CUSTOMER STORY
Tyco strengthens their business with a
Decision Making tool to set credit limits
from Dun & Bradstreet
A business built on helping protect people and property, Tyco’s Fire Protection division designs,
sells, installs and maintains fire detection, sprinkler and suppression solutions to a huge range of
clients worldwide.
THE CHALLENGE
Tyco understands risk. In fact, they’ve built a successful global
business around helping customers manage and reduce it.
However, Tyco is aware of its own risk – namely, the financial
consequences of late or non-payment from clients. To strike
the right balance between reducing their risk and retaining
loyal customers, the Tyco credit management team does all
it can to support late paying clients -- working with their
customers and the Tyco sales team to set the right credit limits,
and ensure communication channels are open in the case of
business changes.
However with such a global and diverse client base, and in
such a fast moving environment, credit managers were under
pressure. Existing processes were considered ‘laborious’ and
‘bureaucratic’. Managers were forced to spend too much about
signing off figures, and not enough addressing the needs of the
customer base and the business.
THE SOLUTION
When it was time to transform the credit management function,
Tyco choose longstanding partner, Dun and Bradstreet, to help.
HOW IT WORKS
Dun & Bradstreet devised a tailored system called TDM, or
Tyco Decision-Making tool, to dramatically streamline Tyco’s
credit management processes. The system was built from the
ground-up using Dun & Bradstreet’s innovative software development tools that allow applications to be built, tested and
rolled out quickly and easily.
Information entered into TDM includes, for example, relevant
product groups, past and predicted turnover of clients, margins,
payment histories and so on. TDM works on the basis of tailormade scorecards developed by Dun & Bradstreet and Tyco for
determining credit limits.
The scorecards are specific to the culture of a region where the
client is located, building on findings obtained when historic
data from a number of past years was fed into the system. While
initially just five or six were envisaged for the Europe, Middle
East and Africa area, in the end no less than 13 different scorecards were needed.
The TDM user interface consists of an easy-to-read dashboard
featuring ‘traffic lights’. All relevant data and communications
are stored in the system and the entire decision-making process
is automated, providing workflows for automatic approval by
the correct person. It can be viewed by everyone and is fully
compliant.
R E S U LT S / R O I
The entire design, development and implementation went without a hitch. The system is now fully operational and has enabled the
business to undergo a considerable increase in setting limits. This is good for business, but since careful consideration is applied it does
not damage client relations.
Among credit controllers and salespeople there is now a better understanding of the relationship between commerce and awarding credit.
That improves the decision-making process and strengthens support for the decisions that are taken. And by having a clearer, common
tool for the setting of limits, Tyco’s credit and sales functions can function as a single team serving the interests of the business.
“Not only is the process of credit assessment quicker, but we now also have greater
qualitative insights. It can be used universally and optimizes cooperation
between credit management and sales. All this makes it more than a system for
setting credit risks and limits. It really does strengthen our business.”
Roy Kuipers
EMEA Credit Manager, Tyco Fire Protection Products
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