According to a recent United States Department of Commerce Economic Statistics and Administration report, world trade volume for goods and services is expected to increase 5.3 percent in 2015, up from 3 percent in 2013.
Working with companies overseas can have a lucrative impact on your business, however, the opportunity does not come without risk. There are many potential pitfalls to expanding overseas that must be addressed in order to mitigate risk and improve profitability. Three of the major information-based hurdles that should be considered are:
1 – Availability – International data often is unavailable to credit professionals or it takes them too long to acquire.
2 – Freshness – International data is often out-of-date, increasing the chance of making inaccurate risk assessments.
3 – Consistency – Credit professionals can’t use the same analytical models across multiple geographies due to data differences.
Experian makes it easy for our customers to expand into new territories through our enhanced international capabilities. We provide comprehensive insight into your international customers and vendors — both prospects and existing — that is accurate, up-to-date, easily accessible and highly actionable. This data helps you assess risk, reduce exposure to late payments and defaults, and be more competitive overall.
In the below video Experian product manager, Greg Carmean discusses some of the challenges in international business engagements.
Experian’s International Developed Profiles help Rubicon Project safely expand into untapped markets
Rubicon Project is a technology company that automates the buying and selling of digital advertising. Their trading platform reaches a global audience of 200 million U.S. and 646 million global monthly visitors. Before they began using Experian, the company was hesitant to grant credit internationally due to the limitations of its previous sources. Rubicon Project is focused on rapidly expanding into new territories while providing world-class service and minimizing risk. In some geographic regions, online ad trading is a new concept that is generating considerable excitement, but this poses the challenge of being able to adequately navigate risk in uncharted waters.
“With Experian’s Business Information Services, we have access to comprehensive information that helps us uncover new growth opportunities,” said Lorraine Moses Rubicon Project’s director of credit and collections.
Most recently, Rubicon Project has been challenged with monitoring customers located in high-risk countries affected by recent economic challenges in the Eurozone and Latin America. “Experian simply has updated information on many of the customers of concern,” Moses, continued. “We have been able to grant credit to a large number of international customers that would have been declined because we were unable to determine credit worthiness due to limited information.”
