PayStream Advisors Releases Report Highlighting the Expanded Role of Collection Automation in Battling Increases in Consumer Delinquencies

The growth of debt in America and around the world has meant a rapid growth in past due receivables, and a consequent increase in the number of service organizations collecting on those delinquent accounts. PayStream Advisors latest report profiles the expanding role that advanced technology plays in how collectors manage some $24 trillion in outstanding consumer, government and business debt.

Charlotte, NC – August 11, 2006 – PayStream Advisors has released its latest report on financial automation titled "Consumer Collections Automation (CCA): A Buyer’s Guide to Credit & Collections Solutions”. This 60 page report profiles solution providers who have addressed the technological and regulatory changes of the collections industry.   In addition to specific profiles of technology solutions, the report provides valuable insight into emerging collections automation features including customer profiling, recovery analytics, voice management systems and account management.

PayStream’s reports target individuals who require detailed vendor and product information in order to identify and select appropriate solutions to meet their collection and recovery process improvement objectives; collection managers, risk management, portfolio management, shared-services managers, VPs-Finance, CFO’s and IT directors at financial institutions and other credit grantors and 3rd party collection agencies.

“With increases in consumer debt outpacing economic growth, we expect credit grantors and their agents to increasingly turn to automation to improve productivity” notes Henry Ijams, Managing Director of PayStream Advisors. “Collectors need more advanced tools to manage the growing volume of consumer debt with limited resources. This report is written for them.”

While the accounts receivable collections industry earned more than $15 billion in 2005, much of the work involves labor intensive telephone calls supported by limited automated productivity tools. Innovative collection organizations have learned that changing the way they work can have a dramatic effort on recovery rates and efficiency.

Whether a firm is working early or late stage accounts and whether they are collecting on a first-party or third-party basis, they are increasingly turning to automation to accomplish their tasks. PayStream has identified over 75 software firms that cater to one or more areas of the accounts receivable industry.

PayStream’s latest research highlights the trend towards the next generation of consumer collection products which can handle potential accounts “from the cradle to the grave”. The idea is to provide creditors the tools needed to minimize their bad debt at all stages of the customer life-cycle. Convergent credit and collection solutions provide businesses the capacity to differentiate customers once they fall into the collection process and then build the proper set of actions aligned with expectations for the account’s performance and commensurate with the customer’s service expectations.

“Technology vendors have recently begun to realize the need for convergence between analytic risk assessment and collections workflow management. Optimization cannot be achieved unless management enjoys a highly granular view of the customer lifecycle and that requires an integrated, end-to-end, automated process,” notes David Schmidt, lead analyst for the report.

The CCA industry provides end-to-end solutions that include diverse features and functions such as quantifying, analyzing and adjusting workflow to mitigate consumer risk; identifying early fraud/delinquency; utilizing VMS (Voice Management Systems) technology efficiently to optimize customer interactions; and case resolution protocols to ensure a final solution that will maximize the amount collected in a timely manner.

In addition to an overview of CCA technology and trends in the consumer to business credit and collections industry, the report includes profiles and comparative analyses of six leading providers who are shaping the industry — Apollo Enterprise Solutions, Austin Logistics, CGI-AMS, Fair Isaac, Ontario Systems and PAR3 Communications.

Purchase: "Consumer Collections Automation (CCA): A Buyer’s Guide to Credit & Collections Solutions”.

About PayStream Advisors, Inc.

PayStream Advisors is a technology research and consulting firm that improves the way companies plan, evaluate, and select emerging technologies to achieve their business objectives. Our services are designed to minimize risk and maximize the value associated with technology investments. PayStream Advisors assists clients in sorting through the growing complexities of IT applications related to financial automation with the goal of making objective, analytical, and actionable recommendations. For more information, call (888) 436-4335 or visit paystreamadvisors.com.