Case Study – London Borough of Lewisham

Lewisham Borough Council Leverages Technology to Automate Collections and Recover Debt Faster

A four-star rated London borough covering 14 square miles, Lewisham is committed to making a positive difference to its 248,000 residents through best use of council tax money.

Challenges

• Improve collection rates for unpaid debts ranging from refuse collection charges to commercial rent shortfalls and social care fees.
• Increase collections efficiency through consistent and proactive recovery strategies while ensuring that the methods adopted are appropriate for each type of debt and customer.
• Leverage technology to manage collection processes more cost effectively, in line with the recommendations of the Gershon Efficiency Statement and the Council’s Best Value review.

Solution

• Commissioned Oracle Platinum Partner Mokum to implement Oracle Advanced Collections, a suite of automated collection tools integrated with oracle Accounts Receivable, to streamline and automate debt recovery

The Council chose Mokum for its specialist knowledge of Collections and a proven track record with the Council and other local authorities. With Mokum’s expertise and flexibility, the Council ensured a timely, fixed-price implementation and go-live.

Oracle Advanced Collections replaced disparate, spreadsheet-based systems to standardize debt collection council-wide and create a single view of each debt instance, including correespondance, payments, promises, disputes and adjustments which was then available for all agents to view.

The Council benefited from the flexible configurations of Oracle Advanced Collections to apply the best collection methods, track each event and automatically assign appropriate follow-up actions.

The new system enabled the Council to:

• Use collection scores to dynamically change recovery strategies in line with level of debtor responsiveness
• Enable agents and amnagers to gain roll-up and drill-down data views, enabloing them to focus on a single overdue invoice, specific customer account, or bill-to location.
• Leverage intelligence gathered to track debt patterns and develop strategies to minimize the risk of future delinquencies.
• Optimize customer realtions and reduce the risk of negative PR by employing effective, yet appropriate, collection policies.

In short, the Council is now on track to cut debt, shorten recovery cycles, reduce process steps, and redeploy agents to value-added activities.

“Mokum’s expertise has enabled us to integrate collections into our daily financial management activities, reduce outstanding debt, and cut the cost of recovery.”

Sally Chin, Finance Systems Manager, London Borough of Lewisham Council