ISOSKELE harmonises collections across its 8 entities and boosts efficiency with LeanPay

Founded in 2019 and part of La Poste Group, ISOSKELE offers end-to-end customer journey support: from generating interest and driving traffic to optimising conversion and maximising customer value.

With 500 employees, 100 M€ in turnover, 9 entities and 900 customers, the company faces significant challenges in managing receivables and late payments.

We met Safia Mallek, Head of Customer Accounting & Collections, to understand LeanPay’s concrete impact on the group.

Before LeanPay

8 entities with disparate collection processes

Reminders sent only for overdue invoices

Repetitive and time-consuming manual tasks

With LeanPay

8 entities centralised in LeanPay for harmonised management

Automatic preventive reminders sent at D-10

Time spent on reminders divided by 2, allowing focus on higher-value cases

Disparate and time-consuming processes

ISOSKELE’s rapid growth stems largely from a series of acquisitions.

Originally at TimeOne, one of the acquired companies, Safia Mallek now manages collections for 8 entities with a team of four. Over the years, the different acquisitions led to inconsistencies in invoicing processes, each entity keeping its own habits.

ISOSKELE uses Cegid XRP Flex for invoicing, but since some entities still use internal tools, all invoices are imported into XRP Flex to centralise them on one platform.

Invoices are mostly issued at the start of the month for the previous month’s activity. Contractual payment terms vary from 15 to 60 days, with a default of 30 days.

Before LeanPay, collection methods differed widely between entities.

"The four historical entities used a tool called CashOnTime. The other four managed everything manually. We exported the customer aging balance from the accounting system and chased each overdue invoice one by one, by email or letter."

Since invoices were automatically sent by email, they were stored in the collections team’s inboxes. Safia Mallek explains: "I reused those emails to send reminders. I’d pull up the last reminder from my mailbox, rename it ‘Reminder 2’, and add people to the copy."

This way of working was extremely time-consuming: "It was repetitive and tedious. The time we spent sending reminders was time we couldn’t dedicate to higher-value topics."

The group wanted to harmonise its collections process. Although CashOnTime was proposed to all entities, it didn’t meet every need. "We wanted a direct connection with XRP Flex and the ability to upload invoice PDFs easily. Then we discovered LeanPay. We had a demo and said, ‘That’s it!’ It’s user-friendly and well-designed," says Safia Mallek.

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Simpler tracking and harmonised procedures

The LeanPay integration was smooth and fast thanks to the API connection. "It went very well. We even had specific needs: because invoices all go through XRP Flex, we have two invoice numbers: one from the original billing tool and one from XRP Flex. The LeanPay team adapted perfectly to that. Everyone is extremely responsive: whenever there’s an issue, we always find a solution," recalls Safia Mallek.

She configured the tool herself for all group entities:

"We didn’t need a dedicated project team. I set it up on my own. It took one or two days because we have many entities and specificities. I’ve never seen an implementation happen so quickly!"

A total of 8 entities are now managed in LeanPay, each monitored by one team member.

Several reminder plans were created to match customer profiles:

• French plan for domestic customers
• English plan with registered letters for EU customers
• English plan without letters for non-EU customers
• Plan for key accounts
• Plan for bad payers
• …

Regarding the plan for bad payers, Safia Mallek explains the classification method:

"We use the DSO per customer available in LeanPay. We export it and reimport it into XRP Flex to categorise customers. For example, if the DSO is between 0 and 30 days, the customer is an « excellent payer » between 30 and 45 days, a « moderate payer » etc. Basically, LeanPay’s DSO serves as our reference. That way, sales and operations teams know each customer’s payment behaviour."

Within the reminder plans, D-10 notifications showing the customer’s account status are sent automatically. For other reminders, manual validation is required. "I want the team to see what needs to be chased because there might be actions to take: skip a reminder due to a dispute, postpone one, and so on. So reminders aren’t fully automated," she explains.

The tool also allows fine-tuned user access management:

• Administrators (Safia Mallek, Deputy CFO, IT) have full access
• The accounting and collections team has full functional access (without admin rights)
• The treasury team sees only payment promises
• Sales staff can view only their own customer portfolio by business unit

From level 3 onwards, salespeople are automatically copied on all reminders, ensuring they stay informed of letters sent to their customers.

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Time savings and higher-quality reminders

A LeanPay customer since November 2023, Safia Mallek draws an extremely positive balance of the tool. She highlights two main benefits: significant time savings and higher-quality reminders.

Previously repetitive and time-consuming tasks are now handled by LeanPay. Preventive notifications have been added and are sent automatically, whereas before, reminders were only for overdue invoices.

"At D-10, the customer receives their account statement with the invoice copy. They can’t say they didn’t receive it. It removes a lot of friction," explains Safia Mallek.

Thanks to automation, the team now spends half the time on standard reminders. This time saving allows them to focus on complex cases:

"For instance, if we see a customer is consistently late, we categorise them as a bad payer. Or if a usually responsive customer doesn’t reply, we send an intermediate reminder without waiting for the next planned one," says Safia Mallek.

"We’ve gained both in quantity, because the tool handles more, and in quality," she concludes.

She also mentions cost savings on registered letters with acknowledgement of receipt. Previously, postal letters were used extensively for reminders, even for minor delays. This later became limited to formal demand letters only. Today, thanks to LeanPay, LRAR letters are far less frequent. As Safia Mallek explains: “We have fewer delays that reach the letter stage because we can see them immediately and follow up straight away. When we do need to send a registered letter, it is because we intend to initiate a formal recovery process.”