Jan 26 2010
Cash flow management experts launch service to help UK businesses chase payments from overseas.

Cash flow management specialists Octempo:RM believe an expansion of their international collections service will provide SMEs with a viable alternative to faceless credit insurance giants.

The Warrington-based firm uses foreign nationals to help exporters collect debts from companies overseas, and is expanding the service to cover all aspects of the order to cash cycle.

They are now able to deal with order management, credit control, and managing credit risk for companies that sell overseas, and currently support more than 25 countries, including China, Russia and Saudi Arabia all in the language of the end customer.

Octempos commercial experience of business cultures around the world gives them an advantage over many debt collecting insurance companies.

Previously SMEs wouldve had to rely on huge multinationals like Euler Hermes, Atradius and Coface a one-size-fits-all service generating large bills in the process.

Managing Director Julian Llewellyn said: As more SMEs look to export, they have to deal with language barriers and more importantly misunderstandings about business cultures in other countries.

This means they can have problems and delays, not just with getting paid on time, but through the whole order to cash cycle.

Most collection agencies dont have the capability to handle international collections, which in the past left global credit insurance companies as the only alternative.

Octempo have also linked up with a network of international legal firms, meaning clients dont have to source help themselves. And unlike many lawyers in the cash flow management field, they operate on a no win, no fee basis for international debt recovery work.

Operations Director Ed van den Berg said: No win no fee international legal assistance is long overdue in our field, and ensures clients will not fall foul of specific countries laws on debt collection.

Laws differ from country to country even from Scotland to England and although most companies will hopefully have covered the biggest risk off by stipulating in their terms and conditions that English law applies, any verdicts obtained will still have to be enforced abroad.