In the late 1990s, CompUSA Inc., one of the nation's top computer retailers, started to see substantial growth in its commercial accounts and, with it, substantial growth in past-due invoices. After struggling for several years with chasing down the delinquents and bulking up its collections department with an additional 83 people to do it, CompUSA finally went live with collection and dispute resolution software from GetPaid Corp. Within six months, its past-due dollars dropped to $2 million from $8 million, its Days Sales Outstanding (DSO)

fell to 46 from 52 and its collections staff was making 10 times as many customer calls a day. "It cues up faxes, letters, e-mails and phone calls, which allows us to contact every customer for every invoice," says Patrick Fitzgerald, CompUSA's senior director of corporate services. "That was something we just weren't able to do manually."

CompUSA recouped its initial investment within six months and has reduced its collections staff by 39% since adopting the software, Fitzgerald notes. Collecting cash faster has helped CompUSA borrow less, get more favorable bank loan terms when it does borrow and reduce bad-debt write-offs. And while the system has saved the company "several million dollars" in costs, it also has proved to be a plus for customers. "It makes our customers happier because they aren't getting calls six months after an invoice goes past due," Fitzgerald says.