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The Attorney General's Collections Enforcement section is statutorily responsible for collecting past due debts owed to the state of Ohio. The Attorney General's Office is responsible for collecting everything from past due book fines at state libraries to unpaid corporate income taxes. The cases are referred from other state agencies in accordance with state laws. The Collections Enforcement team relied on two collection systems to manage more than 2.6 million debt accounts on an on-going basis. However, the complexity and labor-intensiveness of these systems were proving to be a challenge. The software systems did not communicate with each other, resulting in disparate data with only partial information available to the collections department. "If a customer had two different accounts – for example, if they owed taxes and had a student loan, we had no visibility that these two accounts were connected to the same person," says Bill Miller, director of operations, Collections Enforcement. "In addition, the reports that we could generate from these systems were extremely labor intensive making it almost impossible to get data efficiently and effectively." The existing systems required on average 30 to 60 plus days of training creating additional delays and complications. "The existing systems were inefficient in meeting our needs. We needed a better, more sophisticated system to become more effective in our collections efforts," says Miller. Solution: Enhanced Internal and External Communications with RevQ's RPCS The Ohio Attorney General's Office turned to RevQ's RPCS. This solution is geared specifically for use in government agencies and enabled the Office to streamline and organize the department's method of collecting outstanding accounts. Collectors were able to prioritize and assign accounts to work to collection agencies and litigation firms, and obtain reports and status on these accounts quickly and easily. "Streamlining processes enabled us to better communicate internally and externally with over 120 state clients in Ohio such as the Department of Taxation and the Bureau of Workers' Compensation," says Miller. Debtors can also make payments using their checking and credit-card accounts through a secure online connection. Clients have the ability to dial in and check on account balances at any given time. Results: Collections Increased to $274 Million The Ohio Attorney General's office has increased collections from $150 million to $274 million in revenue due to the implementation of RPCS and other solutions from RevQ such as the addition of a dialer, an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system and online reports and data access. Obtaining better visibility into accounts has left no stone unturned, enabling the Office to recover everything from unpaid tax bills and fraudulent workers' compensation claims to past-due tuition payments owed to state colleges and universities. According to Miller, the increase in productivity goes back to RPCS's capability in enhancing and streamlining communications with their clients, their special counsels and their collection agencies so data compiled is as comprehensive as possible. The increase in revenue collected did not require additional staffing and allowed resources to be reallocated so that the entire department was operating smarter and faster. To download a printable version of this story click here.
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Challenge: Poor Visibility of Data Results in Missed Collections
