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.

About SGS France

World leader in testing, inspection and certification, SGS France (Société Générale de Surveillance) supports its customers in streamlining their processes, improving quality and productivity, reducing risks and ensuring compliance. With almost 2,800 employees in over 120 inspection centers and 33 laboratories, SGS France provides services to all industrial sectors, from food and energy to consumer goods, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.

Risk management through the prism of "customer potential": providing sales staff with the information they need to assess their "customer risk" and optimize their negotiating power.

With a wide range of customer types, no fewer than 8 business lines in France and a variety of payer accounts, customer risk management is a strategic issue for SGS, and an essential part of our sales approach.

Ms ACHE-BROUTIN, Credit Manager at SGS France for the past 8 years, sees risk management through the prism of "customer potential": " Our objective? To bring solutions to the sales force, so that they can sell in complete safety.

More concretely, the Credit Manager's role will be to provide sales staff with all the data available to assess each customer's creditworthiness as accurately as possible, so that they can negotiate with complete transparency and peace of mind.

Adopting such an approach gives sales forces additional negotiating leverage: " If a customer's creditworthiness is at risk, the salesperson will be in a position to negotiate an advance payment ", explains Ms ACHE-BROUTIN. This is a real advantage in terms of customer risk management, compared with other players who don't have this information.

Ellisphere with Ellipro: a true partner in Customer Risk Prevention

Since 2020, and with nearly 30,000 third parties in France and 1,300 third parties internationally, SGS has chosen Ellisphere and its Ellipro solution as its preferred partner for Customer Risk Prevention. " To best assess potential future problems, it's important to be supported by specialists," explains Ms ACHE-BROUTIN.

For the majority of requests made by sales staff, Mrs ACHE-BROUTIN relies daily on the scores and credit opinions transmitted by Ellisphere.

Other data present in Ellipro, such as financial balance sheets or even the company's creation date, also constitute key information for assessing the degree of risk represented by a customer. " For a company set up 6 months ago, it may be difficult to have the necessary hindsight to assess its solvency. In this case, it's wiser to minimize the risk by asking for a deposit and renegotiating payment terms the following year ", explains Ms ACHE-BROUTIN.

Data reliability, ergonomics and responsiveness: Ellisphere differentiators for SGS satisfaction

4 years after its deployment, the Ellipro platform has established itself as a "natural" partner in the day-to-day deployment of sales strategy.

What underlies this successful collaboration?

First and foremost, Ellisphere is recognized for the quality and reliability of its data. " This reliability is verified by what we know about our customers, or by the information we find in published balance sheets. The score is consistent and coherent with all these elements," says Ms ACHE-BROUTIN. This data quality is also ensured by a team of investigators and analysts who verify and complete the information gathered from our various public and private sources. " True security ", assures Ms ACHE-BROUTIN.

The ergonomics of the Ellipro platform are another key differentiator. A structured presentation of information and clear scorings with relevant color codes optimize data readability for the Credit Manager.

Last but not least, the responsiveness and availability of the Ellisphere teams form the bedrock of this partnership. " As a Credit Manager, I have to be reactive as soon as a sales person requests a financial investigation. It's first and foremost a service profession," confides Ms ACHE-BROUTIN. " There have been times when we've had doubts about a customer: we've passed on his balance sheets to the Ellisphere teams, who have carried out an in-depth analysis. This enabled us to assess the customer's solvency as accurately as possible, and to make the right decision, with complete peace of mind. "

Next step: Integrating Ellisphere data into the SGS information system, for greater agility

Over the next few months, SGS teams will be working on the integration of Ellisphere credit scoring and advice into Oracle and SalesForce. Today, SGS employees work in different environments. With this integration, it will be possible to access customer risk analysis directly in these business applications. And Ellisphere data will also feed SGS internal scoring, which is also based on customer payment behavior, sales or customer outstandings.

This new step will undoubtedly strengthen the partnership between Ellisphere and SGS, for even greater day-to-day agility and operational efficiency.