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Optimising cashflow requires company-wide financial discipline and a well-defined credit and collections strategy. Although many companies understand the importance of good cashflow, understanding is not the same as actively implementing strategies for improvement. A company without a clear strategy, lacking adequate drivers and measurements or one that lacks the tools to support and manage improvement, is not able to maximise profit; it is not in control of receivables. In an ever changing economic/ political landscape the adage “Cash is King” has never been more relevant and this is where NEXUM steps in

They key question is how we can help you. NEXUM Software addresses a wealth of issues, or more pointedly, the issue of wealth: increased profits, improved working capital, lower debt, a healthy balance sheet, in short, financial vigour, strength and resilience.

And that leads onto the most important question of all, "how do you do it?" The practiced answer is that through a mix of software and consultancy we help organisations transform how they manage cashflow and risk, not just the way it's done but even the way it's thought about. Process and technology are core components but so are the players, the teams and the culture. Another view is that we can do it because it's what we set ourselves up to be experts at. This is all we've focused on for years, it's our specialism and it's where our value lies.

But the best answer is one we have unashamedly lifted from a client. After explaining what we did, the client very sensibly challenged us on the point that he had this accounts system and that billing system and the other customer management system, so why couldn't they do the same thing? We respectfully pointed out that the existing systems, on their own, lacked the connectivity, functionality and intelligence to join the contract to cash management dots. "so basically NEXUM is the fairy dust that we sprinkle over what we've got to work its cashflow magic and connect data, analyse trends, assess risk, then work through the process we have defined?" Got it in one.

The Information Pack on this site will tell you lots more about the fairy dust and its positive effects. It will tell you more about our clients and the type of organisations we work for and we hope it will give you plenty of food for thought. We reckon that working some magic is a far better option than praying for a miracle or plastering over cracks in your existing systems.

Jim Stanley

Managing director

Who are NEXUM™?

We are one of the UK's leading contract to cash management specialists, working primarily within the corporate and professional services markets. Ours is a software-centric, consulting-led solution, combining technology, workflow and know-how to help organisations optimise the contract-to-cash process, accelerate collections and improve financial hygiene.

Who do you work for?

We work for a number of international and UK brands, including Heineken, Peugeot Citroen, Dixons Carphone, First Utility, South East Water, Travis Perkins, E.ON, The London School of Economics, but we also have small to medium sized clients who rely on NEXUM to generate income by support the cash collection services they offer. Within the professional services sphere, clients include Herbert Smith Freehills, Pannone, TLT, and Blake Morgan to name a few.

What is NEXUM™ Software?

Our experience has seen us develop a new way of working and thinking to better address the rather unique challenges arising from increase compliance and the need to predict outcomes. The technology we use to reengineer the contract to cash process and transform performance across key metrics and business targets is our software, simply called NEXUM.

Why adopt a distinct solution?

Because we recognised that the role of the individual and their mindset, methodologies and behaviour impact heavily on financial risks to our client base and that this coupled with regulatory compliance from bodies such as the FCA, OFGEM and OFWAT the need to focus on this significant 'human factor' required a new approach. Add in the customary curve balls of legacy technology and inefficient processes and you have yourself a multi-dimensional challenge that you have to respect with a bespoke approach in order to deliver real value.

How does it differ from other contract to cash management solutions?

Our major differentiator is that NEXUM™ goes beyond just software. It's not about a 'fit and forget' product sitting in a discrete department sending out reminder letters and aiding query resolution. Yes, the technology alone can certainly bring a huge degree of control and functionality to the collections process. Indeed, its cash acceleration capabilities are already well-proven, slashing average debtor days by up to 20% in one instance. But it is merely the starting point of what we call the 'profit journey'.

Where does that journey take you?

The work around cash and collections, which is largely software and business rules driven, is typically the foundation project. Demonstrable and significant change should be seen within three to six months. From there we move on to more complex management of compliance elements where again software and business rules combine to give you a comprehensive toolset of thresholds and limits, triggers and warnings. These underpin the ability to monitor and make decisions in real-time, which is critical if one is to pre-empt issues and proactively manage the customer from contract to final payment, and a complete contrast to the traditionally retrospective nature of business intelligence and financial reporting solutions.

But we also seek to go one step further by indentifying and recording the behaviours that contribute to risk and issues. Or put another way, we don't just accept information for what it is, we look beneath to ascertain and this data coupled with other information stored can be used to profile outcomes and risks. And if you are meticulous in charting causative behaviour, you soon have yourself a huge data set for onward analytics.

Knowing where risks to payment are and how they impact on collections management; being able to share these across the organisation so there is a collective understanding of the process, and its purpose and its potential for transforming performance; this is at the heart of NEXUM. Because as soon as you have a clear picture of who is doing what and why, you can tackle the 'how' challenge - how do we change this trending behaviour, or how do we better support certain individuals, or how do we modify these working practices, or how do we safeguard against similar problems in the future. Get the 'how' right and you're continuing on your profit journey to destinations including reduced debtor days, lower write-offs and improved working capital.

It is an interesting proposition but what about system integration?

NEXUM™ integrates with all leading accounting and ERP systems such Oracle, SAP, PeopleSoft, Sage etc - and it's a deliberately low impact integration process. There's no appetite for tying up loads of resource for weeks on end just to get to first base. That's why we've invested heavily in a data engineering team that uses applied techniques of analysis, integration and exchange to lift that burden and get to test file stage quickly and painlessly.

What is the NEXUM Lab?

The NEXUM Lab also works at another level, slightly harder to articulate as it's a bit of a shapeshifter. It can be an extended brainstorm, stakeholder collaboration project, training exercise, mentoring initiative, change management programme, it can be all these things and more. It reflects the sophistication and potential within our approach to contract to cash management in particular. Remember we're not just looking at software and process that monitors the numbers and offers prompts to action: we're looking at identifying the behaviour behind the numbers and the rationale behind the response - or lack of one. For example, if we find certain 'root cause' behaviours endemic amongst a customer or debtor group, and they are seriously impacting on collection performance, or perhaps the problems are limited to a small handful of 'problem children', it's in the NEXUM Lab that one can discuss strategic options going forward?

Where does the value lie?

The value lies first in hard cash. An optimised collections process accelerates cash in, improving working capital, reducing debtor days, reducing interest payments, improving collections realisation, lowering bad debt. As regards compliance improvements, the value lies very much in the real-time data the system gives you as to where an account is and what has and is about to happen - enabling you to take timely remedial action. Too much reporting is done retrospectively with aged data, and then it's too late, the opportunity for turnaround has gone. It's like looking at a patient's notes at the end of the week only to find he died on Wednesday. But the ability to look at the micro level - addressing individual issues or areas of concern - or at a macro level -analysing trends and devising corrective strategies - ensures an organisation can respond proactively and work towards a higher standard of financial fitness. Improvement will be evident in better risk management, reduced debt levels, high levels of service all secure in the knowledge that NEXUM has monitored every activity against key compliance checks

We adopt the same approach for all our projects large and small and follow a seven stage process to ensure every detail is covered and risks to a successful project are averted.

Example: Recent NEXUM Project

In the beginning

Our client decided to reexamine how it could create better financial hygiene within the contract to cash process. Their objective to reduce the level of administration associated to managing accounts, better predict risk and outcomes, improve cash collections and reduce bad debt/write offs while automating as much of the compliance checking and auditing as possible. Working with them we collaborated on the devising of new cash and collections strategy with business specific processes and embedding them within the NEXUM software; two months of testing followed in readiness for go-live within a further two months. The total project from commercials being agreed to ‘go live’ was 22 weeks and including migrating data from their legacy system together with ‘interfaces’ to third party systems.

STAGE 1 - PERFECT PLANNING

Tailoring to your needs

Time invested at this stage is just that, an investment. We take more time planning and preparing because it mitigates project risk and ensures a successful outcome. The key elements of Stage 1 are to: Define Project, Establish Project Teams, Develop the Plan, Define Success Criteria, Assess Current Systems and Data, Assess Current Processes, Define Business Requirements, Work Flow/Process Design, Agree Technical environment, Legacy System Data Mapping and conversion rules.

STAGE 2 - INTEGRATION

Converting & connecting

This is the time when we design and build the integration points for data migration, complete the interfaces with any third party systems (accounting, credit reference agencies, CRM systems etc). We also work closely with the client to ensure that the hardware environment for the NEXUM software is ready or if being hosted by NEXUM that the datacentre has built the environment and it is operational.

STAGE 3 Installation

Data converted & connected, NEXUM installed - time to test

The NEXUM software is either made available on our hosted servers or installed within your premises. Any data converted from legacy systems is tested and reconciled and general performance and security tests are completed.

STAGE 4 CONFIGURATION

Tailoring to your needs

Your collections, risk and compliance procedures are built into the NEXUM workflow engine and tested against key sets of data against your business logic. Management information requirements are completed and any automated procedures implemented.

STAGE 5 VALIDATION

Testing time

Extensive testing of the NEXUM™ architecture begins with the focus on connectivity, security, functionality and usability. Users begin dry runs with full operational use, feeding back into the review/refinement process. The timeliness and immediacy of information is immediately seen as transformational –dealing with things at the point they happen.

STAGE 6 TRAINING

Familiarisation, confidence to the users

Using a combination of class room and at the desk training each member of the team becomes familiar with their day to day routine and how it has changed, learning how to get the most out of NEXUM™ and gaining maximise advantage in readiness for 'go live'.

STAGE 7 REVIEW & GO LIVE

Best in class

Finally we review the project plan having successfully completed stages 1 to 6 and prepare to hit the switch and 'go live'! NEXUM™has been configured and tested against your detailed documented requirements covered in Stage 1, all users have completed and signed off their training and confirmed that they are ready. It is Friday evening, we all go home and rest in readiness for Monday morning. On Monday morning the NEXUM project team are with you for this first day of live use and remain onsite until you are satisfied and feel confident to carry on in your new the new era of NEXUM within your business

But going live and using NEXUM™ is no more than you really expected, the biggest prize lies in what NEXUM™ will give you in the analytics and understanding of current and historic behaviours and risk, how they impact on performance, and how risks can be predicted or negated. Therein lies true value of NEXUM™ in profit enlightenment which is the key to sustained outperformance in the years ahead.

I.T Q & A

We talk to co-founder and CTO head Satish Ganatra on what makes the tech tick at NEXUM™

Q. Can you talk us through NEXUM's technical pedigree?

A. To understand our pedigree we need to go back in time. My technical team have worked with me for more than 15 years. We have a unique way of working and as a result I have never lost a team member. I would also like to add that my team also spreads in part outside the UK and we have a technical innovation centre in Ahmedabad, India, which is now nearly a decade old, with 80% of that team working with us for that time. A great technical team naturally has great knowledge and skill, but it also needs a great bond, with loyalty to each other and understanding. Every client from Travis Perkins Plc to South East Water and Herbert Smith Freehills share the same core NEXUM™ product, which is made from granite, robust but flexible enough to accommodate such a wide, diverse range of requirements. Our code leverages off MS .net, Apple IOS, Android plus other tools and platforms. Our skill set covers the development of core desktop based product, mobile applications and complex data interfaces with products such as SAP, Oracle etc. Our pedigree enables us to deliver high quality solutions in a very agile manner.

Q. You’re promising clients a 'light touch' deployment when it comes to the NEXUM Software™. Tell us more

A. Yes, we don’t do ‘Big Bang’. Our sales process is very much driven by and geared towards our 7 stage project implementation methodology. We see ourselves as a crack elite unit on a mission with the client. The first step in the journey is to provide an integrated 'lab' environment for the client and us to review. Because we do not replace existing accounting, CRM and billing systems, we enhance them by adding functionality on the periphery and to do this we have developed a unique and highly flexible way of taking and exchanging data with these systems with the least drain on our clients' IS resources as possible. We are a very 'open' business and widely use XML and Webservices to share information between systems.

Q. Security is always a major issue for any business. What standards does NEXUM™ work to?

A. As you can imagine with clients such as Heineken, Herbert Smith Freehills, Irwin Mitchell, Pannone, Peugeot etc, our solutions are subject to rigorous security checks and as such comply with the highest standards possible.

Apart from the core NEXUM™ system which can either be locally installed or hosted in our ISO27001 certified 'cloud', we also have a range of mobile apps. Within the last six months our clients have collectively contracted more than 20 separate external security consultants to perform more than 100 tests against the application and our hosted environment.

Q. You've proven yourself to be very agile and responsive in terms of development, which is fairly atypical of the financial technology industry as a whole. What's your secret?

A. Our secret is we do what we want to do - but please don't misunderstand this as arrogance! The technical team as explained earlier is core to our success. First, it helps to understand that we own NEXUM™, we have no investors, loans or overdrafts. This means that we are not driven by the demands of people outside our business. This means that I can allow my team to be creative, be designers and have ideas. They are encouraged to talk and mix with clients and ideas that make sense to the NEXUM™community (staff and clients) are done, it is that simple. We do not cut corners or compromise; just take a look at our iPhone and iPad applications, not only beautifully designed but 100% practical and beneficial to our clients' bottom line. Many financial technology vendors are in a bit of a mess, having merged, compromised, sold too much and delivered too little, many are hungry and desperate, driven by sales and tempted to cut corners. But not us!

Q. What's on the NEXUM™ roadmap?

A. We encourage people to listen to and talk to our clients to understand how quickly and easily we have developed them. Five years ago we didn’t have any Apple OS or Android developers, now we have a large team of developers complemented by a visual designer.

R&D is a real driver for us and in the future all technology will need to be more adaptable, quicker, more mobile, cross platform and more intelligent. We are currently servicing the contract-to-cash process within the legal industry, however our roadmap takes us into business compliance, learning and development, and people development. People, process, and technology – that is our roadmap!