Since 2020, SGS has been relying on the Ellipro solution to provide its sales force with the necessary visibility of customer creditworthiness, and to help them adapt their sales approach and associated credit policy. Data reliability, ergonomics and customer relations are the "winning triptych" on which this successful collaboration is based.

Nathalie ACHE-BROUTIN, Credit Manager at SGS, looks beyond the commercial relationship to a genuine partnership.

Securing processes: a major challenge in a sector particularly exposed to the risk of fraud

With a portfolio of almost 9,000 active customers with a wide range of profiles (garages, tire dealers, dealerships), the MPSA group's Sales Administration (SA) teams open between 100 and 150 professional customer accounts every month.

And yet, this stage is often particularly exposed to the risk of fraud, with potentially falsified supporting documents. This risk is heightened by the increasing digitalization of the business, with the opening of online customer accounts and the sending of documents by e-mail.

During the relationship entry process, and whenever there is a suspicion of document irregularity, the Sales Administration teams apply a manual document verification process (mainly RIBs), which is particularly time-consuming and rarely successful.

This leaves the company vulnerable to fraud... and the financial consequences are far from negligible! Three years ago, MPSA was the victim of fraud based on falsified supporting documents, resulting in financial losses of several thousand euros for the group.

MPSA is trying to stem the risk of identity theft by implementing measures to "secure" this process (for example, the mandatory "field" visit by a sales representative for all new customer account openings). But these measures remain partial, and will not prevent the emergence of ten or so cases of fraud by 2023.

The need to equip the Group with an anti-fraud solution was obvious, to support the sales teams in more effective control and analysis of customer documents.

Automated IBAN verification for enhanced security and increased productivity

In January 2024, the MPSA Group, already a customer of Ellisphere's Data Marketing and Risk Management solutions, naturally turned to Ellisphere to meet this need , opting for the Automatic IBAN Verification solution. Why IBAN specifically? " Of the attempted frauds we've been the victim of, it's mostly the IBAN that's been falsified. These were closed accounts or accounts that didn't exist ," explains Grégory FERNANDES, Credit Manager at MPSA.

Very quickly, the automation of the IBAN verification process met the expectations of the teams, and the benefits were immediate:

• Fraudulent IBANs are detected without delay at every stage of the business relationship (entry into the relationship, RIB change, account reactivation), before the fraud has any impact on the company, and transfers are now secure. " In 2023, we were forced to contact banks directly to check the veracity of an IBAN: in 9 cases out of 10, we were unable to obtain any information, due to banking secrecy ", recalls Mr. FERNANDES.

• What's more, the efficiency of the teams is also optimized, saving considerable time, as Mr. FERNANDES explains: " Previously, the process could take up to 30 minutes for EACH customer, from analysis of the documents collected, to raising doubts with the manager in the event of an irregularity in the IBAN. Today, the IBAN is verified in just 3 minutes. Today, IBAN verification time is divided by 10, from 30 to 3 minutes. Team productivity increases tenfold.

• Last but not least, the greater responsiveness of our teams has a direct impact on customer satisfaction: in the face of an account opening process that used to be particularly slowed down by manual checks, automation speeds up order processing and ultimately improves customer service.

Fully convinced of the effectiveness and reliability of the Automatic IBAN Verification solution, the MPSA group is now planning to extend the use of this solution, and more broadly of Ellisphere's Customer Risk Management solutions, to the group's new brand, 1001pneus.

These new prospects strengthen and consolidate the partnership between MPSA and Ellisphere.