LexisNexis Risk Solutions Simplifies Skip Tracing and Enhances Collections Productivity

New York, NY – LexisNexis Risk Solutions today announced the availability of LexisNexis(R) Accurint for Collections Skip Wizard, a new solution that simplifies skip tracing, turning novice collectors into skilled skip-tracers without expensive training. Skip Wizard improves efficiency and productivity by providing a customizable, step-by-step process that uses intelligent search functionality, data analysis and an evaluation of relationship data to guide collectors through the skip tracing process, helping them determine the best possible course of action.

Typically, 40 percent to 60 percent of accounts in a collection portfolio have no valid phone number for a point of contact when received from a client. As a result, collection organizations must rely on skip tracing to locate and contact debtors. Skip tracing, however, can be difficult to learn and challenging to master. Acquiring proficiency requires experience and training.

"The feedback from our collectors has been outstanding," said Paul Allen, general manager of First Financial Asset Management Inc., a U.S.-based accounts receivable management firm that has been beta testing the solution this spring. "Skip Wizard is an incredibly efficient tool that eliminates many tedious steps in the skip tracing process. Skip Wizard enables our less experienced collectors to quickly and accurately locate the information they need. Our collectors saw immediate results; in fact, collectors who didn’t have it were envious of those who did."

Because of frequent turn over in the industry and the scarcity of experienced skip locators, many collection organizations rely on less skilled collectors to trace and locate debtors, resulting in fewer skip locates and high associated expenses. Skip Wizard was designed to help address these problems by enabling collection organizations to overcome on-line trace and locate challenges by providing collectors with a simple and easy to follow workflow. As a result, Skip Wizard reduces the amount of training required to achieve skip tracing efficiency and decreases unproductive calling, allowing an organization to better allocate their skip tracing resources.

Skip Wizard first attempts to provide collectors with direct contact information for a debtor. If a collector is then unsuccessful in locating a debtor, subsequent contact information is provided for leads that may be able to assist in providing relevant information. Duplicate information is filtered so that only unique results are presented to the collector during a Skip Wizard session.

"Collection organizations tend to struggle at effectively managing the performance of skip portfolios because skip tracing is such a difficult skill to master," said Robert Fite, vice president, LexisNexis Receivables Management Solutions. "Skip Wizard walks collectors through a workflow drawing upon best practices for locating hard-to-find debtors, thereby reducing the expense associated with training collection staff, and improving performance."

Incorporating best practices collections techniques, Skip Wizard ensures collections organizations that collectors are following a standardized approach on each account. In addition, the solution can be customized to allow organizations to limit the scope of work performed on an account based on balance.

About LexisNexis
LexisNexis(R) (www.lexisnexis.com) is a leading global provider of information and services solutions, including its flagship Web-based Lexis(R) and Nexis(R) research services, to a wide range of professionals in the legal, risk management, corporate, government, law enforcement, accounting and academic markets. A member of Reed Elsevier /quotes/comstock/13*!enl/quotes/nls/enl (ENL 22.62, +0.56, +2.54%) /quotes/comstock/13*!ruk/quotes/nls/ruk (RUK 29.85, +1.00, +3.47%) (www.reedelsevier.com), LexisNexis serves customers in 100 countries with 15,000 employees worldwide.

About LexisNexis Risk Solutions
LexisNexis(R) Risk Solutions is the leader in providing essential information that helps advance industry and society. Building on the legacy of proven LexisNexis(R) services from the past 30 years, our cutting-edge technology, unique data and advanced scoring analytics provide total solutions that address evolving client needs in the risk sector while upholding high standards of security and privacy. LexisNexis Risk Solutions serves commercial organizations and government agencies and is comprised of several affiliated corporations, each offering premier customer-focused solutions. For more information, visit risk.lexisnexis.com.