Columbia Ultimate is committed to enhancing The Collector System to deliver new ways to help our clients prosper and grow. Providing solutions that solve your evolving business needs has been our focus and we will continue on this path; bringing continued growth and success to you.

What’s New – A Review of 2006
Security is a key priority in the collection industry, with ever increasing requirements. In response to your need to keep pace with market trends and government regulations, enhanced security was the focus of version 2006.1. Enhancements to this release included data-at-rest encryption, call recording for the CU•CONVERSE Dialer, as well as new @codes for partially masking social security numbers.

To offer our clients even more choices for companion products and services, a new interface with DANTOM Systems, Inc. has been developed. This additional collection letter option is now available on The Collector System, versions 2005.2 or higher.

Also in 2006, Columbia Ultimate worked closely with the ACA to offer our clients an automated method of responding to the ACA’s Top Collection Market Survey. In the past, collecting key information for this survey from collection professionals has been time consuming for both the ACA International and the agencies who are providing it. With this functionality offered in The Collector System, responding to the ACA Top Collection Market Survey will be easier and will provide more accurate information. This feature is now available on The Collector System, version 2005.2 or higher.

What’s Next – Looking Forward to 2007
Moving into 2007 we will continue to deliver feature-rich releases of The Collector System. The next version of The Collector System, version 2007.1, will soon be ready to order. As part of our commitment to deliver quality releases, the 2007.1 release is currently undergoing rigorous field and in-house testing. We look forward to announcing the general availability of this release during Q1 2007.

The significant enhancements coming in the 2007.1 version are found in system logging and reporting, credit bureau reporting and the CU•CONVERSE Dialer. This version will also include an interface to Collection Advantage from Experian. This interface allows you to purchase specific data elements to efficiently collect on your accounts; all the while keeping costs down.

On the heels of introducing Call Recording in Version 2006.1, we continue our commitment to provide powerful enhancements to CU•CONVERSE RT dialer in Version 2007.1. This version offers Caller ID by campaign, Inbound Skills Based Call Routing, and Interactive Voice Messaging.

An interface to Electronic Payment Providers is currently planned for Q2 of 2007. This interface will allow agencies to offer alternative payment options such as credit cards and ACH payments. Users will be able to accept and process credit cards through a real-time interface and ACH payments can be scheduled for batch processing.
Additional enhancements planned for 2007 include partial masking of sensitive data, an enhanced Collector Window that will show more critical data at one time, as well as an option to maintain financial transactions for a specified period of time. We will also make The Collector System compatible with PCL compatible printers.

Please continue to visit www.columbiaultimate.com for updates as to when these new features, as well as many more, will be available in Version 2007.1 of The Collector System.