Part of NACM's ever-evolving Credit Congress this year in Las Vegas included what was perhaps the biggest hit of 2010's Credit Congress—the new forum-style Executive Exchange Sessions.

The Executive Exchange Sessions gave attendees a chance to attend a three-hour session on one of six topics—bankruptcy, building and construction, credit and collections, international issues, performance metrics and agriculture/steel/commodities. The sessions drew large crowds and, by all accounts, the highly interactive format of each left attendees feeling more engaged with panelists than ever.

One of the top draws was the Credit and Collections session, moderated by former NACM-National Chairman Mark Tuniewicz, CCE. The session's panel—comprised of Bob Bernstein, Esq., Bernstein Law Firm, PC, Stanford Cramer, IAB Solutions LLC, and Scott Tillesen, CCE, Tech Data Corporation—spent almost the entire time answering direct questions from the audience. Not surprisingly, the question "What is the next big thing in credit and collections?" was among the highlights.

Tillesen, director of credit for Tech Data Corp., said the future of the industry is all about increased productivity and automation. He said businesses need to find ways to reduce the number of traditional, paper-based files they're hanging onto and implement systems that allow important data to be continually piped in, instead of being researched when needed: "You don't want to spend one minute looking for information that could come to you automatically."

Tuniewicz commented that having an adaptive, flexible policy could and should be big in credit and collections moving forward. He said there are many benefits to being able to segment one's customer base into categories such as who is profitable and who isn't as well as who is trending up and who is trending down. Such policies can greatly help anticipate when a customer might be about to fall on hard times.

Panelists also weighed in on several other topics, noting that companies who outsourced collections functions are bringing those jobs back home for needed "personal touch," that credit card processing outfits which are smaller and local often have more incentive to produce strong results for clients and that sales staffs need to be better trained to be "the front line of defense" against fraud attempts.

The Performance Metrics session took what's typically a dry subject and made it strikingly dynamic by boiling it down to its essence: streamlining and increasing communication within a company to maximize performance. Moderated by Bill Balduino, CCE of Dun & Bradstreet, the session's elite panel of experts offered their companies' different approaches to how performance is measured, and discussed the many ways in which attendees could structure their metrics and meetings to enhance profit and customer service. "Work like an owner and think like a customer," said panelist Gary Gaudette, CCE, CICP of Cisco Systems. "It's part of the culture: how you're delivering value to a customer and how you're delivering value to the company. If we're all driving things up, we share in that reward."

Unity and a cooperative effort among departments was a frequent theme when panelists and attendees alike described what went into an industry-leading company's success. Panelist George Schnupp, CCE, of Anixter, Inc., however, added that, at a regional level, his company often encourages its various departments to try to outdo one another, in a form of friendly rivalries that drive each department to do its best. "We want competition," he said. "They all know that. It is a competitive environment that we keep at a regional basis."

In the end, attendees left the session with tips on how to more thoroughly integrate the credit department into the highest levels of the company's mindset. "At the end of the day, it isn't easy to be accepted into the board room, but I think part of it resides in our own laps," said Balduino. "One of the things we have to do is to create value through communication, in order to get the recognition that's deserved."

Building and Construction covered questions on contract terms and conditions—how to handle addendums, negotiation, indemnification clauses—the current construction crisis, lien rights and a variety of other topics. In a discussion about purchase orders, moderator Stan DeGroot, CCE of WESCO Distribution, Inc. asked, "If I wanted to take exception to some things in a purchase order, do I have to list those items out specifically, or can I just take exception to their purchase order and say ‘per our terms and conditions'?" Panelist Jim Fullerton, Esq. of Fullerton & Knowles, PC replied that it depends on the political situation. "You can cross it out, you can email back and say ‘thank you for your purchase order, but we're not going to sell to you unless it is on our terms.' You can also cross out certain paragraphs, or agree to certain things or reject provisions depending on what would work best."

Doing business with disadvantaged business enterprises (DBEs) was also explored in-depth. Greg Powelson, director of NACM's Mechanic's Lien and Bond Services, pointed out that you need to recognize up front when you're in that environment and find out where you sit in the payment tier, because the insertion of a DBE can bump you. He said it goes back to collecting good job information. "Suddenly you find out you're a fourth-tier guy and you served a notice that didn't mean anything and you have no lien rights. That's a bad surprise."

On joint checks, Fullerton said the main thing you need to understand about their use in the whole DBE area is that the government is looking for a "commercially useful function," which was explained further by the panel and defined in the session handouts.