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Migrating to Oracle Advanced Collections: An Overview for Oracle Receivables Users An Oracle White Paper Winter 2007

Part One – A Better Collections Management Paradigm

MIGRATING TO ADVANCED COLLECTIONS: EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW Oracle Advanced Collections, an Oracle E-Business Suite product recognized as the leading enterprise-wide collections management solution, replaces the Collections Workbench in Oracle Receivables in Release 12.0. Current Receivables customers, implementation teams, Oracle partners, and prospective Oracle customers need to understand the benefit, impact, and migration steps necessary to migrate an Receivables-based collections operation to one using Advanced Collections.

MANAGING COLLECTIONS IN TODAY’S WORLD Collections and receivables management organizations are under pressure to collect more while reducing their cost to collect. Oracle Advanced Collections provides the tools needed to efficiently manage collections processes in today’s complex economies, growing businesses, and increased globalization. Collections managers and collections organizations are challenged with a number of business and operational problems that Advanced Collections solves:

• Providing collections agents with accurate and complete data about transactions and delinquent customers. This has often been impeded because of data synchronization flows run between disparate corporate systems or batch processes done during off hours. It may also be caused by outdated and inaccurate information about the customer such as old addresses, contact information, phone or fax numbers.

• Identifying delinquent transactions accurately, consistently and timely. The longer an invoice is unpaid, the less likely payment will be made. Collectors often don’t know which customers are delinquent until aging reports are run. Because they have no way of prioritizing their work, they frequently focus on individual invoices or more cooperative customers while ignoring customers with large balances.

• Identifying customers who have high dollar service contracts or who have large payments coming up and have habitually paid late. If these customers can be notified before the next payment is due, corporate cash flow is less likely to be negatively impacted.

• Knowing which accounts need attention and which don’t. Inexperienced collectors often neglect the accounts that are most likely to pay, thus impacting collections goals. Unresolved issues such as broken promises to pay or disputes often slip through the cracks.

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• Managing different customer segments differently. Regional regulations, customers in stressed or volatile industries, or new customers may need different treatment plans.

• Ensuring that best-collection practices are consistently applied within collections teams to provide uniform treatment of similar customers.

• Reducing the hours per day collectors spend performing manual, time-consuming tasks that take them away from interacting with customers to get payment.

MOVING TO ADVANCED COLLECTIONS The Collections Workbench in Receivables was originally intended for AR clerks who occasionally performed collections activities. These clerks also performed the account management, cash application, transaction management and other accounting related activities in a receivables department. Over time, as more manual functionality was added to the Collections Workbench in the form of new windows, navigation became more complex, and usability decreased. Oracle Advanced Collections leverages both transactional and customer data. It applies customer relationship management concepts to receivables management processes. It also automates collections processes that had been previously manual and streamlines user flows. It seamlessly integrates with other E-Business Suite applications. Since its initial release in 2001, industry analysts and early adopters of Oracle Advanced Collections have recognized it as the next-generation collections management enterprise-wide solution.

“..the consistent achievement of exceptional results is indicative of a new process or paradigm, and that is exactly what collection software provides. Collection software is not simply a tool, among possibly many others, to help collectors do better. Rather, collection software provides an entirely new approach to collecting a portfolio of … receivables within a unified process. “

David Schmidt, Paystream Advisors, Inc. “Receivables and

Collections: Buyer Guide””

Key Features If you migrate from the Receivables Collections Workbench to Advanced Collections you can:

• Leverage real-time transactional and customer data

• Execute proven collections best practices

• Use configurable scoring, strategies, dunning plans

• Treat different customers differently

• Proactively manage collections issues

• Automatically identify delinquent/pre-delinquent customers

• Push only actionable, prioritized work to collectors

• Use Call Center enabled tools for multi-channel customer contact

• Streamline collections process

• Navigate more easily through collections screens

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• Automate correspondence notification

• Track payments, promises, incomplete work, interactions automatically streamlining interactions between various team members

KEY CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS TO UNDERSTAND Advanced Collections supports a number of innovative processes and concepts that are different from traditional collections practices. It’s important to understand these concepts and to know how Advanced Collections uses them. For additional information on Advanced Collections refer to the Implementation Guide and User Guide available on Metalink.

Automation Improves Collections Efficiency

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Transaction In Receivables, an invoice, debit memo, credit memo, chargeback, or bill receivable. Receivables maintains transaction tables which Advanced Collections accesses. Invoices can include one or more payment schedules.

Delinquency In Advanced Collections, it is a transaction that is overdue. The criteria used to determine which transactions are delinquent are configurable. The seeded delinquency configuration uses a payment schedule for which the dispute amount is less than the total amount overdue and the due date is prior to the current date to determine delinquency. Delinquencies are identified from invoices, chargebacks and debit memos. Advanced Collections identifies delinquencies by running a ‘delinquency status determination’ concurrent program and maintains this information in delinquency tables.

User Role/Responsibility These terms describe the functional person who normally uses part or all of the applications.

Receivables Clerk - The person using the Collections Workbench in Receivables. This person performs receivables related activities (such as cash application, receipts, and transactions management) along with occasional collections activities with customers.

Collections Agent - The person using Advanced Collections to work with and resolve customer non-payments. The collections agent’s primary job is to contact a customer regarding a collections issue in a collections organization.

Collections Manager - The person who is generally a functional manager or supervisor in a collections organization. This person uses Advanced Collections’ HTML screens to review and manually assign

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work when agents are temporarily away (vacations or illness). They also use HTML manager screens to view data regarding later-stage delinquency situations that require their review for further action.

Collections Administrator - The person uses the Advanced Collections implementation and setup module to set collections scoring, dunning and strategy parameters system profiles, schedule concurrent programs, and configure system lookups.

Collector’s Work Queue Collector’s Work Queue provides a high-level list of all actionable work assigned to or owned by a collections agent. This work is automatically ‘pushed’ to the agent as part of the automated collections management flow provided by Oracle Advanced Collections

“Solutions that provide decision support for collections analysis and strategies, proactively manage and track customer interactions, enlist the support of the sales and service organizations in collections, and provide portfolio performance measurements, ultimately to improve days sales outstanding (DSO) and customer value through more effective relationships… “

John VanDecker, Meta Group/Gartner Group, “Leveraging

Revenue and Receivables Management”

Operational Data Level Oracle Advanced Collections supports four data levels and displays most information at all four levels. The data levels controls numerous features in Advanced Collections including visibility to nodes on collectors work queue, strategies (or dunning), and default displays. Most collections organizations operate and do business with their customers at one of these data levels most of the time. Ability to drill down or roll up from data level to another is provided in Advanced Collections. These data levels are:

Customer (TCA Party) – Also called “Organization”. Displays cumulative data and balances to the user.

Account (Receivables Customer) - Receivables creates accounts for parties when an order is generated. Accounts can have one or more Bill To addresses.

Bill To Location Site– The address in an account to which a specific group of transactions are associated, generally for billing purposes. Not always the same as “ship to”.

Transaction – In terms of operational data level, this is a specific delinquent transaction. Other operational data levels include one or more transactions. Or the collections organization may collect from individual transactions.

Scoring Engines and Scoring Components Scoring engines consist of one or more scoring components and they can be configured to provide a score at the customer, account, and bill to level. Advanced Collections uses configurable scoring engines for two purposes: to determine whether a transaction is delinquent and to determine the business value –or collections score - of customers.

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Collections scores are similar to a customer’s credit score but they generally guide how aggressively the customer is treated during collection activities.

Payment Oracle Advanced Collections supports the ability for collectors to take payment from customers through either credit card or bank Electronic Fund Transfers. Payments may also come from the lockbox process in Receivables or self-service payments from customers using Oracle iReceivables.

Promise to Pay Oracle Advanced Collections supports the ability for a collector to take a customer’s promise to pay in the future for one or more transactions. Promise information is maintained by Collections and used to reconcile promises against actual payments. If the payment is not made a ‘broken promise’ is created and posted to the agent’s Work Queue.

Segments A way to group customers based on any database criteria including geography, delinquency amount/range, payment schedule due dates, company size, sales revenue to collecting organization, industry or virtually anything else. These segments are then applied to Strategies (optional) or Scoring Engines (required) in order to apply the most appropriate strategy and scoring engine to a particular set of customers. Segments are used by scoring engines to facilitate the processing of the score calculation. Segmentation provides the means to create sub-sets of the entire customer database. This allows for different scoring engines and strategies to be used for different groups of customers.

Collections Method Deploying organizations may choose from two collections methods supported by Advanced Collections: dunning plans and collections strategies:

Dunning Plan - The traditional method used to notify a delinquent customer about an unpaid balance. Advanced Collections provides the ability to send dunning letters via fax, email or printed letter. Additionally, Collections can use the customer’s collections score and the oldest aged invoice to determine the content and delivery method of the dunning notice. If payment is not made within a specified period of time, Advanced Collections can automatically assign a ‘dunning callback’ to a collector who will see that action on their Task node in the Collector Work Queue.

Collections Strategy - Compared to Dunning Plans, this collections method supports more complex means to contact and manage customers about their receivables situation. Collections strategies

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consist of one or more work items, which are actions performed by either the system (send a reminder letter) or the collector (call this customer). Work items are timed to be executed serially. Strategies are based on collections scores so different strategies can be used for customers with ’good’ or ‘bad’ value scores. Collections strategies can also be used to alert pre-delinquent customers about a pending payment. Unless a deploying organization has no need to do anything more complex than simple dunning, the best practice recommendation is to use collections strategies. This allows for flexibility as the organization changes in the future.

IMPACT ON RECEIVABLES USERS: COMPARATIVE CHART

Let’s take a look at what Oracle Advanced Collections offers for Oracle Receivables users. This section compares previous functionality in Receivables with what is now provided by Advanced Collections.

NOTE: You can click on links in this chart to see a screen shot of the described feature in an Appendix. Click on the section name in the Appendix to return back to this chart.

Functional Comparison Chart

Receivables 11i

Advanced Collections r12

Navigation Details and Comments

Navigator Menu: Customer Calls Customer Account Account Overview Aging Correspondence Account Details Transaction Overview Scheduler

Navigator Menu: Collector Work Queue Collections Statements Search Reports

Login as Collections Agent > Collections Navigator Menu. Search: controls numerous features in Collections including visibility to nodes on collectors work queue, strategies (or dunning), and default displays Receivables Reports can be added to the Collections menu

Work Prioritization: Customer Search Call Scheduler Aging Reports

Work Prioritization Collector Work Queue

Login as Collections Agent > Collectors Work Queue Select Navigator Menu > selected record from list will automatically appear on Collections header

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Receivables 11i



Single Screen Navigation N/A Multiple screens need to be opened

Single Screen Navigation: Collections header with tabs below: Profile with Metrics History AccountTransactionAgingNotesTasks

Collections Main Screen contains a header and tabs. Additional optional tabs are displayed when Advanced Collections is licensed to deploying organization: Strategy Lifecycle (for later stage collections management) Custom Tab 1 Custom Tab 2 Case Management (for Lease Collections) Contracts (for Lease Collections) – not currently accessible Loans (for Loans Collections)

Operational Data Level: Account Bill To Site Transaction

Operational Data Level: Customer (Party) Account Bill To Site Transaction

On the Collections main header screen, collections agents can select the data level that sets the View of the data displayed. Users can change the View to drill down or rollup customers’ data.

Scoring: N/A

Scoring: Set up during implementation and managed by the system. Used in Dunning Plans and Strategies

Customer collections score is displayed on the Collections header. Account collections score is displayed on the Account tab

Segments: N/A

Segments: Set up during implementation Default segment is “all customers”

Additional segments can be configured when Advanced Collections is licensed to deploying organization.

Dunning Plans: -Generated as report -Sample Letters included -Dunning History displayed in Correspondence -Ability to add Finance Charges to dunning letters -Ability to manually exclude or include in dunning activity

Dunning Plans: -Set up during implementation -Preconfigured Dunning letters are available via XML Publisher tool - Optional dunning callbacks can be assigned to agents - Receivables Dunning history is displayed on Correspondence History table - Ability to resend Collections’ dunning is provided - Ability to include or exclude customer, account or bill in dunning activity - Ability to Resend Receivables dunning letters will be accomplished by using Receivables’ modified Dunning process which will print only historical dunning notices.

Manager login as Collections Administrator Select Setup Checklist > Collections Method > Dunning Plans -Add details including dunning correspondence templates and delivery method Collectors logs in as Collections Agent > History tab > Correspondence to see dunning history > Resend Dunning button to resend Dunning callbacks are automatically posted to Collector Work Queue

Statements: Ability to generate and reprint Statements

Statements: - Statements accessible from Navigator menu -Receivables will continue to support Statements

Login as Collections Agent > Navigator menu > Statements For Statement history: Collectors logs in as Collections Agent > History tab > All history to see statements

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Receivables 11i



Collector field: Customers are manually assigned a collector in Customer form

Collector field: -New concurrent program automatically creates Collector resource in Resource Manager.

Log in as Collections Agent Collector name is displayed in Profile tab

Multi Org Access: - Ability to see across operating units - Controlled by User Security Profile settings

Multi Org Access: - Ability to see across operating units - Controlled by User Security Profile settings

From Collections header > Operating Unit field

Transaction Details - Ability to see summary and detail for specific transactions on various screens

Transaction Details - Ability to view details for specific transactions - Ability to submit disputes

From Transaction tab > Transaction Details button Collector will able to navigate to Receivables Transaction Workbench from the Navigator menu. Not all details are displayed on the transaction details page.

Payment Processing Payment Processing - Ability to take customer credit card and Bank EFT payment for one or more transactions - Payment note - Automatic payment authorization via Oracle Payments module - Payment record automatically saved on History tab

From Collections Header, payments can be taken from Transaction tab, Aging tab, Account tab by clicking on the Payment Processing button

Promises to Pay and Promise Reconciliation: - Two fields (amount and date) plus two forecasting fields used to manually track likelihood of collecting on the promise

Promises to Pay and Promise Reconciliation: -Promise to Pay for single or multiple transactions - Promise note - Automated Promise Reconciliation process matches promises to payments. - Broken Promises automatically created and posted to Collector Work Queue for follow up - Promise record automatically saved on History tab

Log in as Collections Agent From Collections Header, promises to pay for one or more transactions can be taken from Transaction tab, Aging tab, Account tab by clicking on the Payment Processing button where Promise or Mass Promise tab is accessible

Credit Management integration: -Fields in Receivables display: Account Status, Credit Rating, Tolerance, Collectable, Risk Code, Review Cycle, Credit and Order Limits

Credit Management integration: - Profile tab displays Credit Rating, Credit Limit, Credit Status -Account tab displays Status, Tolerance, Risk Code

From Collections header > Profile tab to see Credit Risk and Credit Status or Account tab to see Tolerance

Credit Hold: -Ability to place an Account on Credit Hold or remove them from Credit Hold -Status is displayed in Customer Profile screen

Credit Hold: - Collector can turn on /off credit hold - Enabled through IEX: Enable Credit Hold profile

From Collections header, with customer name and contact name displayed > Actions from toolbar > select Credit hold or Credit release Status is displayed on Profile tab

Calls/Interactions: - Customer call history is displayed

Calls/Interactions: Customer Receivables call history is displayed

From Collections header, click on History > AR Calls

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Receivables 11i



Scheduler: - Calls manually scheduled by collector

Collection Work Queue - New calls can be created manually in Tasks tab and will be viewable in Collector Work Queue

From Collections header, click on Task tab to create new call

Cash Application: Screens being moved to Receipts Workbench

Cash Application: Collectors will have access to receipt workbench

From Collections header > Navigate to > Receipt Workbench

Presented Bills: Use Bill Presentment Architecture

Presented Bills: Use Bill Presentment Architecture

From Collections header > Transactions tab > right click and select View Invoice to launch BPA

Collections Reports: Reports

Collections Reports: Receivables reports can be added to Collections Navigator

From Navigator > Reports > select from list

Notes/Comments: Comments/notes fields, related to specific transaction

Notes/Comments: -New notes can be created in Collections’ notes fields throughout - New notes are automatically related to party, account, bill to, transaction and other object types specific to the activity

Notes are visible throughout Collections on various screens Notes tab displays all notes relating to the customer and customer activities Collections will display Receivables notes, comments, and special instructions throughout the application where logically applicable

Concurrent programs:

Concurrent programs: Advanced Collections uses a number of concurrent programs to automate collections processes. See next section for flows

Login as Collections Forms Administrator > Submit Request See Preconfigured Elements Section for list

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FUNCTIONAL BUSINESS PROCESSES AND FLOWS The following section contains three flows that show the agent, manager and system process flows available in Advanced Collections. These provide a road map on how collections work flows through the application.

Figure 1 – Collections Agent Flow

Collections Agent Flow

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LoginCollector

Work Queue Nodes

Strategy Work Items,Broken Promises,

Dunning Callbacks.Tasks,

Delinquent Customers

Header:Customer Contact,

Summary Data

Profile Tab:Credit, Payments, Promises, Metrics

History Tab:All, Adjustment,

Correspondence, Dispute, Interaction, Payment, Promise

Account Tab:Account Details, link to

Customer Standard, Payment Processing

Aging Tab:Summary / Aged

Transactions, Payment Processing

Transaction Tab:Summary, Details/

Dispute, Adjustments, Payment Processing

Take Payment; EFT

Credit CardSubmit DisputeSubmit Adjustment

Strategy Tab:Assigned/Statusing

Notes Tab:All Notes

Tasks Tab:Previous, New

Update and close record

Take Promise to Pay

Select Work

Collector Work Queue Nodes

Record a note or automatically insert an

Interaction

Automatic manager notification if no action taken by action

Table 1 – Collections Agent Process

Process Step Description Comment Prioritize Work

Login Provides secure access to Advanced Collections and based on configuration can restrict the data the collector can access

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Process Step Description Comment Use

Collector’s Work Queue

Provides collectors with a configured list of customers the collector should focus their collection activities on

No more paper reports

Use UWQ Nodes

UWQ provides information in logical groupings, this information can be sorted and exported to Excel spreadsheets if required

Pre-identified customers at your finger tips, one click

Select Work The collector will select a customer based on the prioritized work provided within the UWQ and drill directly into Advanced Collections with the customer information pre-populated

No more retyping

View Customer Data

Once a customer is selected, the collector can review and take action. Actions include payment, promise, dispute, send correspondence, disposition a transaction, etc.

One form to review and take the appropriate action for a customer

Update Customer Data

The update customer data processes allow the collector to track and manage all collection activities for a customer. Actions submitted by a collector can launch automated processes that eliminate the need for manual intervention while adhering to a company’s collection policies.

Automatically push approvals to the appropriate persons

Update and Close Record

The collector can add additional documentation on a customer by manually entering notes or automatically recording interactions activities. Upon closing the customer record, the system automatically refers back to the UWQ to get the collectors next work activity

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Figure 2 – Collections Manager Flow

Collections Manager Flow

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Yes

Delinquent Customers Summary

Find Current Collector, Assign New/Backup

Collector, Set Start Date

LoginReview Assigned Strategy

Work Items, Review Assigned Broken Promises

Collections Agent

Collector Reassignment

Notification from Agent UI

Bankruptcies

Reassign WorkOwnership Tab

Collections Agent

Later StageCollections

(Bankruptcy, Litigation,

Repossession,

Report to Credit Bureau,

Third Party Assignment

Litigations Repossessions Lease Write Offs

End

No

Table 2 – Collections Manager Process

Process Step Description Comment Collector Work Assignment

Login Provides secure access Advanced Collections

Use Ownership Tab

Manager tool to review and move assigned work items, promise activity and customers to assist in load balancing

Collector Assignment

Reassign collectors

User friendly tool to locate and assign back up collector for short term assignments due to vacation or a leave of absence

Manage Delinquencies

Review Delinquent Customer Summary

Specialists view into customers in later-stage of the collections lifecycle with status of bankrupt, litigation, repossession, Lease write-off or reported to credit bureau. Provides at a glance a way to better understand issues your customers are having

Triage view into customers following a critical care path

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Figure 3 - Collections System Flow

Collections System Processes

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approved

Payment Processing: Create, Get,

Cancel Authorization

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Adjustment DisputePayment Take a promise

IEX: Promise Reconciliation

Compares promise against payments received. If

payment not received by promise date, promise

broken and promise task in UWQ

Message

Customer/Receivables

Data

AR: Refresh Summary

Table

N

Y

Up to five scoring engines can be scheduled at one time. Delinquency Status Determination must be run to determine overall delinquency.

IEX: Strategy Management

IEX: Scoring Engine

Harness

Score, Strategy or Dunning

OPTIONAL: IEX: Purge /

Score History Table

N

Advanced Collections

Data

Approved?

Credit Memo Workflow Request

Rejection Notification

Workflow Backgroup

Process

Send Dunnings for Delinquent customers

If using Dunning, IEX Strategy Management would not be run

Lockbox process updates based on payments received

IEX: Create Dunning and

Broken Promise Call

Backs

Table 3 – Collections System Process

Process Step Description Comment Update Customer Data

Advanced Collections seeded standard processes

Run Scoring, Strategies, or Dunning Plans

Advanced Collections provides preconfigured scoring engines, strategies and dunning components and the supporting programs to insure customers receive the appropriate communications. The preconfigured data elements (scores, strategies and work items, and correspondence templates) can be utilized by the implementation team or they may configure new data elements based on the customers business requirements.

Automates the process of scoring and applying work items based on the customers score

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Process Step Description Comment Process

adjustments The system utilizes the Receivable approval limits to insure policy is followed and processes the adjustments

No more transferring phone calls for simple adjustments that collectors are approved for

Process payments

Payment system is called using the standard API allowing for real-time collections

No more, “check is the mail” response. Take the payment while the customer is on the phone

Process disputes

Collectors can process disputes, which launch the Receivables Credit memo Workflow insuring appropriate approval hierarchy is followed.

Take a promise

Provides the tool to document and follow-up on promises made by customers. Collectors can be automatically notified of promises that are not met

No tickler files, collectible work is pushed to the collector

APIs Advanced Collections uses all the standard APIs provided by Receivables and other applications to automate processes

Concurrent Programs and Workflow

Advanced Collections utilizes concurrent programs and workflow to process work requests through the system in an automated manner. These programs would need to be scheduled by the implementation team to run based on business requirements. Timely and accurate information depends on the concurrent programs being processed at regular intervals.

Scheduled jobs insure accurate and timely data is available for collectors.

COLLECTOR AND MANAGER REPORTS Advanced Collections users need summary and detail level reports to support and assess the effectiveness of their collections activities. Advanced Collections provides a number of reports for collections agents and collections managers. From the Navigator Menu, users can access the following reports from Advanced Collections:

• Campaign Outcome Summary Report

• Collector Outcome Detail Report

• Payment Collector Summary Report

• Payment Collector Detail Report

• Payment Campaign Summary Report

• Payment Campaign Detail Report

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• Campaign Schedule or Collector Promise Reconciliation Report Summary

• Campaign Schedule or Collector Promise Reconciliation Report Detail

Additionally, users can access a number of Receivables reports that have been used by collections personnel. These reports can be added to the collections agent responsibility and be accessible from the Collections menu:

• Account Status Report

• Adjustment Register

• Aging Reports (6 reports)

• Applied Receipts Register

• Automatic Receipt Batch Management Report

• Automatic Receipt Awaiting Confirmation

• Bad Debt Provision Report

• Billing History

• Billing and Receipt History

• Collections Effectiveness Indicators

• Credit Hold Report

• Customer Credit Snapshot

• Disputed Invoice Report

• Invoice Print New Invoices

• Past Due Invoice Report

• Publish Actual Receipt

• Publish Receipt Forecast

• Receipt Analysis - Days Late

• Receipt Register

• Receipt Awaiting Bank Clearance Report

• Receipts Awaiting Remittance Report

• Remittance Batch Management Report

• Transaction Awaiting Consolidation

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Part Two – Migrating to Advanced Collections

PRE-IMPLEMENTATION CHECKLIST As noted in the Functional Comparison Chart in Part One of this white paper, Advanced Collections uses a number of other E-Business Suite products to provide functionality for some features. Please see the Advanced Collections implementation guide for the optional required application setup steps.

USING ADVANCED COLLECTIONS’ IMPLEMENTATION CHECKLIST Functional and technical managers responsible for setting up and implementing Advanced Collections start the process by navigating to the Collections Checklist, an setup tool designed to ease implementation and provide a single place to record and manage operational setup decisions. Advanced Collections Checklist

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Advanced Collections Questionnaire Page

The Checklist guides the manager through a Questionnaire that asks a few key questions about the intended use of Advanced Collections. The manager’s responses to these questions automatically set system profiles and settings for Advanced Collections.

Advanced Collections Task Page

The Questionnaire also enables or disables a set of Task Pages on which the manager provides additional detailed information that set additional settings for Advanced Collections.

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The benefit of using the Collections Checklist is that it allows functional experts to do an ‘out of the box’ set up of Advanced Collections independent of corporate IT staff. Since some system profiles used by Advanced Collections come from other E-business Suite modules, managers will need to use the standard Forms Profile screen to set these profiles. See Advanced Collections Implementation Guide for a list of non-Collections profiles

EASY SETUP STEPS FOR MIGRATING FROM RECEIVABLES For deploying organizations that have decided not to license Advanced Collections, here are the setup tasks you need to do:

Task Description

Complete Setup Questionnaire and Tasks

For example, determine operational data level, setup Dunning Plan

Configure Dunning Letters (optional)

You can use the preconfigured dunning letters or optionally create new ones

Install XML Publisher ( if sending dunning letters)

Refer to XML documentation

Run convert script to display Receivables Scheduled Calls in Collections History tab (optional)

See below for additional details

Evaluate Menu access and Responsibilities

Determine how users will access Collections functionality and reports

Schedule concurrent processes Refer to Advanced Collections User Guide for detailed information

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Implementing Advanced Collections is facilitated by the use of a number of preconfigured elements that deploying organizations can use during their planning and testing phases. Additionally they can also be used (or easily amended) for use in production systems. If new elements are required to match specific corporate processes, they can be added during implementation. Detailed information on these preconfigured elements is provided in the Implementation Guide for Advanced Collections.

"The promise of collection automation software is a dramatic improvement in

receivables performance. Indeed, for most companies, the

results of automating collections are dramatic. They

are enjoying a 10 to 20 percent reduction in days sales

outstanding (DSO), a 25 percent reduction in past due

receivables, and a 15 to 25 percent reduction in bad debt

reserves. These metrics mean productivity gains, without

increasing staff, that translate into better cash flow."

David Schmidt, Paystream

Advisors, Inc. “Receivables and Collections: Buyer Guide”

Correspondence Templates and Queries. Advanced Collections uses XML technology to generate and deliver all customer correspondence. Included in the product are the following templates and queries that can be used at all operational data levels:

• Payment Confirmation Letter

• Dispute Confirmation Letter

• Promise Confirmation Letter

• Adjustment Confirmation Letter

• Payment Reversal Confirmation Letter

• Consolidated Invoice Confirmation Letter

• Invoice Letter

• Pre-delinquent Letter

• Soft Dunning Letter 1


• Moderate Dunning Letter 1


• Hard Dunning Letter 1



Metrics Formulas The following formulas are used in the Profile tab of Advanced Collections.

• Weighted Average Days Paid (WAP)

• Weighted Average Days Late

• Weighted Average Terms

• Average Days Late

• Conventional Days Sales Outstanding (DSO)

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• True DSO

• Collection Effectiveness Index (CEI)

• NSF History Amount

• NSF History Count

• Deductions Amount

• Deductions Count

• Sales

• Credit Limit

• High Credit YTD

Scoring Engines Advanced Collections includes preconfigured scoring engines.

• Delinquency Status Determination

• Customer Scoring

• Account Scoring

• Bill To Scoring

• Case Scoring (used with Lease Management)

Strategy Templates and Work Items Advanced Collections provides preconfigured strategy templates and preconfigured work item templates for deploying organizations using Collections Strategy as its collections method. Deploying organizations that have licensed Advanced Collections use strategies and their associated Work Items. Dunning Plans do not use templates.

• Pre-delinquent Strategy

• Soft Collections Strategy

• Moderate Collections Strategy

• Hard Collections Strategy

• Catch-all Collections Strategy

• Litigation Strategy

• Repossession Strategy

• Write-off Strategy (for use with Leasing)

• Bankruptcy Strategy

Preconfigured work items are also included:

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• Pre-delinquency Courtesy Letter

• Pre-delinquency Courtesy Call



• Soft Collections Call 1

• Soft Collections Call 2



• Moderate Collections Call 1

• Moderate Collections Call 2


• Hard Collections Call 1

• Hard Collections Call 2

• Final Demand Letter

• Review Customer

• Customer Site Visit

• Review Pending Bankruptcy

• Review Pending Repossession

• Review Pending Litigation

• Review Pending Write off (for use with Leasing)

MIGRATION CONSIDERATIONS Since most of the historical data generated in Oracle Receivables is now accessible in Oracle Advanced Collections, there is no need for deploying customers to migrate data. Most flexfields are also accessible from Advanced Collections. However following analysis of known customer usage, not all fields are displayed. If these fields need to be displayed, deploying organizations will need to determine where and how.

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APPENDIX 1 – ADVANCED COLLECTIONS SCREEN SHOTS

NOTE: You can click on any link in the Functional Comparison Chart to see a screen shot of the described feature in this Appendix. Click on the section name below each screenshot here to return to the Functional Comparison chart.

Collections Navigator Menu

Return to Functional Comparison Chart – Navigator Menu, Single Screen Navigation

Collections Main Screen

Return to Functional Comparison Chart Section - Single Screen Navigation

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Collector’s Work Queue

Return to Functional Comparison Chart Section - Collector’s Work Queue

Profile Tab with Metrics

Return to Functional Comparison Chart Section – Single Screen Navigation

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History Tab


Correspondence History

Return to Functional Comparison Chart Section - Dunning Plans

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Account Tab


Transactions Tab


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Navigate to Transaction Workbench

Return to Functional Comparison Chart Section - Transaction Workbench

Aging Tab


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Tasks Tab


Notes Tab


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Transaction Details Screen

Return to Functional Comparison Chart Section - Transaction Details

Payment and Promise to Pay Processing

Return to Functional Comparison Chart Section - Payment and Promise Processing

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Actions list – Credit Hold

Return to Functional Comparison Chart Section - Actions Menu

Collections Setup Dunning Plans

Return to Functional Comparison Chart Section - Dunning Plans

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View Invoice (using Bill Presentment Architecture)

Return to Functional Comparison Chart Section - View Invoice

The following tabs are available if you license Advanced Collections:

Strategy Tab


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Lifecycle Tab


Custom 1 and Customer 2 Tabs


The following tabs are available if you license Advanced Collections and either Oracle Loans or Oracle Lease Management:

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Contracts


Case Management Tab


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Loans Tab


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APPENDIX B –RESOURCES

Product documentation is available from OracleMetaLink. This includes:

Oracle Advanced Collections Implementation Guide

Oracle Advanced Collections User Guide

Oracle Receivables Implementation Guide

Oracle Receivables Reference Guide

Oracle Receivables User Guide

Oracle University provides product training in many formats including instructor-led classes, customer site training, and online courseware.

Product TOIs are available at time of product release. These provide functional and technical information for internal users, customers and partner organizations.

Oracle Advanced Collections

Oracle Receivables

Additionally, internal readers of this whitepaper can refer to

Product Portals


Receivables

OracleMetaLink Forum Boards (account required)


Receivables

Sales and Consulting sites

Business Flows and Business Flow Accelerators

Global Customers References

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https://metalink.oracle.com/

http://ap612atg.us.oracle.com:2000/documentation/doc_cd/R12/acrobat/120iexig.pdf

http://ap612atg.us.oracle.com:2000/documentation/doc_cd/R12/acrobat/120iexug.pdf

http://ap612atg.us.oracle.com:2000/documentation/doc_cd/R12/acrobat/120arig.pdf

http://ap612atg.us.oracle.com:2000/documentation/doc_cd/R12/acrobat/120arrg.pdf

http://ap612atg.us.oracle.com:2000/documentation/doc_cd/R12/acrobat/120arug.zip

http://education.oracle.com/web_prod-plq-dad/plsql/show_desc.redirect?redir_type=3

http://finportal.oraclecorp.com/portal/page?_pageid=33,34780&_dad=finportal&_schema=FINPORTAL

http://finportal.oraclecorp.com/portal/page?_pageid=33,31173&_dad=finportal&_schema=FINPORTAL

http://myforums.oracle.com/

http://myforums.oracle.com/

http://my.oracle.com/portal/page?_pageid=1,3217298&_dad=myo&_schema=PHP

http://www.oracle.com/references/forums/erp.html

APPENDIX C – COLLECTIONS FEATURES FOR ORACLE RECEIVABLES AND ORACLE ADVANCED COLLECTIONS

A limited version of Oracle Advanced Collections functionality is available in Oracle Receivables and replaces the Receivables Collections Workbench. Receivables users who have not purchased a license for Advanced Collections are not authorized to use the full feature set of this product.

Use the following lists to identify the collections features available for Receivables and for Advanced Collections.

Collections Features for Oracle Receivables

• Collectorʹs Work Queue • Search tool • Collections header and tabs

o Profile with preconfigured metrics o History o Account o Transaction o Aging o Notes o Tasks

• Assign collectors using the AR Collector field • View collections information by customer, account, bill to, or

delinquency data levels • Process payments • Create promises • Enter disputes and adjustments • View invoices using Oracle Bill Presentment Architecture • Run Receivables and Collections reports • Preconfigured delinquency creation engine • Preconfigured customer scoring engine • Configurable dunning tool including dunning correspondence and

callbacks Note: You perform all dunning activities in Oracle Advanced Collections. However, Oracle Receivables provides you with the Dunning Letter Reprint ‐ Historical Receivables Only program so that you can reprint historical Days Overdue dunning letters that were sent to your customers in a previous release of Receivables. Use this program to conduct collections research for a specific customer. See: Reprinting Historical Dunning Letters, Oracle Receivables User Guide.

• Correspondence for disputes, adjustments, reversals, invoices, promises, and payments

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Oracle Advanced Collections Features

Oracle Advanced Collections provides the functionality listed above plus the following features:

• Configurable scoring • Configurable strategies and work items • Configurable segments (database views for use with scoring and

strategies) • Create collections territories using Territory Manager • Work reassignment • Additional Advanced Collections tabs:

o Strategy o Lifecycle o Custom 1 o Custom 2

• Tabs available with additional licensing: o If you use Oracle Loans – Loans o If you use Oracle Lease Management – Case Management o If you use Oracle Contracts ‐ Contracts

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Migrating to Oracle Advanced Collections: An Overview for Oracle Receivables Customers 01 2007 Authors: Tina Cook, Carol King Oracle Corporation World Headquarters 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood Shores, CA 94065 U.S.A. Worldwide Inquiries: Phone: +1.650.506.7000 Fax: +1.650.506.7200 oracle.com Copyright © 2005, Oracle. All rights reserved. This document is provided for information purposes only and the contents hereof are subject to change without notice. This document is not warranted to be error-free, nor subject to any other warranties or conditions, whether expressed orally or implied in law, including implied warranties and conditions of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. We specifically disclaim any liability with respect to this document and no contractual obligations are formed either directly or indirectly by this document. This document may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without our prior written permission. Oracle, JD Edwards, and PeopleSoft, are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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