Source: IOMA's Report on Managing Credit, Receivables & Collections December 1999 Page 5

"Creditworthy.com has a discussion group devoted to each of these two software applications. We have excerpted from those comments and suggest that credit professionals using either of the software packages point their clickers to crediworthy.com and join the discussion.

SAP

QUESTION: Specifically how are you using the system, what kind of reports are you generating, have you been able to generate an alphabetical aged trial balance, how is your statement and dunning function working, and do you have billing problems now that you are on SAP?

OBSERVATION: I have been implementing SAP since last December. It has been a trying experience to say the least. I am able to generate just about any report I want. My aging has account numbers and of course customer name. I am not using the sunning function yet, but we are setting that up. My credit management function is just getting started, and I will be expanding it. But at least it is checking orders now and blocking accounts that are over the credit line.

ANSWER 1: We have implemented just a small portion of SAP at this time, accounts receivable, credit and purchasing. As a result a lot of what a credit manager would like to do, I currently cannot do. However, I am able to generate an alphabetical aged trial balance. The SAP system lists the detail by bill-to numbers. So please e-mail me, and I can discuss how I am able to work.

ANSWER 2: In response to your alphabetical problem, you have to have a consultant reconfigure how SAP gathers the data. I had just the opposite problem: I got the alpha and no account numbers. It is a quick fix and should not take much time.

ORACLE

TYPICAL COMPLAINT: Oracle was a very rude awakening for our credit department. Our parent company decided Oracle was the best system. We put a great deal of time and money into making Oracle work for us, and it still doesn't do 90% of what we need. After the Oracle bee stung us, we realized you fit your business into its way of doing things - it doesn't conform to what your needs are. If this represents one of the best ERP solutions on the market, American industry is in serious trouble.

SAMPLE PRODUCTIVITY DECLINE: The financial/credit modules are atrocious. With a $100+ million accounts-receivable portfolio, my department was crippled beyond repair. Within two months of implementation, accounts receivable delinquency went from 9% to over 22%. Cash application, normally a three-hour daily process, now takes over nine hours. Reports were nonexistent, aging reports had to be run overnight to allow the rest of the company to process orders. None of my staff could respond to a collection issue with any immediacy - invoices had to be batch processed overnight due to systems limitations.

My biggest problem was that Oracle didn't put orders on credit hold when whe customer was a certain number of days past due - it only looked at its balance, added the order value, and put it on hold if this sum was greater than the credit limit. This is no good when a customer is 60 days past due but hasn't reached its credit limit - its order just slides right past the credit hold.

QUESTIONS: Sounds like you have gone through hell. I know we are. Sounds like we shouldn't try to live with Standard Oracle and move to customized screens quickly. I am presently designing a few screens, but the programmers don'w seem too excited about doing the work. Is there any advice you can give about creating customer credit screens?

ANSWER: I used Oracle Receivables for my credit department for three years. The most recent version I used was 10.7. We did have to do some customization (ordering numbers on the invoice image screen, getting part numbers to print on invoices.) We used the dunning letters, but needed some help from MIS to get them set up. We used customer call follow-up report."

End

-- kalani & katiuska (kalani_hanohano@hotmail.com), November 17, 1999

Answers

Jeeze, the problems described sound like a piece of cake to code the old-fashioned way (no SQL) in an old DOS program called Clipper, but which does have scale problems. Also it seems that Microsucks Access could handle the problems - either recordset coded or SQL. Sounds like whoever designs these engines learn NOTHING from the past.

Of course, that applies to all of humanity -- like not learning that trading freedom for safety leads to losing both -- like that stock markets and booms don't continue forever ...

-- A (A@AisA.com), November 18, 1999.

A,

Clipper?!? What third party libs do/did you use? I worked on a few...

Btw, I answered your question on the other thread.

? {|likeClipper| iif( likeClipper, likeJava, nolikeJava ) } // I miss macro expansion though...

-TECH32-

-- TECH32 (TECH32@NOMAIL.COM), November 18, 1999.

Tech32: You know, it's been awhile -- several years since I've done anything with Clipper (5.2 something) -- I had their library and used whatever third party stuff the clients may have had. I usually "rolled my own" functions, but I did have some full screen "Get" stuff including radio buttons, etc., and locking functions from where I don't recall. Clipper was tedious, but you knew exactly what you were gonna get.

-- A (A@AisA.com), November 18, 1999.

Why don't to send this posting to all the companies that experienced huge failures with SAP -- Hershey and Whirlpool being just two of them.

-- Brooklyn (MSIS@cyberdude.com), November 18, 1999.

Someone should send this to the MIS director of the Duval County Public School System in Jacksonville Florida. They are trying to implement the entire SAP package for Y2K...

-- x (fire_water5@yahoo.com), November 18, 1999.