OnGuard User Groups

OnGuard User Group UK
Every quarter the OnGuard User Group UK meets to discuss subjects regarding credit management and the OnGuard software.

Share information about functionalities
The meeting started with the wish list of the User Group members, which also consisted of existing functionalities. This resulted in sharing information about the functionalities, which is what the OnGuard User Group is about: share information about the use of the software and how to incorporate the business processes in it.

Customer experience and OnGuard Roadmap
The host of this day, Ian Gibbs from EDF Energy, continued with a presentation about the energy business and EDF in particular. He gave more insights in how they handle slow or not paying customers. After a short break the Eelco Krekelberg, the OnGuard Product Manager, gave a presentation about the expected developments the coming 18 months.

Credit Manager: The Game
After the lively and pleasant discussion about functionality, Ben Sutton and Gordon Cook of EDF gave a presentation about the Credit Manager Game: a training, team building and awareness raising tool which they developed. They were awarded by the ICM with the QiCM award for developing this tool. The purpose of this tool is to create awareness for Credit Management in different departments in an organisation and Ben Sutton and Gordon Cook also like to use it as an ice breaker to contact other companies and share information. The following quote of William C Taylor was used to emphasise the importance of sharing information: “The most creative leaders don’t aspire to learn from the ‘best in class’ in their industry. Instead they aspire to learn from innovators far outside their industry as a way to shake things up. Ideas that are routine in one industry can be revolutionary when they migrate to another industry, especially when those ideas challenge the prevailing assumptions that define so many industries”.

Summary
It was a very pleasant and educating meeting. Good suggestions were noted for future releases and valuable knowledge was shared.

OnGuard User Group the Netherlands
On Monday September 12 a meeting has taken place of the OnGuard User Group the Netherlands. This time BMW Financial Service in Rijswijk was the location where all the members gathered. After a visit of a member of the Dutch group to the User Group in the UK, this time a British customer of OnGuard, Speedy, joined the meeting with four people. In addition to sharing user experiences it was also interesting to hear what kind of developments were going on within each User Group and how people can make use of each other. The OnGuard User Group in the Netherlands is much longer active than the one in England, which also means that they are in another phase. In England it is strongly focused on the exchange of user experiences, where the Netherlands the focus has shifted to more input for product development and discussing credit management trends.

During the meeting several topics were discussed such as the OnGuard release notes, the weekly knowledge session at the headquarter of OnGuard, the Dutch Credit Expo (November 10) and general credit management trends. The meeting ended with a presentation by Product Manager Eelco Krekelberg on the functional specifications of three new to develop functionalities. All in all, and certainly by the presence of Speedy, this OnGuard User Group has been very inspiring to all participants.