Building a Single View of Debt (also known as a 360 degree view) is one of the most innovative and important ways for organisations to improve their collections processes. Simply defined, a single customer view (SCV) is an aggregated, consistent and holistic representation of all the data known by an organisation about its debtors. Local authorities, for example, can aggregate all data relating to rent arrears, housing benefit, council tax overpayments, parking fines, and other sundry debts. With an accurate and holistic single customer view and real-time, accurate insights into debt, organisations can reduce the duplication of debt collection activity and increase revenue. But before building a single view of debt, what five questions do you need to ask?

1. Where Is Your Data Located Now?

When implementing single view of debt software, the first consideration is where the data will be coming from. Lateral’s single view of debt software collects data from different corners of an organisation, consolidates it, and presents it in a simple dashboard for users, who can subsequently collect more efficiently.

2. How is the Quality of Your Data?

To reap the rewards of a single customer view of debt, you need to be working with accurate data. Institute data quality goals, review data, and automate error reports to ensure the data you migrate into your single customer view dashboard is as accurate as it can be.

3. How Will You Connect Your Data?

Data connection and migration is a vital consideration when it comes to the adoption of a single view. To create the Single View, Lateral has built sophisticated matching algorithms that can be customised based on the debt type to do both automatic matching (for near exact matched data) and potential matching (allowing a user to compare the data and decide if it is the same person or not). At the touch of a button, the software can review outstanding debts and identify larger debts, or multiple debts. Your organisation may face significant data matching challenges. In which case, invest in a software company that employs  sophisticated data matching routines that can precisely meet your needs, and accurately match all pertinent data. 

4. What are Your Precise Single View Objectives?

Before embarking on your pursuit of a single view, it is prudent to ensure you know what your objectives are. If you’re seeking to collect debt in an ethical manner, maximise collections resources and reduce operational costs, then a single view will undoubtedly meet your needs. But go deeper. What are your precise reporting needs? And who will need to be privy to this data? 

5. Have You Thought About Security Governance?

Under the new GDPR, organisations have to meet precise compliance demands when it comes to privacy and its protection. And a serious consideration of this should be a part of your single view of debt research. Research software providers and find out how stringent their security governance procedures are. Are they GDPR compliant? Do they have a strict data protection policy? Do they have security accreditations such as ISO 27001, and Cyber Essentials?

There are many items to consider when building a single view for your organisation.

A single view of debt leads to more accurate reporting, forecasting, communication and collection. To learn more about how Lateral’s single view of debt can help you adapt and evolve, get in touch today.