Sicon Selects Albany for Direct Debits
Sicon, a UK IT consultancy specialising in hardware and software solutions for businesses and local government, has purchased Albany ePAY. Sicon needed a solution that allowed it to introduce direct debit (DD) capability to its cash collection processes and selected Albany Software after an existing customer recommended the company.
Albany ePAY is a scalable, intelligent electronic payments (e-payments) solution that has the capability to integrate with any existing accounting infrastructure. Because it caters for both payments and collections, it is what the finance team at Sicon were searching for. Sicon’s previous payments system did not allow for the management of DDs, meaning that the IT consultancy had to rely on customers to raise a standing order for payment, leaving control of those collections firmly in the hand of the payer.
With its functionality and ease of use, Albany ePAY has provided Sicon with the power to take control of their DDs themselves, as finance manager, Vicky Stonell, said: “Before Albany ePAY was installed it was difficult to get customers to align their standing orders with their invoices, particularly with the changes to VAT. We had to rely on customers to ring up their bank to make the change, making the entire process rather drawn out and complex. Deploying Albany ePAY has allowed us to take control of the process of collecting in monies owing, which makes life a lot easier for both us and our customers.”
Albany ePAY currently processes 50 DD collections for Sicon with a total value of approximately £20,000 per month. Sicon has high hopes of dramatically increasing this volume tenfold as it expands its customer base over the course of the next 12 months, and is confident that the Albany solution will easily deal with the ramp up.