CDW is a Fortune 500 company that provides technology products and services to businesses and the public sector nationwide. The company was founded in 1984 as a home-based business and today employs more than 2,8 00people, with net sales of approximately $4 billion in 2001. CDW focuses on small- and medium-sized businesses with approximately 97 percent of sales derived from commercial accounts. CDW has built strong relationships within the technology sector and is a leading direct source for Cisco, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Sony, Toshiba, and other top name brands. It was recently ranked first in its industry on FORTUNE magazine's "America's Most Admired Companies" list.

"We were experiencing double-digit growth in new customer acquisition," said Ken Ford, Director of Credit Services, CDW. "Each new customer required credit approval, so we knew we needed to make fast, accurate credit decisions in order to quickly service our customers and to expedite the sales process and manage operational costs."

The old credit approval process at CDW required the company's analysts to manually review credit information received daily from information bureaus. The information could have been as much as three months old, and the process was often time-consuming. By using older data, the company was not certain it was providing the most accurate credit limit to new customers. It was possible that CDW was missing sales opportunities because it was not allotting a large enough credit limit to low-risk customers. In addition, older data meant that CDW might not be immediately aware of negative changes in a company's credit rating, or if the customer was declared fraudulent.

CDW chose eCredit to make credit decisions more accurate, efficient and consistent, and to manage risk more closely. The eCredit solution offered real-time access to bureau data and scores, to ensure decisions were based on the most up-to-date information. In addition, eCredit software took CDW's existing credit decision process-which involved gathering information manually and applying a credit limit based on the resulting customer score-and automated it from start to finish. This dramatically reduced the time and effort needed to process a single transaction, and improved consistency of credit decisions.

"With eCredit, we built our own credit line assignment model in the system," said Ford. "This means we are issuing credit based on our own perception of risk, and we've ensured continuity in our credit portfolio." The flexibility of the eCredit software also meant CDW could change credit decision rules, data elements used to assign credit limits, and scorecard thresholds as needed-such as with a change in economic conditions-with little delay.

Using the eCredit system, CDW reduced the transaction time for an application by 75 percent, speeding up the time to order fulfillment. CDW now processes some 3,000 credit decisions per month, and virtually all credit-approved, in-stock orders ship the same day, with close to 15,000 orders shipped daily. Despite the changes in the economy after implementation of the eCredit software, CDW did not see a significant change in bad debt loss-meaning the system's improved accuracy may have prevented risky lending decisions CDW has also dramatically improved efficiency.

"With eCredit, we can handle up to twice the volume of applications with the same number of employees," said Ford. "That means CDW has no slowdown in credit processing even when there is a spike in orders. In the credit department, we have peace of mind of knowing the credit decision will not be the limiting factor in delivery of orders."