Debt control secures deal

1:20pm Wednesday 5th July 2006

A TECHNOLOGY firm in York has secured new contracts worth almost three-quarters of a million pounds following a rise in the number of people seeking individual insolvency.

Sawfish Software's dedicated business software will be used by four new blue chip clients in the financial services sector to improve their management of debt control and client transactions.

The companies that have bought the use of the company's Debt-Flow software which enables authorised users to monitor transactions and have more control over customer debt include London Scottish Bank, Haines Watts and Vantis plc.

Managing director Steve Hull, who founded King Street-based Sawfish in 2004, was delighted with the new contracts.

"We are thrilled to be working with four high-profile companies as we increase our market share of a burgeoning sector," said Steve, who previously founded Online Group Holdings plc, which provides business operations solutions for the drinks industry, before selling it in 2000.

"Companies in the financial services industry are demanding more rigorous control of their sales management tasks to give the end-user a better service.

"Increasingly, the industry is requiring more rigorous control over business transactions and, in particular, customer debt.

"Over 23,000 people took out Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVA) in 2005, and the market is set to grow by over 400 per cent in 2008 once the proposed new streamlined IVAs (SIVAs) become operational."

An IVA is a formal agreement between a debtor and his or her creditors whereby an IVA proposal sets out how the debtor will repay what is owed.

Sawfish's Debt-Flow is based upon its Sales-Flow system, which automates and streamlines management activities and refines the key processes involved in complex selling situations.

These systems are accessed via the internet, and enable authorised users to process data wherever they are located. It works on one database to ensure managers always have an up-to-date view of sales progress. In 2004, Manchester-based insolvency practice, The Debt Advisor, also bought Debt-Flow to monitor sales transactions and manage client cases.

Since then, Debt-Flow has helped The Debt Advisor to create a streamlined system from client inquiry to case management.

Beverley Budsworth, founder of The Debt Advisor, said: "The financial services industry has been waiting many years for solutions like those provided by Sawfish. In recent years, debt management has become far more complex and Debt-Flow has provided us with a reliable and efficient way of managing our customer and client transactions.

"The fact that we can monitor each transaction at any stage in the process has enabled us to have more control over customer debt. It has also enabled us to help more people and process the claims quicker and more efficiently."

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