Long-Forgotten Need in a Most Vital Area: Accounts Receivables & Collections

One of the most important and least innovated areas of business today lies in accounts receivables and collections. Every ERP system includes a basic accounts receivable module, usually one that was conceived many decades ago, and has not been sufficiently updated to take into account new and innovative techniques. Additionally, it may not provide access to robust reporting to alert managers on a timely basis when outstanding receivables and new or pending orders are reaching critical mass. Selling is vital to any company, but collecting these sales is critical to the financial health and growth potential of any enterprise. It is this need that NewIntelligence is addressing with a new addition to its family of QuickStart modules created specifically for SAP & JDE users.

NewIntelligence has long recognized the issues of cost, time and operational disruptions that need to be considered when planning to install, modify and train users in IBM’s Cognos suite of applications. There has never been any doubt about the superiority of IBM Cognos applications to deliver innovative multi-dimensional reporting solutions in all areas of today’s organizations. Notwithstanding the serious inability of ERP applications to deliver meaningful, agile, user-directed reporting in a timely fashion to critical users, spending additional monies following major investments in these ERP systems coupled with implementation and training time has long been an impediment to management’s ability to convince ownership to further invest in this important area. NewIntelligence has begun to bundle Cognos reporting technology for both SAP & JDE ERP applications to deliver 21st century reporting techniques, using its experience and expertise with ERP solutions to significantly reduce the cost of ownership and implementation time required. Our QuickStart modules began with sales reporting; then quickly evolved to add orders, purchases and inventory to the bundle. Now comes the newest addition, accounts receivables and collections, a collaborative effort of RSMS & NewIntelligence.

Using the same strategy utilized in the earlier modules, NewIntelligence, using its experience, product knowledge and expertise, together with RSMS have collaborated to create a module for accounts receivable and collections. This module will provide each user with the world-class reporting capabilities that Cognos has always offered, allowing each user or group to quickly create user, task-specific reporting, forms, notifications and analyses vital to delivering what Cognos has been critically acclaimed for; the very best reporting available. This has allowed for reporting, alerts, etc. to be designed by and for users with no need for IT involvement. The following highlights some of the built-in reporting capabilities:

• Reports combining data across modules, allow users to view outstanding invoices and incorporate outstanding orders to properly evaluate customers’ credit limitations;
• Provide drill-thru capability allowing users to dig deep into details in all areas of the reports;
• Evaluate outstanding orders, margins and credit limits in one report;
• Create alerts based on predetermined criteria (i.e. # days O/S, credit limit violations, gross margin levels, etc.);
• Automate the accumulation of invoice copies and statements as attachments to email notifications being sent to customers;
• Provide users with all critical data and contact information in one summarized report, with drill-thru capability to analyse the base details of the report information.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. As always, the true value of IBM Cognos reporting lies in transferring its creative genius to you, the user. We have provided the basic tools and offered some pre-canned solutions. We are always available to provide specialized reporting to suit your specific needs. However, with the training included in our offering, we provide you with the ability to create reporting solutions tailored to your specific requirements. Most companies, even in the same industry, tend to operate somewhat uniquely, based upon a culture created by their owners and managers. And within those hierarchies, line staff bring their own experiences, knowledge and expertise to the mix. The brilliance of Cognos is to transfer this innovative ability to the user, without requiring IT involvement. This allows for the creation of reporting best suited to the needs of the users to deliver and recipients to receive what they need in a form that needs no tweaking. Not having to involve IT saves time, effort, frustration and money. These are hallmarks of the Cognos solutions and because of NewIntelligence’s ground-breaking QuickStart solutions, are now available in the area of accounts receivable and collection, a most vital department of every company.