Automating Risk Management Processes Enables M&A-Driven Growth Spurt

In a closet-sized office near John F. Kennedy International Airport, Alba was established more than 75 years ago to tackle a logistics industry pain point that other customs brokers often prefer to avoid: trade-sensitive imports. These goods — such as apparel, chemicals, semiconductors, and food products — are subject to complex regulations, onerous documentation requirements, and strict timing dependencies. 

A focus on strong relationships with ports, carriers, trade associations, and government agencies helped Alba gain expertise and credibility, which it combined with logistics and supply chain solutions created specifically for trade-sensitive products. Through hard work, and prudent partnering and acquisitions, the founders grew Alba into a fully integrated logistics provider that now helps importers and exporters around the world with sourcing, routing, pricing, transportation/freight, and inventory planning needs.

Accelerating Risk Assessments and Credit Decisions for Customers

For Alba CFO Yoav Millet, automating credit risk management was a top priority in order to streamline assessments of importers during a particularly challenging period. 

“I joined the company shortly after it was acquired by a private equity firm,” Millet explained. “This was during the COVID pandemic, when supply chain disruptions were creating tremendous volatility. For instance, the cost of sea containers skyrocketed and companies were struggling to get inventory. So businesses that might typically carry a $50,000 line of credit suddenly needed $300,000 or more. The volatility in the portfolio was high, and it was clear that I needed a system to help manage our credit risks in real time.” 

Because Alba was already a Dun & Bradstreet data customer, Millet evaluated D&B Finance Analytics Credit Intelligence against credit management solutions from other providers. Ultimately, he chose D&B Credit Intelligence for its ease of integration with Alba’s existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform and for its account monitoring and decisioning tools. “We implemented D&B Credit Intelligence immediately, so we could get account alerts, assess risks accurately, and make effective credit underwriting decisions quickly based on updated information. It was a game-changer.” 

D&B Credit Intelligence continues to prove its value by helping Millet and the finance team evaluate potential credit risk with mergers and acquisitions (M&As), which have been key to the organization’s growth. “When we look at companies and their portfolios, we can use D&B Credit Intelligence to help us assess the risks in those accounts,” he said. “That gives us a clearer picture of risk levels before we buy a company and helps us more easily communicate to multiple stakeholders about potential risk impacts.” 

Prioritizing Efficiency and Customer Relationships 

With Alba’s credit risk management processes working more effectively, the finance team turned its attention to accounts receivable and collections. After determining these processes were inconsistent, manual, and time-consuming, Millet and the firm’s corporate financial controller, Christopher DaSilva, focused on options that could help streamline workflows and optimize existing resources — without adding headcount.  

“In the last three years, I’ve been involved in five mergers that have doubled the size of our organization,” DaSilva noted. “We created well-established standard operating procedures and processes, and when we acquired a company, the goal was to transition them to mirror us. We don’t take on any of their financial institutions, portals, accounting applications, or anything else. We wanted everybody to become united under the same umbrella.”

Alba’s ERP system hindered their efforts.  “The finance portion of our ERP is very extensive, very deep, but we were throwing a lot of bodies at it, especially to manage A/R and collections,” DaSilva said. “It also lacked a customer portal. The more, and the faster, we tried to transition accounts, the more frustrating it was for our A/R folks. It wasn’t automated, and it wasn’t tight.” 

DaSilva had evaluated other products but lacked confidence in their ability to achieve real efficiency gains. “We were very interested in ‘true’ automation and the use of artificial intelligence that would support one-to-one, direct relationships between our collections specialists and our 3,000-plus clients. One vendor offered us essentially an outsourced call center team that would simply take over collections activities and then load the data into our ERP. Not only was it definitely not AI, but we also doubted our customers would be happy about working with an unfamiliar third-party.” 

The Power of a Purpose-Built Solution

Discussions with the Dun & Bradstreet team prompted an exploration of D&B Receivables Intelligence powered by FIS GETPAID, and Millet and DaSilva felt the purpose-built, AI-driven platform was just what their A/R and collections managers needed. The platform was first implemented within the “parent” company; then, as accounts receivables assets were acquired, they were moved to that centralized D&B Receivables Intelligence system. 

“D&B Receivables Intelligence has helped our collections specialists automate and plan nearly everything they need to do,” DaSilva said. “The system generates notifications that indicate which customers should be contacted first, based on the credentials that we put in — credentials meaning aged receivables in terms of dollar amounts, credit limits given, etc.  — and the system is smart enough to prioritize those accounts based on risk level. It also shows you the account statements and suggests the appropriate next steps.”

For busy collections managers, the system helps them stay organized and focused each day from start to finish. “D&B Receivables Intelligence holds crucial data, like customer emails and telephone numbers, and it knows that your first collections activity is to send an email or dunning letter or other appropriate communication,” DaSilva said. “Based on how you’ve programmed it, then D&B Receivables Intelligence will remind you, for example, to send a more pointed email if the customer doesn’t respond within three days. It can send automated notifications that correspond to each subsequent step of your process, which might be getting a manager involved, or getting the sales representative to connect with the customer.” 

“The automation process within D&B Receivables Intelligence is amazing,” he continued, “because all correspondence for each particular account is tracked and stored in one place. And for customers, the system provides a portal so they can view their statements and invoices, check due dates, and even get supporting backup that comes from our ERP system, which is linked to D&B Receivables Intelligence. Best of all, customers can make payments through the portal, whether by credit card, ACH, or wire.”

“It makes collections so much easier, because the system does the research and maintains the aging account records,” DaSilva added. “It helps create a continual cycle of ‘What's already happened, what should I be doing now, and what should I do next?’”

Better Credit-to-Cash Results 

The combination of Dun & Bradstreet’s comprehensive data, D&B Credit Intelligence, and D&B Receivables Intelligence is helping the finance team at Alba identify and mitigate risks, retain experienced staff, increase efficiency, and reduce expenses. 

DaSilva points to changes in the firm’s days sales outstanding (DSO) figures as one of the most impressive outcomes. “We lowered our DSO from an average of 49 days or more on average to the mid-thirties right now, and we did so without hiring or adding headcount. That helped us gain liquidity.” 

“Linking our credit risk management [via D&B Credit Intelligence] with the D&B Receivables Intelligence tools was a key strategy to help with our risk management process,” DaSilva noted. “In fact, after we documented how we’re using these solutions to help support our assessment and decisioning processes, we presented that information to our credit risk insurance provider. That gave them a lot of visibility and confidence in our risk management efforts, and as a result, we were able to negotiate reduced rates for our credit risk coverage.” 

Another advantage to these solutions is support for more comprehensive and reliable KPI reporting. While DaSilva appreciates the volume of standard reports available, flexible ad hoc reporting helped him develop and monitor key metrics so that he can more easily track and gauge staff performance and offer more timely incentives and rewards.

Overall, Alba’s finance team views the implementation of D&B Credit Intelligence and D&B Receivables Intelligence as a win-win situation. 

“People should look at their current DSOs. Are they going to an asset-based lending company a lot? Are they borrowing money? Do they find times where they have to hold back on their payables and their expenditures, just because collections are poor?” DaSilva said. “If you want to lower DSO and eliminate manual work, and if you're looking to work smarter rather than harder and gain efficiencies, you're losing out if you don't have these solutions. Every company is different in terms of needs and utilization, but these systems can benefit small businesses, massive corporations, or anything in between.”