Star Pipe Products improves AR efficiency with Quadient AR

ERP: Syteline

INDUSTRY: Manufacturing

Star Pipe Products is a global manufacturer of iron products for the water and wastewater industries. Located in Houston, Texas, the company has been in business for over 40 years, producing a range of items such as ductile iron pipe fittings, joint restraints, and construction castings. The organization has 14 regional distribution centers, and more than 1200 employees worldwide.

“Overall account review and the ease of communication have decreased our DSO and improved customer aging. We are able to address short payments and disputes quickly, and payments are coming in three weeks sooner than they used to!”

CHALLENGE

When Michelle Monroe joined Star Pipe Products, she found that the accounts receivable team was entrenched in manual processes. The task of sending out AR statements took up to three days, beginning with printing off an aging report and using it to create each statement individually.

She also found that internal frustrations were growing due to the inability to add notes to accounts and invoices. When customers disputed an invoice, it took multiple communications between the AR team and the customer to determine the issue, and there were minimal notes for the representatives working on the account. This led to customer dissatisfaction and increased the likelihood of payment delays.

The company’s customer base has a large volume of parent/child relationships with subsidiaries, and the manual processes made communication with the appropriate contacts difficult. Challenges also occurred when customers called in, as the AR team lacked the ability to look at real-time customer data while speaking with them. Efforts were often duplicated because the team did not have visibility into what actions had been taken on an account. This meant that the customer was contacted multiple times by different team members on the same issue.

SOLUTION

Quadient AR enables the team to quickly produce essential reports, such as AR aging. Payment reminders are delivered via automated and customizable workflows, slashing the time spent on the process each month. Employees benefit from a library of email templates that help them determine the right message to send at each stage of the collection process.

"Processing AR statements now takes me 3 minutes, instead of 3 days, and that is amazing! When we have late payments, they’re coming in 4 days late instead of 21. With interest rates what they are, that is huge.”

Customer data has been centralized on a single platform, enabling team members to track the status of accounts in real-time. This eliminates errors and duplicated efforts, ensuring that all employees are working with the same information. This has helped to reduce the amount of time spent resolving invoice disputes, as members of the team can quickly find historical information on accounts, such as if an item arrived damaged. The process has also benefited from the ability to upload supporting documentation.

Quadient AR provides the ability to manage complex parent/child relationships between organizations and their subsidiaries, ensuring that members of the AR team can identify the appropriate contact to reach out to in every circumstance. This facilitates positive customer interactions and experiences.

RESULTS

• Issuing customer statements now takes three minutes instead of three days.
• Average days past due have been reduced from 21 to 4, a decrease of ~80%.
• Centralized and real-time data has improved customer interactions.
• Disputes are resolved up to three weeks faster than before.
• Account visibility allows for prompt and efficient customer follow-up.