Set Time Zone
This new utility package is available from the Member Center home page. Look on the right hand side of the page for the link to download setzone.zip.

This package contains a new report, Set Time Zone that enables you to set the time zone for each of your debtors based on the area code of the Debtor Home phone number. Once you have run this report, the time zone control file, setzone.ctf, also in the package, can be attached to the Home field to update any new debtors as they are entered into your system. Changes to the area code will also update the debtor's Timezone field.

*** TIP: Once you have set your time zones, you can manage your WIP Lists by Time Zone. Simply select the Time Zone column heading to sort the WIP List by Time Zone. Or, use the Reload Work In Progress List dialog to set a Time range to view when the WIP List is reloaded. Please refer to Help topic, Reload Work In Progress List for more information.

New EDIs
Two new EDI packages are available for download from our Member Center in Latest Electronic Data Exchanges. The Modern Payments and You've Got Claims packages contain import maps, reports, sample files and a PDF tutorial so that you can begin to implement these interfaces with Collect!
Please refer to Help topic, Latest Electronic Data Exchanges

Operator Group
The new Operator Group tab in the Operator form enables you to select up to sixteen Operators and to Enable Operator Group. When the operator signs into Collect!, they will see a customized list of Operators showing only the Operators you have set up in their group. This is very useful for enhancing security while allowing your operators a fuller range of functionality in their day to day operations.

Client Listed Date
This new field on the Client form is used to represent the date the Client was entered into your system. When you create a new client this field will be filled with the current date.

Version Check
The Help menu has a new option that enables you to check your version of Collect! against the latest available on line. If there is an upgrade available, you will know right away. You can select the Upgrade Software option to download the latest.

SMS Default Domain
You can now set a Default Domain Name when using the Email to SMS feature. This is very useful if you are using an SMS gateway. You can set the default address and Collect! will use this automatically whenever you print using SMS.

2. Define your project by writing a project definition, pass this document around to the project's stakeholders, make sure everybody's needs are covered. Identify your role and Comtech's role in this project definition statement, including who fulfills each aspect of the job.

3. In your project definition, set milestones for communicating with your Technical Consultant. Make sure to communicate these milestones to your Comtech Technical Consultant so updates can be sent to you without your having to request them.

4. Supply your Comtech Technical Consultant with as much technical and non-technical information about your project as possible as early into the project as possible.

5. Use the project definition statement to prevent you from going beyond the scope of the project through its use in the review process.

6. When you receive a series of questions from your Technical Consultant, answer all of the questions given. If you leave some of your answers blank, it will take more time for the Consultant to ask them again.

7. If you change any aspect of your project expect delays and increased costs. If your Technical Consultant is in the middle of your project and you revise your needed criteria, occasionally your Technical Consultant will have to restart the project and that will cost you time.

8. The faster you respond to queries from your Technical Consultant the faster the project will get accomplished.

9. If you email or phone your Technical Consultant multiple times a day, be aware you will be billed for that time and it will make your project take longer. Speaking with your Technical Consultant about communicating with you when they reach defined milestones is a more effective way to manage your project communication.

10. Putting a project on hold increases the amount of time it takes to complete the task. If you ask us to start a lengthy project and only put a minimal retainer in place, you can expect to have the project take much longer that it would have had you allocated enough resources from the start.

Control fields open up a host of customization possibilities that let you tailor Collect! to suite your exacting requirements. To help you understand how control/script files can help please refer to our Help documentation How to Use Control Files

Understanding Payment Options and Their Impact on Profits
As electronic-payment opportunities continue to grow among various industries, it is important to examine your system of bill-payment options in order to assess the effectiveness of cost containment for your particular industry.

Companies that employ a multi-channel payment strategy allow consumers to choose a payment method and medium, which best fits their needs. By restricting payment flow through an intermediary, such as an operator or the US mail, corporations greatly increase their costs of payment processing because of the excessive manual work required. By implementing a multi-touch strategy, including web, IVR, and phone payments coupled with offering comprehensive payment methods (credit, debit, or ACH), companies more effectively meet consumer needs while reducing the footwork associated with that payment.

Electronic Payment Providers (EPP) offers a suite of powerful payment solutions for recurring- payment establishment for both ACH and Credit Card payments. For a free evaluation of your current practices or for a quote on establishing a multi-channel payment strategy, please contact EPP at (877) 377-2677 or or visit our web site at http://www.expresspayments.com.

We had the pleasure of meeting Neal Cropper at the ACA Conference this past summer and he shared that although Collect! has its own dynamic reporting abilities; he needed to offer options to his customers, a product that could connect to Collect! and provide business users an easy-to-use, cost effective reporting solution to help identify trends and opportunities in real time.

Last month, Team Business Solutions was introduced as a new partner with Comtech Systems and we provided a little information on who we are and what we do.

This month, let's identify if there is a need for our solution.

New generation of an old term - what is the hype lately on analytics? We hear about dashboards, scorecards, performance reports, is this something new? Are we missing out on something that could affect our business?

In relation to the term "analytics", no not really, the term I have known for 22 years working in this industry is "reports" or "reporting management". This has been an important component of our business for years. We all review data every day, in fact, there is so much data, sometimes we don't know what to do with it all.

Identifying the need - take a few minutes think about some current challenges you face today to identify if there are inefficiencies in managing metrics in your business. Some examples are:

- Is it difficult to pull information from the transactional systems you use and gather them in one place or   better yet do you even see all the information available in the reporting menus?
- Does anyone on your staff perform manual and duplicate entries of the data into Excel?
- Are you reacting to issues in performance that should have been addressed yesterday?
- Do you question the integrity of the data you receive because you know it just can't be right?
- Is there information you wish you had but too difficult to get or not enough resources to help you?
- Is everyone on the same page working towards the same goal to meet company objectives or is the   management team doing their own thing hoping to meet the company objectives?
- And more importantly, do you need to know what areas of opportunity to focus on for quick payment results   to achieve company goals (especially at the end of the month)?

From employees to clients to the individuals we collect from, our industry is very stressful with demands all around us.

Defining the right solution - we help companies who identified a need to:

- implement innovative business and technology solutions
- integrate performance management tools to unleash the power of information to all types of business users   quickly and easily
- address a cost-effective solution to these challenges

Please call or email me if you have questions or specific reporting challenges you would like to discuss.

Contact Doreen Anderson to schedule a Qlik2Collect demo and gain additional information that could be helpful to you.

Contact Information: Doreen Anderson, Director of Business Development, US Operations
Phone: (716) 909-7986
Email: doreen@teambusinesssolutions.com
Website: http://www.www.teambusinesssolutions.com.

I have worked in the credit and collections industry for almost 20 years now and feel I have given this industry excellent resources, information and inspiration through my association, books and educational courses. It has always been very important to me to adhere to the highest standards of integrity, trust, fairness, personal and professional behavior. When I started my collection agency 10 years ago, there were not many women owned agencies and the perception of bill collectors was even worse than it is now, if that is possible! So my mission has been to change that perception through my work and books.

I feel that the members of my Credit & Collections Association help to do that as well. My members become members so that they can be sure to fully understand and strictly follow all applicable federal and state laws relating to the consumer credit, credit reporting and debt collection industries. We conduct business in a manner reflecting honor and integrity, and help each other to avoid unethical practices. We recognize our obligations to our communities and as active citizens keep fully informed on the economic and legal conditions and responsibilities affecting this industry, we do this by keeping in touch on my blog, in the forums and through our discussion list.

The Credit & Collections website that I have maintained over the years has recently had a complete overhaul with more interaction and a more professional appearance. The information included on the website for members is high quality and all-inclusive, you can find everything you need to start a collection agency or grow an existing agency. I have online information available to members to supplement the information found in my courses and in my books.

The third edition of Starting a Collection Agency, how to make money collecting money, will be available next week and is more than double the size of the first edition! This award winning book has updated information and is very detail oriented, including more information on marketing your agency, laws, marketing plans and business plans and everything that my members have asked for since the last edition was published. Right now, there is no other book in print on this subject and this all-inclusive, award winning book is essential for every agency owner to grow their agency and be more successful. Everyone will take something away from this book.

I feel that I have given this industry a chance to get to know me through my association, networking group, websites and books as well as through my mission of helping, educating and providing quality resources to professionals in this industry.

The new website is easier to use, offers more educational opportunities, and a specific area for start up agencies and a forum for questions. The Credit & Collections blog is a very popular resource for up to date information on the state of this industry and how we are affected by the economy, the credit crisis and bill collectors being portrayed in the news.

Please take a moment today to check out the new and improved Credit & Collections website, visit the forums, check out the blog and join the discussion group. If you are just starting your agency, consider a paid professional membership, which will save you thousands of dollars on tools, software and resources you will need for your agency. These offers are only available to Credit & Collections members from top industry leaders including debt collection software discounts, skip tracing resources and discounts, trade magazine discounts and special offers not found anywhere else. Having a compliant, ethical and successful agency is important to the industry, to your customers and to help with my mission of changing the negative perception of the debt collection industry to the world.

Michelle Dunn is a 20 year credit and collections industry veteran with 7 published books on the topic of debt collection and who has also been named one of the Top 5 Women in Collections in 2007 & 2008 as well as one of the Top 50 most Influential Collection Professionals in 2007.

Learn more at http://www.Credit-and-Collections.com and http://www.MichelleDunn.com

The CAC Executive Committee determined that this issue was important enough to their membership that they funded the development of a thorough paper based on research on all relevant laws.

This paper, written by CAC's Legal Counsel, Ron Sargis, is now complete and is titled: Telephone Call Back Messages from a Debt Collector - The Proper Application of the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

Please find a PDF version of the paper at the following link: White Paper - Telephone Call Back Messages.

We hope you find value in this document and that if provides you with some guidance for this controversial issue.

This is printed with the permission of Jan P. Stieger, Executive Director of the California Association of Collectors, Inc.

The users of the Collect! Software thank the CAC for allowing us access to this valuable resource.

Collect more money, quicker - and keep your customers!

Popular subjects from a typical program include:
* Mastering the three phases of a collection call
* Learn how to be assertive without being too aggressive
* Excuses? Never be thrown by an excuse again. Never!
* How to handle the 9 to 10 excuses heard 90%% of the time - as well as the excuses (no matter how long you've    been in the business) you have never heard before!
* How to write an effective letter, fax and e-mail for collections
* Words and phrases to avoid like the plague and those that work like magic to reduce debt.
* A simple and easy to use method to resolve the excuse you have never heard before!
* "Who's side are they on?" - Working effectively with your sales department
* How to develop the 'special collection voice'
* Cool, calm...and collected - deal with the Customer who is difficult, irate - maybe even obscene
* Effective negotiating techniques (including the 'Scotty & Captain Kirk method)

Seminar on Collections - Scheduled for April 16, 2008 - Who should attend?
Anyone in the business of reducing accounts receivable. This ranges from accounts receivable personnel to support staff to management. Our program is geared to consumer as well as commercial collections and all ranges of experience and 'time on the job'.

Anyone that may be interested in an upcoming seminar please check for details at: http://www.trpaulsen.com/upcoming.html