‘With CreditDevice, we save a lot of time and labour costs and our credit management is much more efficient’
- Tom Bravenboer | Credit Controller | Harvest House
- Carlo Habraken | Interim Business Controller | Harvest House
Harvest House is an international cooperative of growers from the Netherlands, Tunisia, Morocco and Portugal. With an area of 1100 hectares, Harvest House is now the largest growers’ association in the field of ‘fruiting vegetables’. Its member growers grow high-quality peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers in an innovative and sustainable way.
Tom Bravenboer started as Credit Controller at Harvest House in June 2020. As a true Westlander, the AGF (potatoes, vegetables and fruit) industry appeals greatly to Tom. When he arrived, the company was busy looking for a solution to improve its credit management processes. Work within the accounts receivable department could and should be more efficient. Interim Business Controller Carlo Habraken spearheaded this project. He mapped out the execution of credit management: where the inefficiencies were and how software could support this process.
Convincing reasons
”In the search for a solution , I cameacrossCreditDevicevia via ,” says Carlo. ”We looked at three different parties.With an eye on a number of plus points, we chose CreditDevice. First, the Central File that gives you insight across administrations into a group of debtors. Secondly, the mail integration. This allows us to send and receive e-mails directly from the application. Besides the click and the trust, the main reason for ultimately choosingCreditDevicewas thePolisManager. Because of the direct link withAtradiusandbecause we can enterAtradiuswith asingle sign-on , we no longer need to switch between applications.”
Big steps
In January 2021, Harvest House started using Credit Management software, credit information and Policy Manager. Since then, great strides have been made. The number of FTEs was reduced from five to three, allowing them to make savings in labour costs. Tom: “When I started at Harvest House in 2020, the company was working with an ERP system for order processing and invoicing. Because that system didn’t send notifications when an invoice was past due, you constantly had to find out for yourself when an invoice was overdue, and you had to perform actions manually for each customer. As a result, you quickly overlooked something . A lot less efficient than how we work now.”
Huge time savings
Tom is happy that the manning cycle in CreditDevice’s software provides a lot of overview and peace of mind:’You can now see at a glance which debtors areoverdue and whether they will receive a first or a second reminder or reminder. You then tick ‘all’ in the software and easily and quickly send all invoices at once. Whereas previously we had to perform an action per customer, now just a few presses of a button are enough. This saves a huge amount of time and we are much closer to the ball. Whether it’s 150 or 300 customers, it no longer matters. Without specialised software, it felt like you were always behind the times. You got the work done, but not in the time you had before. Now we have earlier time to pick up disputes, for example.”
For Carlo, the biggest gainisthat the department has become much more efficient. “By automating processes, we can now do the same work with fewer people “.
More customer-oriented dunning
This more efficient way of working with fewer people is partly due to the well-designedworkflows.Harvest House works with six different workflows,aimed at different customer types. For example, withlarge customers it ismainly important tocreateinsight so that you can immediately see when something is wrong with an invoice.Small customers , on the other hand, are mainly approached personally. While the workflow ofcompaniesoutside the EUismuch tighter and with a harsher tone.The beauty, according to Carlo, isthat you caneasily convert a workflow if you want to remind a debtor in a different way.”Before, you onlyhadone flavour and sent the same letter to everyone by default. Now we have everything much better mapped out and can send customer-focusedreminders.”
Everything central
Tom is happy with the insight and overview provided by CreditDevice’s products. “With CreditDevice, we now have a central point where everything can be found.Where before we had to switch between two or three different applications, now everything is in one place.The link with Exact and the two daily imports and exports, ensure that we are always up-to-date.The link with Atradius means a live update when a limit is withdrawn or increased.These are further advantages and also a huge improvement over the process we had before.”
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Tom is also very pleased withPolisManager: ”Likethecredit management software,the moduleensures efficiency. It makes quite a difference whether youwork with an ERP system andAtradius’portal , or with onesoftware packagewhere you cansearch, request andcancel everything.It also saves a huge amount of risk and time andprovides a piece of security that you can’toverlook anything anymore ”.
Even more efficiency
The mail integration, as Carlo explained, was one of the reasons for choosingCreditDevice.Tom cannot wait for thefunctionalityto be implemented. “Then we can centralise even more. We will soon be able to incorporate informationand responsesfrom customers,but also from our salespeopledirectly into theaccounts receivable file.This is definitely going to create a lot more efficiency “.
Open and smooth
Both menare very satisfied with their collaboration with CreditDevice.Tom:”It’ s great that you can go to the service desk with all your questions.Questions aredealt with quicklyandif it takes a bit longer, there is a good reason for it. But communication isalwaysopen and smooth.”Carlo indicates thatpersonal contact is also important: “We are ‘on a first name basis’ with your Credit Management Specialist Noor van der Plas. That is very pleasant, we call or email often and always get a quick response too.”
