Automation Potential in: Dunnings Letters
today's Challenges
A dunning letter is a general term, which can be applied to any communication issued to customers whose payments are overdue.
A key task for any Finance department is ensuring consistent cash flow. Primary amongst this is ensuring payment for goods/services delivered.
Many of us will be familiar with the format of dunning letters, which start off polite and friendly, before progressing to more stern demands for payment. Traditionally these letters were sent as physical mail, often through tracked/signed postage in order to create a record of receipt, and in modern times this has been replaced in part by emails with read/received reports and even text messages.
The successful deployment of dunning letters relies on; overview on contract agreement, close monitoring of payments due and overdue, adherence to both data laws/preferences and regulation around the appropriate level of threat included.
Automation Impact Evaluation
Laws around debt collection practices have been tightened in the recent years and are due to change again in 2021. Many dunning letters are already automatically issued, but there are still opportunities to refine and streamline this process further using Robotic Process Automation.
Through the successful implementation of RPA, accounts can be monitored, late notices can automatically be generated with increased urgency over time, and other areas of the business can be informed of late payment.
case Study
National Loan-serving provider
Proservartner worked alongside a national loan-serving provider to implement the automation of their mortgage breach letters. The workflow involved aggregating data from multiple systems and was cumbersome, wasting valuable staff resources.
We identified the best-fit RPA vendor, mapped the current ‘as-is’ processes and identified ways to streamline each of them in ‘to-be’ design. We highlighted areas where changes to the process and workflow would translate into time and cost savings once automated.
The implementation of one bot saved the company over £130,000 annually, eliminating around 3800 hours of manual work. A return on investment was seen in just 2 months and we implemented the bot in just 3 weeks.