Like all things, a collection agency's use of a legal collection solution has a cycle. The agency examines their particular requirements, finds software to suit those requirements, and then proceeds to acquire the ideal software and implements it accordingly. What follows are years of integration, use, and then the possible eventuality that the agency moves to different software for various reasons. Ironically, the biggest things an agency must address in this process are answering the hundreds of small questions.
Considerations for an agency when first buying legal collection software are pivotal and must be answered carefully.
“Understand yourself and your company,” said Ranjan Dharmaraja, CEO of Quantrax Corporation. “Software does not solve problems, people do. Understand the people you have. Make sure you have a team that can handle today’s complex environment, before considering any changes!”
Carl A. Briganti, president and founder of Collection Solutions Software has noted a trend in collection professionals shopping for legal collection software and placing importance on automation.
“One other thing we have really seen in the past eight to 10 months is what we like to call hard controls,” said Briganti. “That means that many organizations, especially in the legal collections process, want to rely more on an automated process, rather checks and balances, that deliver a hard control rather than training.”
When selecting the correct software solution for your agency, reviewing it function by function can be time consuming but well worth the effort. The selection criteria for functionality like document management must be clearly defined.
“There are many moving parts here as there are different systems in the marketplace,” said Fred Blitt, managing partner at Blitt and Gaines. “Due diligence is key. First define what your goal for the tracking system is, then look at vendors in the marketplace. I would go visit a site that uses the system and see it work in real time.”
An effective collection solution will be limited if it is not well integrated into the company. One possible way to ensure integration is to custom build the solution according to the company’s needs.
“If you are investing in a new, flexible system, start from scratch, and draw your collection process on paper, paying no attention to your new software,” said Dharmaraja. “Assuming your software can adapt to your business (as opposed to you having to adapt to your collection software), you should then be able to ‘map’ your processes into the new system. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done.”
Once the legal collection software has been implemented, enacting secure processes to ensure compliance is a linchpin process that must be done effectively.
“One of the pivotal mistakes most organizations make is not identifying the responsible party the moment in time that legal action is created and recorded,” said Briganti. “During the process of a legal action you’re going to have to know first if that legal case party is responsible. You will also need to know if that legal case party qualifies to be sued for that specific legal action that’s tied to that debt. That debt has a slew of compliance applied to it."
In addition, security must be maintained through proper document management. No more than authorized personnel should have access. This includes both external and internal stakeholders.
“If external, there needs to be layers of security in place for someone to have access to the system,” said Blitt. “Likely the system will be on a separate network that houses the documents. Internally, there needs to be software that tracks the access to documents and what users can do with it. For example, can agents print or just view?”
When the indications for a change are present, they can be numerous but subtle. A fair amount of objectivity would be beneficial.
“When the risk and the cost of doing business are not as balanced, you may want to consider moving on to a new platform,” said Briganti. “In my eyes, compliance and liability really are the key factors. If you do not have the controls in place, not training, but literally controls to invoke compliance as a hard line and as a training method, then that’s a good time to consider switching to so me scalable technology that very easily allows an organization to implement live controls from the back end.”
Above all, communication with key agency stakeholders such as collection managers and business developers along with advice from your vendor will lead to indicators of an ideal legal collection solution for the agency.