News release
Contact:
Anna White / Victoria Collinson
LEWIS PR
Tel: + 44 (0)20 7802 2626
Email: annaw/victoriac@lewispr.com
ANGLIAN WATER CHOOSES EXPERIAN TO MANAGE CUSTOMERS IN ARREARS
Nottingham, UK, 1 April 2009 - Experian®, the global information services company, today announced that Anglian Water, which serves six million industrial, commercial and domestic customers in the east of England, has chosen its Tallyman debt management and collection software to help manage customers in arrears and collect unpaid bills. Experian’s Tallyman software is a core component of the company’s strategic Debt Collection and Recovery Suite.
The Tallyman software will enable Anglian Water to be more pro-active in managing customers in arrears. This will improve the likelihood of Anglian Water collecting revenue that may otherwise have been written off, and reducing the cost associated with collecting those debts and helping to keep bills down for all customers.
Tallyman automates the collections process by consolidating all customer communications relating to payment arrears, including phone calls, emails, letters and faxes, into a single database. By segmenting those individuals in arrears and attaching risk scores to new and existing customers, the software helps identify those customers at most risk of defaulting to enable Anglian Water to take the most appropriate action.
In addition, Tallyman will also enable Anglian Water to identify returning customers that had defaulted in the past at different properties.
Experian’s software will be fully integrated with Anglian Water’s existing SAP billing system - enabling details about customers who are behind on their bills to be easily transferred to Tallyman, along with their payment history.
Anglian Water joins a growing list of utility companies that use Experian’s collections and recovery capabilities to manage customer arrears. Existing clients include, Severn Trent Water, Welsh Water, EDF Energy and npower.
Martyn Oakley, Customer Services Director at Anglian Water, commented: “Experian’s Tallyman software will better enable us to identify customers who might be in difficulties and ensures that our contact with them is both personalised and appropriate. For those customers with the ability to pay but choose not to pay their water bill, Tallyman will enable us to target them and take faster and more decisive action to recover debt through the courts. By segmenting customers in arrears, we will be more targeted in managing, collecting and reducing customer debt.”
Simon Waller, Head of Collections, Experian UK and Ireland, said: “Bad debt is a very real problem for water companies, and one that Anglian Water is taking very seriously. Our debt management portfolio enables utility companies to take a proactive, targeted and more sensitive approach to collecting arrears. For example, Tallyman deployments typically deliver a return on investment in around a year, which in today’s climate is an incredibly powerful proposition.”