“CPR is definitely the best value out there”

“I love Cortera because it really provides me with the tools that I need to effectively do my job as efficiently as possible.”

See how Jacobus Energy one of the nation’s premier petroleum provider has optimized their credit operations with the help of Cortera.

Dave Schier, Credit Manager discusses his success leveraging Cortera’s full suite of offerings including Cortera Pulse, Cortera CPR and Cortera eCredit.

The webinar will detail how Ewing Irrigation utilizes a service from Cortera called Pulse. It is the most innovative and economical way to monitor your existing customers and research new prospects for credit risk.

Cortera Pulse is a proactive approach to credit risk management that keeps a watchful eye on over 20 million public and private companies in the United States. Rilus and his team are seeing a substantial benefit from the service and believe you will too.

“I’m really excited about the Pulse Product.”
“I love Cortera because it truly is a partnership.”

See how XTRA Lease one of the largest over-the-road trailer rental and leasing companies in North America has optimized their credit operations with the help of Cortera. John Pomilio, Vice President, Customer Financial Services discusses his success leveraging Cortera’s full suite of offerings including Cortera Pulse, Cortera CPR and Cortera eCredit.

The Cortera Risk Data and Reporting Solution is designed to assist companies of all sizes and industries in gaining new insights into a business. As part of this integration with SAP BusinessObjects Spend Performance Management customers will have access to Cortera’s wide array of information on businesses. The integration allows customers to leverage their investments in solutions from both SAP and Cortera® for a clearer view of their suppliers and customers. Cortera Risk Data and Reporting leverage both traditional and new types of data and are centered on an innovative approach to technology that ensures better and fresher data is available for businesses to assess their suppliers in real time. The combination of robust data and powerful analytics allows businesses to be smarter about their supplier risk and then take the appropriate action.

As part of the agreement between Cortera and SAP, both companies will share technology and product roadmaps.

Read the official announcement here.

• Significant changes in Cortera Payment Report (Cortera CPR™) risk scores
• Financial and operational news, covering over 10,000 publications
• Growth clues, signs a business is expanding
• Bankruptcy filings
• Tax liens and civil judgments

“We only endorse companies that we truly feel represent the best of the best for our members, said Dirk Van Dongen, President, National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors. “Having personally worked with Cortera over the last several months and watched their solutions in action at NAW member companies I fully recommend their suite of business information products. For any distributor looking for better insights about their customers and suppliers, Cortera should be their first stop.”

Read the official press release here.

We are on stage during the first session: 8:30 – 9:45 AM.  Our group includes MoneyAisle, Fiserv, Wikinvest, Worklight, Visa, oFlows, eRollover, Bill.com and Cortera.

Stay tuned…we reveal what’s new from Cortera tomorrow morning.

All of the major bureaus compile reports in the same way – voluntary submission of accounts receivable information from thousands of companies, on a monthly basis. Without these contributions, there wouldn’t be business credit reports as we know them today. This cooperation has yielded decent coverage, but we have a long way to go for the level of coverage we see with consumer credit reports.

Holding the full flow of info sharing back are internal policies on keeping information confidential, company culture, or even tactical reasons, like accounting systems that make it difficult to extract the information on a regular basis.

Why should your company contribute?

Data (Accounts Receivables or “Trade”) contribution programs have been around for decades. In the U.S. alone, thousands of businesses participate and benefit from such programs. Participation typically involves securely sending your accounts receivable to the bureau on a monthly basis. Trade contribution helps the provider and other creditors benefit from transparency in the marketplace through commercial credit reports. The more businesses that contribute trade payment experience information, the more likely that you will be able to identify customer payment issues early and proactively — and the better protected everyone is in the marketplace. The whole is indeed greater than the sum of the parts.

The primary benefit? You’ll likely get paid faster

Contributing to credit bureaus by providing trade information helps improve accounts receivables performance. By sharing payment experience you are improving the ability to set appropriate terms for credit extension based on actual payment experiences – ultimately improving the likelihood of customers paying on time. Companies are more likely to pay on time if they are aware that their payment experience is reported to the major credit bureaus, like (shameless plug) Cortera. It sounds simple, but most businesses take their reputations very seriously and will pay on time to avoid negative a credit rating. On the flip side, small businesses actually want you to report to help them build their credit report history.

Do you contribute to a commercial credit bureau? If not, we’d love to hear from you. In a future post I’ll answer many of the common questions people have about their contributions.

For example, in London, I spoke to a group of senior credit professionals about how the use of today’s social and web technologies are impacting the business credit profession. I expected (and got) a lively debate. For these types of conversations turned debates, I always start with: Who here, for business, uses Twitter? Facebook? LinkedIn? Hands go up with Twitter being the smallest and LinkedIn being the largest. Then I ask the simple question – who uses business credit reports? Everyone raises their hands. Now, who uses Google AFTER you pull a credit report to get more information about that business? All the hands in the room go up.

After several stories were shared about the how the free search actually revealed better insights, one comment caught me off guard. It was from perhaps the most senior person in the room in terms of industry experience, who shot out this: “Commercial credit bureaus, you are officially on notice – this is all going to be free one day, and we won’t be having this debate. There is going to be a better way. There has to, it’s only a matter of time.”

Back in the states, in New Jersey at a user group, I asked the same series of questions and got the exact same response. This time I’m interrupted by one credit manager with: “Who actually likes their current provider [he named the bureau]? Who thinks the data is up to date or accurate?” The whole room erupts into rants about how unreliable the information is for them. It’s not exactly a good sign when no one has anything good to say about their PAID information providers. This is especially rough to hear when you are one of the credit bureaus.

I then traveled to the Credit Research Foundation in San Diego and every conversation I have goes about the same – credit professionals are tired of the status quo. Over and over I heard from them that they are looking for something new.

I couldn’t agree more. Doing things the way we always have is broken. And it has always been broken. Only 10,000 businesses in the US contribute to commercial credit bureaus, yet there are 25 million businesses in the US – something is wrong with this picture.

We clearly need to do better. And while I think (shameless plug) that Cortera represents a significant step in the right direction. It’s only part of the giant leap we are encouraging the industry – and ourselves — to take in the near future.

Have a story to share about how you use the best of the social and free web in your credit decisions? Startlingly bad data from a high priced credit report? Suggestions on what the future of business credit info? Tell us below.

Check out this short video from our CEO Jim Swift to see how we are transforming the world of business credit reporting.

Our goal is to fill an information gap we’ve heard about since our founding over 15 years ago: business credit reports – used to determine credit viability and payment terms – are based on the financial transactions of less than 1% of US businesses. Over 50% of the US GDP is provided by companies that have little or no voice in how they are perceived in traditional credit reports – small businesses found on Main Street in every town in the country. In what amounts to a calculated compromise, these reports are often derived from interactions with only the largest businesses. The majority of interactions with small businesses are often ignored. It’s the all-too-often lost insights contained within those millions of experiences that Cortera aims to recapture by embracing a more social approach.

With this new solution we are simply revitalizing an approach that had been in place since the 1800s – local merchants exchanging trade references in communities throughout the country. And that’s the key. The Cortera Credit Exchange is a community platform, designed to take these traditionally offline communities and peer networks that have long contributed knowledge and experience for the greater good and bring them online — a technological evolution of one of the oldest and most trusted social networks in business history.

Our mission is straightforward. It is time for business decisions and control over the granting of credit that powers over 50% of US GDP to be returned to those that have been left behind: small businesses.

• Read the official press release here
• Watch us live at DEMO here
• Give it a try for yourself here