Navigating a Complex ERP Landscape to Streamline Credit Management

Challenges

Two lines of business: Service Marine Parts & Accessories (Land ‘N’ Sea), and Engines.
Land ‘N’ Sea distributes marine parts and accessories to over 18,000 customers through the US, Canada, and Latin America Primarily commodity product 1,800 customers added yearly Their Credit Management was driven primarily by spreadsheets and emails.

Multiple ERP systems leads to increased complexity

Mercury Marine has operations in US, Canada, and Latin America. In addition to working in multiple regions, they had four disparate ERPs storing customer details: Land ‘N’ Sea, Attwood, Garelick, and Mercury Marine. These business units had common customers. The existing systems were antiquated, inefficient, and incapable of interface. Between these businesses, they had an inconsistent credit approach which led to increased complexity.

Complex Credit Management scenario

1. Multiple external data sources:

Data had to be manually pulled from different credit agencies, including Experian and Equifax. Public financials or credit insurance companies like Yahoo Finance were not considered.

2. Time-consuming data entry:

The entire process relied on spreadsheets, faxes, and email chasing. Data had to be entered twice, once on a spreadsheet and then again on the ERP.

3. Disconnected ERP systems:

Since different business units had different ERPs and some of these business units had common customers, this led to dealing with multiple ERPs for retrieving and updating customer data.

Handling New Customer Applications and Existing Customer Reviews

Mercury Marine has operations in US, Canada, and Latin America. In addition to working in multiple regions, they had four disparate ERPs storing customer details: Land ‘N’ Sea, attwood, Garelick, and Mercury Marine. These business units had common customers. The existing systems were antiquated, inefficient, and incapable of interface. Between these businesses, they had an inconsistent credit approach which led to increased complexity.

Challenges with New Customer Applications:

• Prone to error due to manual data-entry from various sources such as e-mail, paper, and fax.
• Back-and-forth correspondence for information.
• Onboarding a new customer required 4.5 days.

Challenges with Existing Customer Reviews:

• Existing customer details such as payment history, transaction details had to be manually pulled from four different ERPs.
• Key 200-300 customers – reviewed once every year. Other customers – reviewed only every other year.

A credit analysts’ nightmare – managing credit data across multiple ERP systems

Mercury Machine had multiple business units, and it was likely that there were common customers across businesses. If a customer worked with Garelick, Mercury Marine, and Attwood, then to manage the credit risk, the credit analysts needed to manually look at the customer information present in four different ERPs.
For the future, the strategy is to have all the information consolidated in one place, so that credit risk is reduced and the credit risk assessment process is standardized.