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Nordisk Factoring is a service company which administrates, finances and insures its customers' sales invoices. Customers send a copy each time they issue a sales invoice, after which Nordisk Factoring takes care of the rest, thus saving the customer those resources needed for accounts receivable bookkeeping, financing and risk hedging. Running an efficient factoring company requires having the best IT tools constantly at one's disposition. Therefore, the company chose to replace its old AS400 financial management system with Microsoft Business Solutions-Attain. The principal purpose was to have a PC-based and flexible system capable of handling the many tasks of a factoring company.

100 % Web integration
Managing Director Ole Hansen points out that a standard system is never sufficient if one is seeking to provide customers the optimum service. “As a company we need a system which is 100% Web-integrated. As our responsibility is to look after our customers' customers, it was our wish to afford our customers the opportunity of monitoring transactions on the Internet.” The Web-based solution enables our customers to constantly monitor their customers via a secure site. They submit the invoice data over the Web, and this data is then processed automatically and immediately entered into the customer's sales accounts

Development of an ideal system
During the phase when Nordisk Factoring was inviting offers for its new “dream system”, its attention was drawn to Columbus IT Partners' extremely capable project staff and its excellent references, and as a result chose Columbus as supplier. The Attain development and customising process took only one year. Columbus designed a special Web solution which was commissioned at the same time as the financial management system on 1 January 2002.

“During the entire project, Columbus' and Nordisk Factoring's project staff have supplemented each other incredibly well,” says Ole Hansen. One reason for the success of the project was that there was no replacing of project participants during the process. Nordisk
Factoring has lost none of the precious knowledge accumulated along the way. The short and successful development phase was rewarded by an up-to-date solution.

New team-structured organisation
Attain has enabled Nordisk Factoring to implement internal organisational changes from being a function-based organisation to one based on teams. The system is so flexible that it allows Nordisk Factoring to set up the same number of sales ledgers as there are customers.

Few start-up problems
Nordisk Factoring signed a hotline agreement with Columbus at the time the systems went live. With this hotline agreement all too many start-up difficulties have been avoided; the consultants have been extremely effective and quick to rectify any small problems that have occurred en route. Today, the system runs perfectly. Implementation of the new system has whetted Nordisk Factoring's appetite; Ole Hansen has declared that the company is now considering e-invoicing, and