Time savings, the biggest gain of all

Marion Ziel | Credit Manager | Euromaster

Euromaster is one of the main European players in the tire and maintenance market. The Euromaster brand, which originated in 1991 from an acquisition of several tire specialists in Europe, has grown over the past 20 years into a company with more than 2,300 branches in 17 countries. In the Netherlands, the network consists of over 100 branches from which business and private customers are served. The future for Euromaster lies in tires, tire-related services and minor car maintenanceIn response to the statement that everyone knows the Euromaster brand in the Netherlands, Marion Ziel, Credit Manager at Euromaster, indicates that this is certainly not always the case among the general public. “Because we mainly focus on the business market, such as transport companies and leasing companies, the company has the greatest name recognition in this market.

We notice that Euromaster is less well known among private car owners, nevertheless we have a loyal group of customers in the private market. Euromaster, with over 100 branches in the Netherlands, is a huge and beautiful brand with a lot of knowledge and expertise,” says Marion. In daily work, the continuous dynamics especially appeal to Marion. “At Euromaster, things never stand still and you always have to step in somewhere. Especially in the position of Credit Manager you are often the link between different departments and they can’t really get round you. For me, even after 11.5 years, this still makes it a great company to work for.”

From credit management software back to Excel

Over the past 2.5 years, a lot has changed within Euromaster’s credit management team. Whereas initially the team consisted of 7 FTEs in the Netherlands, in 2018 with the transition to SAP and the arrival of a Shared Service Center in Bucharest, the entire team in the Netherlands disappeared. Also during the same period, it was decided from Europe that Marion had to say goodbye to the credit management package she was working with at the time. “This was quite something to swallow. Where before I had a good running package and a team that was fully tuned in to our customers, we went back to printing out Excel files and then determining who, who to call without being able to keep an eye on the follow-up.”

Choice of CreditDevice

Marion could have predicted in advance that SAP would not meet the needs of a company with more than 3,000 active debtors. So it didn’t take long for her to start looking again for a good credit management software package. “In this search, our previous supplier was actually number one because we were already familiar with the software. But after talking to Joke Roelofs, account manager at CreditDevice, I quickly got a good idea of what the software can do. Eventually you have to weigh up the pros and cons and we came to the conclusion that CreditDevice has a very good system with a more interesting price tag than the competition. Especially the fact that you don’t have to pay extra for user licenses, just saves a lot of money,” says Marion.

Time savings, the biggest gain of all

Marion’s team finally went live in June 2020. “Since going live we have already been able to make so many strides. Everything is structured, actions are picked up on time, and both overdue and bad debt have gone down tremendously. We just have everything under control now,” Marion explains. After the restructuring in 2018, the team in Romania was reduced from 5 to 3 FTEs and Marion’s team together with her Dutch colleague John consists of 5 FTEs. Marion says she has saved so much time with CreditDevice in recent months that they can reduce the number of FTEs in Romania by one FTE. “You can just handle the work much easier with fewer people. If you have the workflows set up properly then the software does the work. It is very handy that in the software you can see exactly how many days a customer pays his invoices on average. So you have much better insight. For example, we now see that some customers always pay with 60 days while a payment period of 30 days has been agreed. Now that we have everything back in order, we can manage this much better.”

In credit management, unfortunately, when customers are approached little or not at all, they often take advantage of the situation and pay invoices later. In addition, customer contact is simply very important, says Marion. “As a credit manager, you don’t just call to ask when an invoice will be paid, but especially in times of Corona, it is important to ask how things are going. This way, by asking the right questions, you quickly notice if you need to pay attention to a customer and if there are any problems you can come to a solution together.”

The effect of corona on payment terms

As for corona, Marion says she does not see many changes yet. “Obviously it took some getting used to suddenly having to all work from home in March 2021 and also the summer changeover came later in March” says Marion. The Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), on the other hand, has been greatly reduced at Euromaster in recent months. Currently, the company has a DSO of around 32 days. This is mainly because the team has got all its processes back in order after almost 2 years. Marion does point out that especially now, in times of crisis, a good credit management software package is really indispensable. “After the last crisis, the economy was doing well again and customers generally just paid on time. But especially now, during the corona, you find out again how important good software is to keep track of your customers and keep up with their payments.”

International rollout of credit management software

Already from the first discussions with Euromaster, it became clear that there is also a lot of interest in CreditDevice’s software internationally. Marion noticed that this interest is still clearly present among her fellow Credit Managers. During the monthly meeting with her European colleagues, she recently gave a presentation on how the software works. It is expected that soon Euromaster France and Switzerland will be the first countries to go over and the other countries will follow. Marion indicates that it will be an advantage for her if other countries will soon be using the credit management software as well. “It is nice when you can ask each other questions and learn from each other. I also notice in any case that it is good that we have more and more contact with each other at the European level in recent years. When a foreign customer arrives, we can easily check whether this customer is known and what the status is. This works very pleasant”.

Cooperation between Euromaster and CreditDevice

That Marion is happy with the credit management software and the cooperation with CreditDevice is very clear. Besides promoting the software in Europe, she is already acting as an ‘ambassador’ in the Netherlands. “What especially appeals to me in the cooperation are the short lines of communication. The contacts are good and you can always switch quickly. It doesn’t matter whether you are dealing with the service team, the account managers or the management. Everyone is there for you. That is just very pleasant to work with. In addition, you clearly notice that you are still dealing with a somewhat smaller organization, which means that the contact is much less rigid than with other parties,” says Marion.
In the coming period, the team’s main focus will be on further expanding the software. “Whereas in the second half of 2020 it was mainly important to get the numbers down, we can now start implementing the functionalities that have not yet been used. In this way we can get much more out of the software, for example with the management reports and by providing access to the sales team.”