide debt collection management system that combines business-controlled segmentation with the allocation of appropriate and differentiated actions to individual customer profiles – all accessed via an easy-to-use web interface.

It is developed on the Microsoft Technology Stack, using state-of-the-art technology, enabling an organisation to set up and work accounts in any manner suitable to its needs.  A high degree of parameterisation allows organisation-specific requirements to be easily defined, rather than requiring extensive changes to the system code.  The overall ease of use, coupled with the intuitive look and feel, minimises training overheads and reduces the time required by collectors to assimilate all relevant information for the collections call.

Is CollectSmart compliant with the requirements of the National Credit Act (NCA)?

Yes, CollectSmart functionality and settings are controlled by an administrative user, and therefore legislative compliance falls within the users control.

In which stage of collections can CollectSmart be used?

Even though CollectSmart is primarily a debt management system, the structure of CollectSmart makes it suitable for pre-delinquency as well as delinquency management.

Several clients utilise pre-delinquency strategies and communications within CollectSmart, aimed at customer services and proactively managing probability-to-default accounts.

CollectSmart is therefore aimed at Customer Services, Pre-Delinquency, Early Stage & Late Stage Collections, Recoveries and external agency (EDC) management – within an automated and data-driven environment.

Can CollectSmart integrate with Bot technology?

Principa’s bot technology platforms Atura (Self-service customer bot) and Agent X (Call Centre Virtual Assistant) comes integrated as standard, and offer clients the opportunity to leverage state-of-the-art bot technology.

Atura Self-Service Bot is aimed at assisting customers on their preferred communication platform (Web or Mobile Widget, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger etc.) 24/7, whereas Agent X Virtual Assistant combines human behavioural science and analytics to empower call centre agents throughout the day.

What are the key benefits of CollectSmart?

• Diary Based Collections

As each account is worked, the system will prompt collectors to set the appropriate next follow-up date, based on the collector actions taken.  In addition to date-specific diaries, the system also allows time-specific appointments to be set, to ensure that customers can be contacted at a pre-arranged time.

• User-Controlled, Flexible Segmentation

A graphical, flowchart-based segmentation module allows the debtor portfolio to be split into any number of customer segments using agreed segmentation criteria such as delinquency level, promise to pay status, balance, risk level, etc.  Once split into customer segments, the system allows differentiated and appropriate risk-based actions to be allocated to each group of customers.

Champion/Challenger testing is fully supported and tests are easily established and controlled as segmentation trees, strategies, queues and actions are all managed by the end-user instead of ‘hard coded’ system rules.

• User-Controlled Queue Allocation

The Collections Manager can easily allocate collectors to work queues, with the appropriate risk-based scripts and priority sort sequence.  In addition, system parameters allow queues to be easily split between day and night queues based on the availability of contact numbers.

• Standardised Collector Actions

CollectSmart empowers collectors to be effective. The solution supports a wide range of configurable collector actions, selected through an easy-to-use graphical interface.  Where necessary, the collector will be prompted to record additional information that may be relevant, such as the name of a co-worker when leaving a message.  In addition, the collector may record additional ‘free format’ notes and comments where required.

• MIS Reporting

The system is provided with a number of standard reports, including transition matrices (roll rate reporting), workload volumes, operational actions are taken, collector performance, and general portfolio analysis.  The open nature of the SQL database allows ad hoc extraction of data, and the use of add-on reporting tools such as Power BI, Tableux etc., Microsoft® SQL Server Reporting Services or any other third-party Microsoft® SQL Server compliant reporting tool.

• Segmented Portfolios

The overall environment of the system easily allows organisations to establish and manage multiple portfolios separately.  This enables different segmentation trees, strategies, queues and actions to be configured for different products, regions, or debt categories.  Each portfolio is handled separately by the system, facilitating ease of reporting and management.

Can I, the client, manage the system or will I be dependent on Principa or our IT department?

CollectSmart has been designed to give businesses the ability to deploy and manage their own strategies with very little IT involvement. Principa are always there to offer support when changes are required, but the majority of our clients manage to make the required changes without Principa’s assistance.  The initial deployment and integration is usually set up by Principa.

Is there a training program for CollectSmart?

Yes, as part of deploying CollectSmart to a new client, train-the-trainer training is provided for both users and administrators of the system.

How is data passed into CollectSmart?

CollectSmart can receive and return data in three different ways:

• Via API
• Through batch/file transfer
• Interrogating a SQL database

Is CollectSmart available as an On-Premise or Cloud deployment?

CollectSmart can be deployed both in the Cloud or On-Premise.

What are the technical product features of CollectSmart?

System design:

• Simple yet powerful user interface
• Strategy and collector actions defined and controlled by the business users
• Industry best practice design principles for front-end and back-end collections
• Modular, object-oriented design to address business requirements
• Highly parameterised to enable ease of use and change management
• Optimised to handle large volumes of accounts and concurrent users
• Designed for the industry-standard Intel®-based Windows® 2016 Server platform
• Best-practice Microsoft® .NET development framework allows simple and efficient customisation of the system.

Database design:

• Optimised for Microsoft® SQL Server 2017
• Fully normalised, customer-centric design
• Uses standard RDBMS practices to guarantee database integrity
• Security and Integrity
• Security is enforced at the database level
• Full audit, accessibility and responsibility assigned to data changes
• User-specific access and authority controls for functionality
• System availability and integrity can be ensured using technologies such as RAID and Failover Clustering
• Interfaces with other systems, such as predictive diallers
• Validation of interface data in a staging area prior to importing to ensure database integrity
• Any data field can easily be traced back to the original source

Network support:

• LAN and WAN supported
• Runs on any TCP/IP network
• Supports Microsoft® Windows® Terminal Server/Citrix for thin client and remote access

What is the process flow of CollectSmart?

The diagram below provides a graphical illustration of the high-level operational function and process flow of CollectSmart.

How does Principa support its products?

Principa has a 24/7/365 help-desk to support our clients across Africa and the Middle East on our products.  Support is from Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa, but we are able to support our clients remotely using Webex or a remote tool of their choice.