The U.K's Apex Credit Management has received the Professional Planning Forum’s Customer Contact Innovation award for Integrated Outbound.

Apex Credit Management, a customer of Noble Systems, a provider of unified contact center technology solutions, and Nexidia, a provider of audio search and speech analytics solutions, received the award for its use of SAS and speech analytics to transform debt collection strategies and data segmentation, increasing cash collected per agent hour by 30 percent and liquidation by 20 percent.

Apex has implemented a new Cascade model that creates dynamic multichannel contact strategies in SAS that optimize debt collection based on the latest data. Alongside this, Nexidia speech analytics has focused coaching and freed up an average 30 hours per month for each team manager.  In combination, smart integration and a rigorous continuous improvement methodology have driven cash collected per agent hour up 30 percent and grown the amount of customers who promise to pay by 15 percent.

"We've nearly quadrupled throughput, but have only grown seats by 35 percent," said Steve Mound, chief operating officer of Apex.

"Apex was delighted to receive the Integrated Outbound Award as acknowledgement that we are leading the field and generating a real competitive advantage in effective ethical debt collection. The integrated outbound solution from Noble Systems that includes Nexidia speech analytics has provided not only a substantial ROI, but also a leading-edge platform on which to base future company growth and respond quickly to changing market needs," observed Richard Furlong, contact strategy manager at Apex. "It has allowed us to generate far more effective results (cash collected) from those customers we reach and has also improved our standing and reputation with our existing and new clients."

These prestigious awards, organized by the Professional Planning Forum, celebrate the achievements of the industry's innovators and offer a benchmark of excellence within the industry. They showcase innovations that are transforming the experience of customers and employees and demonstrate how planning can make a real difference. 

"Noble Systems, along with our partner Nexidia, are delighted that Apex has been recognized for their excellence in credit management by receiving this prestigious Integrated Outbound award," said Sian Ciabattoni, marketing director of Noble Systems. "Apex uses the Noble solution to manage its collections campaigns with inbound and outbound blended contacts and this award is a testament to how the dedicated Apex team has transformed their debt collection strategy using innovative, market leading technologies."

"This integrated outbound solution is demonstrably leading the field in collections effectiveness and performance improvement," added Jonathan Wax, vice president of EMEA at Nexidia. "This is our second Innovation Award from the Professional Planning Forum with one of our flagship clients, and it demonstrates that our customers are able to derive significant benefit from our speech analytics solutions."