demand for ivas helps sawfish win contracts worth £750,000

19th Jun 2006

York-based technology firm, Sawfish Software, has won four contracts in the financial services sector with a combined value of almost £750,000.

Following a sharp increase in the number of Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) in the UK, the four blue-chip clients will use Sawfish’s dedicated business software to improve their management of debt control and client transactions.

The companies that have bought the use of Sawfish’s Debt-Flow software are:

• London Scottish Bank
• Grant Thornton
• Haines Watts
• Vantis PLC

Debt-Flow is based upon Sawfish’s primary solution Sales-Flow, which automates and streamlines management activities and refines the key business processes involved in complex selling situations. It can be applied to the business operations of companies in a diverse range of sectors.

Sales-Flow/Debt-Flow is a hosted system, accessed via the internet, and enables authorised users to process data wherever they are located. It works on one database to ensure that managers always have an up-to-date view of sales progress.

Sawfish was founded in 2004 by managing director, Steve Hull, who has more than 25 years’ experience in the software and customer relationship management sectors. Previously he founded Online Group Holdings plc, which provides business operations solutions for the drinks industry, before selling it to Alphameric plc in 2000.

Steve said: "We are thrilled to be working with four high-profile companies as we increase our market share of a burgeoning sector. Companies in the financial services industry are demanding more rigorous control of their sales management tasks to give the end-user a better service.

"Increasingly, the industry is requiring more rigorous control over business transactions and in particular, customer debt. Over 23,000 people took out IVAs in 2005 and the market is set to grow by over 400 per cent in 2008 once the proposed new streamlined IVAs (SIVAs) become operational."

In 2004, Manchester-based insolvency practice, The Debt Advisor, also bought Debt-Flow to monitor sales transactions and manage client cases. Since then, Debt-Flow has helped The Debt Advisor to create a streamlined system from client enquiry through to efficient case management.

Beverley Budsworth, founder of The Debt Advisor, said: "The financial services industry has been waiting many years for solutions like those provided by Sawfish. In recent years, debt management has become far more complex and Debt-Flow has provided us with a reliable and efficient way of managing our customer and client transactions."

"The fact that we can monitor each transaction at any stage in the process has enabled us to have more control over customer debt. It has also enabled us to help more people and process the claims quicker and more efficiently."