Oracle Advanced Collections is a robust solution designed to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of critical collection processes. By automating and streamlining the management of overdue receivables, it helps businesses improve cash flow, reduce bad debt, and maintain healthy customer relationships.
This article explores the key features and benefits of Oracle Advanced Collections, highlighting how it leverages advanced analytics, automated workflows, and comprehensive reporting to optimize collections activities. Discover how this powerful tool can transform your collections strategy, ensuring timely payments and boosting overall financial performance.
Key Takeaways
- Oracle Advanced Collections provides a robust and comprehensive solution for managing an organization’s collection activities, including delinquency management, customer scoring, and integration with Oracle Financials Cloud.
- Key features such as the Collections Window, Collector’s Work Queue, and dynamic tables offer high customization and efficiency in tracking, managing, and reporting debt collection tasks.
- Automation tools like dunning plans and workflow automation for promise approval streamline the collections process, ensuring timely and consistent follow-up on outstanding payments while reducing manual workload and errors.
Overview of Oracle Advanced Collections
Oracle Advanced Collections is a comprehensive solution catering to an organization’s collection needs. Its user-friendly interface simplifies the collector’s job, making it easier to identify delinquent customers and manage related activities effectively through delinquent customer information hyperlinks.
It encompasses:
- Monitoring collection activities
- Managing delinquencies
- Handling promises, bankruptcy, disputes
- Customer scoring
- Collection metrics
- Strategies and tasks
This tool supports both Oracle Cloud and On-Premises deployments and provides flexibility across diverse business environments, including the integration with Oracle Financials Cloud. Such versatility allows businesses to adapt the tool to their unique needs, whether they operate in a cloud-based environment or prefer an on-premises solution. Integrating key concepts such as scoring and strategies automates and streamlines collection processes, reducing the manual workload on collectors.
Oracle Advanced Collections also includes features like aging methods, dunning configurations, and predefined reports for comprehensive delinquency management. These features allow for detailed and systematic tracking of collection activities, enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the collection process. As an Oracle Advanced Collections user, utilizing the system effectively can ensure streamlined collection operations and align operations with overall business strategies.
Navigating the Collections Window
The Collections Window is the central hub for all activities related to customer debt collection. The header portion of this window displays summary information about the customer’s delinquency and payment history, providing collectors with a quick overview of the customer’s status. This centralized view is essential for effective debt management, as it allows collectors to:
- Access all relevant information in one place
- Make informed decisions quickly
- Track the progress of debt collection activities
- Communicate with customers efficiently
The Collections window offers high customizability, featuring numerous tabs that store detailed information about customer contacts, payment history, and customer payments related to a customer account. For example, the Aging tab allows users to view account balances by aging bucket and manage open credits. Meanwhile, the History tab offers insights into various historical data, such as a customer’s adjustment history or correspondence history. These tabs enable collectors to access all necessary information in one location, streamlining the collection process.
Custom tabs can also be added to support specific business needs, ensuring that the Collections window can be tailored to fit any organization’s unique requirements. In addition to viewing customer contracts and cases, users can add attachments to collections issues and enter notes for various interactions like processing a payment or recording a promise to pay. This level of customization and detail ensures collectors have all the tools they need at their fingertips.
Utilizing the Navigator in Oracle Advanced Collections
Oracle Advanced Collections Navigator offers various features aimed at boosting efficiency and simplifying the collections process. One key feature is the ‘Reports’ option, which opens the Collections Reports page in Self-Service Administration and allows users to run various collections reports. These reports provide valuable insights into collection activities and performance, helping managers make data-driven decisions.
Intelligent search options in the Navigator are equally robust, offering both ‘Quick Search’ and ‘Expanded Search’ capabilities.
- Quick Search allows users to perform predefined queries such as payment, promise to pay, and dispute.
- Expanded Search enables the creation of custom search parameters.
- The ‘Saved Results’ option lets users activate previously saved search results, ensuring frequently needed information is always accessible.
Multi-Org Access Control
Oracle’s Multi-Org Access Control is a robust feature enabling users to:
- Access, process, and generate reports on data from multiple operating units
- Eliminate the need to alternate responsibilities
- Manage data across various units within a single responsibility
- Streamline operations and reduce administrative overhead
However, it’s essential to note that certain fields and tabs, such as the Aging tab, may not be enabled when different currencies exist among the operating units. Despite this limitation, Multi-Org Access Control significantly enhances the flexibility and efficiency of data management across multiple operating units, making it an invaluable tool for large organizations.
Managing Delinquent Customers with Collector’s Work Queue
The Collector’s Work Queue, a critical tool for managing delinquent customers, displays actionable work items according to chosen display nodes. This queue helps collectors prioritize their tasks by organizing work items into various nodes, each representing a specific type of activity, such as Strategy Work Node, Broken Promises Node, and Delinquent Node. This organization ensures that collectors can focus on the most critical tasks first, improving overall efficiency.
For example, the Broken Promises Node offers the following features:
- Displays active, pending, and complete broken promises
- Can be grouped by customer, bill-to-location, account, or delinquency
- Allows collectors to quickly identify and address broken promises, reducing the risk of further delinquency
Additionally, collector-based systems can move items to different nodes by selecting ‘Actions’ from the toolbar in the Collections window, providing flexibility in managing their workload.
The total number of actionable items for each node is displayed in the Collector’s Work Queue, giving collectors a clear overview of their tasks. This visibility helps collectors manage their time effectively and ensures no critical tasks are overlooked. By optimizing the Collector’s Work Queue, organizations can improve their collections process and reduce the incidence of delinquent accounts.
Dynamic Tables in Oracle Advanced Collections
Oracle Advanced Collections’ dynamic tables feature various enhancements designed to improve user experience and efficiency. These tables allow users to arrange the table layout by hiding, reordering, or moving columns and changing column width. This customization ensures that users can tailor the tables to their needs, making finding and managing the information they need easier.
In addition to layout customization, dynamic tables also support the following features:
- Sorting up to three columns in ascending or descending order
- Saving customized layouts and sorting settings for a consistent workflow
- Copying cells or rows to a spreadsheet for data analysis and reporting
Setting Up Collections Strategies
Establishing collections strategies in Oracle Advanced Collections constitutes a vital move towards automating and simplifying the collections process. Collections strategies consist of manual or automated tasks linked together in a specific order for execution. These tasks include calling customers, sending letters, faxes, or emails, and escalating to a supervisor. Organizations can ensure a consistent and efficient approach to managing delinquencies by automating these tasks.
To set up a strategy, follow these steps:
- Create collections tasks, including strategy tasks
- Create collections strategies
- Assign collections method names
- Assign tasks to strategies
Depending on the business data level, strategies can be associated with customers, accounts, or bill-sites. This flexibility allows organizations to tailor their collections strategies to their specific needs and ensure that the most appropriate approach is used for each delinquent customer.
The Strategy Management concurrent program assigns appropriate strategies based on scoring engine results. If Advanced Collections cannot assign an available resource for a work item in a strategy, it will assign the default strategy resource identified in the Define Strategy Default page.
This ensures all resources and delinquent accounts are managed effectively, even if the originally assigned resource is unavailable. By setting up and managing collections strategies effectively, organizations can improve their collections processes and reduce the incidence of delinquent accounts.
Implementing Scoring Engines
In Oracle Advanced Collections, scoring engines are employed to ascertain the status of transactions in the collections. A new scoring engine must be created with score ranges for current, delinquent, and pre-delinquent statuses to score transactions as pre-delinquent. This involves copying and modifying the Delinquency Status Determination scoring engine to suit specific needs.
The IEX: Delinquency Status Determination scoring engine determines whether a transaction is delinquent or current, including identifying delinquent transactions. Segments in scoring engines limit the scope and improve system performance by creating a subset of records or views in the database against which to score. This segmentation ensures efficient and accurate scoring, providing reliable data for managing collections.
Testing all scoring components and engines in a test environment with actual production data is a recommended best practice. This testing helps validate the effectiveness of the scoring engine and avoids issues in the production environment. By implementing and testing scoring engines effectively, organizations can ensure accurate and reliable transaction scoring, improving their overall collections process.
Creating Scoring Components
Oracle Advanced Collections provides reconfigured scoring components, such as numeric retrieval select statements or functions. And, creating scoring components involves the following steps:
- Calculating a value for the object being scored based on business questions
- Retrieving data using a select statement or a function
- Entering parameters (optional) by the Collections Administrator
Segments enable the scoring engine to examine a specific subset or view of the database, improving system performance. The Test button can test the scoring engine with a new segment, displaying the number of records it will score using this segment. Running all scoring engines in a test environment helps understand how weights affect scores and ensure accuracy.
Defining Score Ranges
Defining score ranges is essential for determining the status of transactions in Oracle Advanced Collections. The Collections Administrator has the authority to set delinquency status score ranges, ensuring that scores are accurate and meaningful. Before setting score ranges, a scoring engine must exist and have components assigned to it.
The Range Low value is entered for each row to define the score ranges. Advanced Collections will then default to the Range High value to ensure the numbers are contiguous and do not overlap. This process ensures that the scoring engine accurately reflects the status of transactions, enabling effective collections management.
Automating Collections with Dunning Plans
Dunning plans enable the automated dispatch of reminders and escalations per preset criteria. This automation ensures that customers receive timely reminders about their outstanding payments, reducing the risk of delinquency. Dunning plans utilize aging bucket lines to determine when to send out dunning letters, ensuring that communications are sent appropriately.
To set up dunning plans, follow these steps:
- Set up aging bucket lines.
- Set up collection dating levels.
- Set up the Universal Work Queue for Dunning Plans.
- Test the dunning plan with all or a portion of your data to verify that it works as intended.
- The Collections Administrator can change a completed dunning plan at any time, ensuring the plan remains effective and up-to-date.
Concurrent programs execute the scanning process and can be scheduled to run automatically, ensuring that dunning plans are executed consistently and efficiently. By automating collections with dunning plans, organizations can improve their collections process and reduce the incidence of delinquent accounts.
Setting Up Aging Buckets for Dunning Plans
Aging buckets categorize customer accounts based on the time an invoice has been outstanding. This categorization is essential for determining when dunning letters are sent out to customers. When setting up the aging bucket lines in Oracle Advanced Collections, ensuring continuity in decimal places for score ranges is crucial.
Dunning notices are associated with aging bucket lines by selecting a correspondence template for each aging bucket line. These templates automate the communication process, ensuring customers receive timely and appropriate reminders about their outstanding payments.
Configuring the Universal Work Queue for Dunning Plans
The Universal Work Queue is used in Oracle Advanced Collections to manage and display scheduled tasks for dunning plans, helping collectors prioritize their work effectively. Configuring the Universal Work Queue involves setting up aging bucket lines, collection dating levels, and modifying the Objects Meta-data via the CRM Administrator’s responsibility.
In Advanced Collections, collectors can navigate seamlessly from dunning callbacks to the dunning history using the Universal Work Queue. This streamlined process can improve efficiency and productivity for collectors. This seamless navigation ensures that collectors can easily manage their tasks and access necessary information, improving the efficiency of the collection process.
Customizing Correspondence Templates
Correspondence templates in Oracle Advanced Collections can be customized using the Oracle XML Publisher, a standard report and correspondence formatting tool. Oracle XML Publisher allows users to deliver all customer correspondence, including letters, emails, and faxes. This flexibility ensures that communications can be tailored to each customer’s preferred method of delivery.
Users can utilize pre-seeded templates or create new ones to meet specific business needs. To create a dunning plan, correspondence templates must be ready, either by using preconfigured ones or by creating new ones. Modifying pre-seeded templates involves saving the revised template with a new name and registering it in the system, providing a customizable yet straightforward process.
Assigning Skills to Collectors
Attributing skills to collectors guarantees that the most competent individuals will handle the tasks. The process includes the following steps:
- Creating a skill and linking it to an employee.
- Defining the skill in a work item.
- Linking skills to collectors via the Oracle Human Resources module, facilitating seamless integration and management of collector qualifications.
If the skill set assigned to the work list does not match the collector’s skill set, the task will be assigned to the default collector. Otherwise, it will be assigned to the appropriate collector with the matching skill set. This ensures all tasks are managed appropriately, even if a specialist with the required skills is unavailable. By assigning skills, organizations can ensure that collection tasks are handled efficiently and effectively, improving overall performance.
Using Preconfigured Elements
Oracle Advanced Collections comes with preconfigured elements for:
- Scoring components
- Scoring engines
- Work item templates
- Strategy templates
- Metrics formulas
- Correspondence templates and queries
These elements can be used during implementation to test the setup and in the live production environment if they align with business needs. Utilizing preconfigured elements helps organizations quickly establish an efficient collections process, reducing the time and effort required for customization while maintaining flexibility for future adjustments.
Setting Up Operational Data Levels
In Oracle Advanced Collections, operational data levels dictate the interaction between collections processes and customers at various stages. These levels include:
- Customer level
- Account level
- Bill-to location level
- Delinquency level
Setting the operational data level impacts correspondence, collector assignments, and data display from multiple operating units. Default collection levels can be set at the system, operating unit, and customer levels, with priority from customer to system. This hierarchy ensures that collections activities are aligned with organizational priorities and customer needs, enhancing the effectiveness of the collections process.
Configuring Metrics for Performance Tracking
Metrics within Oracle Advanced Collections can be established using the ‘Create Metrics’ option in the ‘Transaction Setup’ section of the Collections Checklist. Metrics can be based on data from the past twelve months, but they can be modified to use a larger range of data, providing flexibility in performance tracking.
Metrics formulas in Oracle Advanced Collections consist of PL/SQL or function statements and can include custom SQL components. These formulas enable real-time or batch mode calculations based on the IEX: Metric Calculation Method profile option, ensuring performance tracking aligns with organizational requirements. By configuring metrics effectively, organizations can monitor and improve their collection processes.
Enabling Web Directory Assistance
When enabled, web directory assistance in Oracle Advanced Collections lets users search for phone numbers online directly from the Collections window. To set up this feature, navigate to the Web Assistance page using the Collections Administrator or Collections Manager responsibility and click Create Web Assistance.
In the Search URL field, enter the constant part of the URL header, and set up the CGI switches needed for the search criteria in the Oracle Advanced Collections Web Directory Administration page. This setup enables collectors to quickly and efficiently find contact information, enhancing their ability to manage collections activities effectively.
Workflow Automation for Promise Approval
In Oracle Advanced Collections, workflow automation for promise approval boosts efficiency by minimizing manual intervention. Setting up workflow automation involves configuring concurrent programs to enable batch processing tasks, ensuring that promises are validated and checked automatically.
The Strategy Management concurrent program:
- Assigns appropriate strategies based on scoring engine results
- Manages tasks through Oracle SOA BPEL
- Customizes workflow automation to meet specific business rules and requirements
- Ensures the promise approval process is efficient and accurate, reducing errors and improving overall performance.
Integration with Oracle Lease and Finance Management
Integrating Oracle Advanced Collections with Oracle Lease and Finance Management offers a unified collections solution for collections from Receivables and Lease and Finance Management invoices. To configure this integration, select ‘Lease Contracts’ in the Operations section of the Collections Questionnaire, ensuring that relevant tabs and history types are exposed.
This integration adds leasing-related history types to the History tab and leasing invoices to the list of transaction classes on the Transaction tab in Oracle Advanced Collections. Responsibilities such as Collections Leasing Agent and Collections Leasing Administrator are added to manage functionalities from Oracle Lease and Finance Management, ensuring a seamless and efficient collections process.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How can I navigate the Collections Window in Oracle?
To navigate the Collections Window, use the tabs to access specific information and customizable options tailored to your business needs.
What is the role of Multi-Org Access Control?
Multi-Org Access Control allows users to efficiently manage data across multiple operating units within a single responsibility, enhancing flexibility and efficiency.
How do I set up collection strategies?
To set up collections strategies, you must create tasks, assign method names, and link tasks to strategies to automate and streamline the collections process. This will help improve efficiency and organization in your collections efforts.
What are dunning plans, and how do they work?
Dunning plans automate sending reminders and escalations based on predefined criteria, using aging bucket lines to determine when dunning letters are sent out. They help businesses manage and streamline their collections process.
