Bufab wins 10 days DSO with Aston iT Clients!

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

How can you improve your DSO?

Read what Christophe Reynaud, Credit Manager for Bufab, has to say about his role in the company .

Credit managers sometimes find it hard to make their voices heard internally. How did you tackle this challenge?

CR: It’s a long-term process, especially when it comes to raising awareness among sales teams and getting them to accept a cash culture. We now have a genuine credit management policy that covers customer risk management/prevention, account receivable management, debt collection and receivables monitoring. To achieve this, we turned to Aston iTF, and presented the solution to our sales staff in a transparent and educational way. Everyone now has access to a customer’s file in their Business Unit, and we’ve shown them the benefits of having visibility over a customer’s workstation in order to better interact with them. There is now a collaborative dimension, particularly in the management of disputes, which has saved us 10 days’ DSO.

But trust needs to be nurtured! That’s why we have institutionalized a monthly meeting and a quarterly update that brings together members of the finance, general management and sales departments. 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-disciplinary business, but we all share the same desire to satisfy our customers. After all, it’s often dissatisfaction that leads to settlement disputes. These problems can easily be anticipated with a sound, rational view of the customer base.