Bufab, a 10-day DSO gain with Aston iT Clients!

Bufab is a trading company that, as a logistics partner, offers its customers complete supply solutions. Their Global Parts Productivity™ service aims to enable our customers to improve the productivity of their parts-related value chain.

How to improve your DSO?

Discover the testimony of Christophe Reynaud, Credit Manager for Bufab explains his role in the company.

The Credit Manager sometimes finds it difficult to be heard internally. How did you deal with this challenge?

CR: It’s a long-term job, especially when it comes to raising awareness among the sales teams and agreeing to adopt a « cash » culture. We now have a real credit management policy which covers both the management/prevention of customer risk, the management of the customer account, the collection of debts and the monitoring of the customer account. To do this, we used Aston iTF and demonstrated transparency and education by presenting the solution to our sales staff. Everyone can now access the file of a customer in their Business Unit and we showed them the advantages of having visibility on the customer’s position in order to better interact with the latter. There is now a collaborative dimension, particularly in the management of disputes, which has saved us 10 days of DSO.

But trust must be maintained! This is why we have institutionalized a monthly meeting and a quarterly review that brings together the members of the finance department, the general management and the sales department around the same table. We have put the Credit Manager at the heart of the processes of these different professions and each of them can access the tool.

This approach has enabled us to set up a preventive reminder system where we automatically remind our customers of invoices that are due. Credit management is, by its very nature, a cross-functional business, but we all share the desire to satisfy the customer. Because it is often dissatisfaction that leads to disputes over payments. These problems can easily be anticipated with a sound and rational vision of the customer account.[/vc_column_text]