Historically, the collections and recoveries (CnR) systems market has been dominated by a small number of established vendors with very similar offerings in terms of functionality, technology and price. This generally resulted in organisations that were seeking to replace their outdated systems selecting the incumbent vendor upgrade option rather than conducting a market assessment. The landscape has changed markedly in the last few years so that today there is much choice and functionality available in the market which means that organisations can get a better deal and a solution that is better fit to their business requirements.
Investing in a collections platform is an important decision that an organisation will typically make and live with for 5 to 10 years and it should be made from an informed position which is why many turn to Arum for help. Organisations often engage with us early in the process, prior to engaging with any vendors, to assess the market and provide key independent market intelligence on the options that are available. These include both the established vendors and newer entrants into the market. Collection and recoveries systems will provide differing levels of capability out of the box, and/or capability that can be configured or ‘customised’. Solutions can also be supplemented by additional modules and other systems that are provided by the same or a partner vendor e.g. decision engine and omni-channel communications. It is important to be aware of these distinctions at the outset as there are pros and cons of each approach.
- Over half of the established vendors have released a new major version, and in some instances a completely new system, in the past 5 years
- More new entrants into the collection and recoveries systems market in the past 3 years than at any point in history
- Most vendors now offer cloud based and SaaS options as an alternative to on-premise
When conducting a market intelligence assessment, Arum analyses the factors that are significant to the organisation. These can include maturity of the organisation, budget and benefits, risk appetite, agility, scalability, legacy and future IT architecture, hosting preferences, future ambition, as well as many other factors. Arum then assesses the key requirements against fundamental collections system capabilities, and prioritises these in line with the business vision to match a list of solutions that tick all or most of the boxes.
Arum are continuously researching, reviewing and engaging with new and established vendors for consideration in both our internal and client’s knowledge-base. Arum internally hosts a technology webinar series which is a forum for technology providers to pitch their innovative solutions to our experts. This is one channel which helps us keep up to date with the options out there. In addition, the Arum team have worked on over 75 systems implementation and change projects, we have seen the good, the bad and the ugly. We are entirely independent and vendor agnostic so we ensure that this knowledge is used to our client’s best interests. If you would like discuss how Arum can support you on a specific project,contact us today.
Matt Riddall, Lead Consultant