CBR Cementbedrijven is building a strong customer portfolio thanks to data integration from Altares Dun & Bradstreet
“Construction starts with cement.” A motto you will find on the website of public limited company NV CBR Cementbedrijven. The company produces and markets a wide range of cements for the construction industry. With 550 employees and 4 production sites, it is the market leader in Belgium. CBR is also part of the Benelux entity of the Heidelberg Materials Group, one of the world's largest integrated manufacturers of building materials.
NV CBR Cementbedrijven
10.000
customers
550
employees
50+
operations in 50 countries
The tools and datasets of Altares Dun & Bradstreet are not only essential in supporting us in our daily processes, they are also a perfect match with our credit policy and with our expectations regarding financial data.
1. The Challenge
Reliable credit checks on a large scale
Secure risk management and developing up-to-date customer relationships, for CBR this begins with the datasets and tools of Altares Dun & Bradstreet. Thanks to a partnership with Altares Dun & Bradstreet spanning more than 10 years, CBR fully and securely manages the risks of its credit management on a daily basis, based on reliable data, simple integration and efficient customer follow-up.
Altares Dun & Bradstreet's tools help the cement market leader achieve huge time savings. Thanks to DUNS (Data Universal Numbering System) or the unique 9-digit company number which Altares Dun & Bradstreet uses to systematically and unequivocally identify entities worldwide, CBR can easily map out accurate data such as the number of branches, the actual head office and all kinds of payment data, on both Belgian and Dutch soil. This enables CBR to avoid time losses that could be due to incorrect billing information, for example. As a result, CBR can communicate with the right customers about their financial transactions with certainty. In addition, the reliable and up-to-date datasets of Altares Dun & Bradstreet ensure that CBR can mitigate financial risks with suitable peace of mind.
Séverine Deremince explains: “Thanks to Altares Dun & Bradstreet, we can measure the creditworthiness of our customers on a large scale. This enables us to actually check their solvency. We also have access to current legal procedures and gain insights into a company's tree structure and P&L (Profit and Loss). All this is crucial if we want to make a balanced assessment of our customers and thus proactively manage our financial risks.”
Certainly in a sector such as construction, where projects are often characterised by a temporary turnover, CBR's ability to consistently check with whom it is actually doing business is extremely valuable. Altares Dun & Bradstreet's tools and resources function as a solid binding agent that allows CBR to gain insight into the customer network with all associated affiliations and credit risks.
2 The solution
Efficient integration through D&B Connect and D&B Finance Analytics
The solution that Altares Dun & Bradstreet provides for CBR consists of two tools in combination with a monthly update on bankruptcies.
Initially, the D&B Connect tool ensures efficient integration in SAP of the company data provided by Altares Dun & Bradstreet. SAP is the centralised platform and enterprise resource software that CBR uses to carry out all of its corporate core processes. It constitutes the backbone of the company and runs like a common thread through all departments. The D&B Connect tool makes it easy to link the business data of Altares Dun & Bradstreet to SAP.
“We can get information from Altares Dun & Bradstreet directly from our existing platform,” explains Séverine Deremince. “That's where we really experience the speed and efficiency of the partnership in our daily processes. Thanks to this simple link with our master data, we can quickly and efficiently proceed to a complete analysis. The DUNS number allows me to quickly view the link in detail. For example, I can see when the customer was last analysed and proceed with my own credit analysis faster. Thanks to the clear, to-the-point rating system, I quickly know whether a customer review is needed. This makes it easy for me to get my risk management under control.”
CBR can then use the D&B Finance Analytics tool to analyse the credit information of each customer in more detail, which in turn enables the company to manage risk in an insightful manner.
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Séverine Deremince vult aan: “Dankzij D&B Finance Analytics kan ik gemakkelijk rapportages trekken om onze interne kredietlimieten te vergelijken met die van Altares Dun & Bradstreet. Ook de boomstructuur is voor ons een key criteria die op dagelijks niveau het verschil maakt. Veel van de bedrijven waarmee we samenwerken zetten zich in voor een tijdelijk project. Dan is het handig dat we een overzicht hebben van de organisatiestructuren zodat we weten wie het moederbedrijf is, welke zustermaatschappijen er bestaan of welke andere filialen geaffilieerd zijn. Zo kunnen we een accurate inschatting maken van alle financiële risico’s. Dat stelt ons in staat om op de juiste partners verder te bouwen.”
In this set-up, the data from SAP is automatically supplemented with accurate company data, the DUNS number and accurate credit information. Thanks to the two tools and associated scoring models and parameters, CBR gets immediate insight into a customer's ability to pay invoices.
In addition to those two tools, Altares Dun & Bradstreet provides a monthly update of all kinds of Belgium and the Netherlands based companies that have gone bankrupt. This update is an additional service that compiles in a manageable way the data already available through the two tools to enable CBR to quickly verify the bankruptcy rate in their customer base.
3. The result
Easy risk management
As a result, CBR can easily process and implement its risk management on a large scale and based on highly reliable data while linking insights with its existing tools.
Séverine Deremince therefore concludes: “D&B Connect and D&B Finance Analytics are necessary tools for us to ensure that our credit procedures run smoothly. Their tools are intertwined in our daily processes. Our credit policy was therefore developed internally years ago on the basis of the structures supplied to us by Altares Dun & Bradstreet. The quality of the data and the accurate predictions of the models enable us to react with agility in a sector where it is important to be aware of all kinds of customer affiliations. We especially appreciate the speed with which we can review our customers. This data and integration speed is the engine driving our credit checks. It is therefore no coincidence if the tools and datasets of Altares Dun & Bradstreet are firmly anchored for us in our daily processes.”
What other customers say
"Data is the backbone of our business. In essence, we cannot function without reliable and up-to-date data."
“Before engaging with a company, we always conduct a thorough analysis and request various supporting documents for identification and verification.”
"As a company with an international focus, it is important for us to have a stable solution available based on global data."
'Every new customer we want to check. It sleeps much better for everyone if you know that companies you are owed money from can actually pay it.'
"To make sure we are sourcing good, reliable dealers everywhere, we need the expertise of Altares Dun & Bradstreet"
"We can now act proactively when it comes to credit risk"
"We had another business information provider, but in testing we found that with their data we were only covering 45 percent of our customers"
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"Altares Dun & Bradstreet's Marketing Insight solutions have provided ten times higher conversion from 'suspects' to 'prospects' in the Benelux"
