Credit Management goes from Complex to Simple

"We have completely revised the previous manual credit monitoring", explained Vera Gerold, who took part in managing the changeover as an adviser and project leader for the SPAETER Group. She summarized: "Now the company benefits from unified, digital information as a basis for making objective decisions, significantly reducing the operative effort required. The quick availability of current data is a big plus for the Sales Department and the management." 

With the introduction of CAM Industry & Trade it became possible to transfer data from the different systems in the branches into a central credit monitoring system using an aggregation model. "SCHUMANN realized this challenge positively and made credit management simple in multiple ways", said Gerold.

Thanks to the control of credit risk management through a central tool that is the same throughout the group, processes have been unified, limits can be decided quickly and up-to-date monitoring is available at any time.

Due to its group structure – which includes both international companies and local specialists, both large and medium-sized – the SPAETER Group is confronted with very diverse requests in the context of limit allocation. "The complete credit monitoring from the application through the checking of the credit limit, the inquiries to the central credit monitoring and the information agencies, right up to creation of a payment plan was a manual process that required a lot of clicks and mails, and cost a lot of time", said Gerold, describing the old system.

The first step in creating a new system was to document the specific nature of the existing procedures in the various branches and the central credit monitoring department as part of a process analysis. The subsequent definition of a target process included the development of a concept for the dynamic distribution of credit limits to the branches, an objective decision-making basis including ratings, and fast processing.

To achieve these aims SPAETER decided to introduce the credit management software CAM Industry & Trade from SCHUMANN. 

The project started with discussions in the autumn of 2022. The first workshops followed in March 2023 with the aim of creating a credit-monitoring program connected to the SPAETER Group's ERP system. "We decided on an aggregation model, a central and unified tool for credit risk management that is highly automated and therefore easy to use", explained Gerold.

As the project continued, the technical stages were continuously refined and tailored to the needs of the various users at the company and management levels. As a result, CAM Industry & Trade now functions as a key instrument for determining credit limits: it integrates and evaluates the ratings from selected information agencies. If the system reports that a credit limit has been exceeded, predefined, automatic measures are performed including the involvement of the Credit Managers at the headquarters of the SPAETER Group in Duisburg. Twelve independent companies thereby have their respective local credit limits in view, can start a new limit application at the press of a button and, if it is evaluated positively, they have immediate authorization to proceed. 

Every action that takes place is communicated to the central credit management, who then manage all the master data and limits in their aggregation system. There, the various companies and subsidiaries of each business partner are compiled into a file for that group of companies. This is stored in the system so that the evaluation of a customer group is possible at a glance. 

Thanks to the high level of automation of the workflow-based limit applications, all the processes of credit management are structured, fast and efficient.

For the fifth-generation family-run business, the transformation from a local-branch approach to an objective decision-making basis throughout the company brings competitive and financial advantages. The "steel trader with a passion", as the company calls itself, can now concentrate more on its competence as a problem-solver for its customers – with its independent assessment of the world steel market and global purchasing expertise.

Thanks to the automated evaluation of customers' creditworthiness based on internal data and external information obtained via interfaces, the credit risk management now offers objective decision-making criteria. Credit-relevant information – which previously necessitated "15 clicks and diverse open windows on the PC" – is now available digitally thanks to CAM Industry & Trade, "in some cases in only a minute" and is presented clearly so that the Sales Department can act more quickly and offer the customers solutions almost immediately. 

At the headquarters of the SPAETER Group faster decisions can also be made thanks to the constantly available structured overview of business partners, their ratings and limits, as well as the up-to-date market information and the detailed monitoring.

Gerold described the changeover as follows: "It was well-prepared and was strongly supported in terms of communication, with training sessions and online seminars. The roll-up and go-live went very well and the result was enthusiastically received by everyone." Of course there are bound to be further requests for adaptations but "with SCHUMANN at our side we have a good and reliable partner, who can easily implement complex requirements."