Telecom VARs are the latest group to benefit from Graydon’s fraud-busting data sharing strategy.
Martin Williams, Graydon managing director, told CRN: “We have had five business intelligence units in operation for some time now – one of which focuses on IT distributors – and recently decided to add a sixth aimed at telecommunications resellers and providers.”
Graydon has been working with the Federation of Communication Services (FCS), the core trade association for telecoms companies, to develop the service, as well as several telecoms VARs. The Credit Intelligence Network operates by allowing members of the service to pool up-to-the-minute credit information so that credit vetting new applications is made much safer.
“Critical information such as disconnections and suspended service actions will be collected from the members by Graydon and instantly merged with the credit information on the Graydon database,” Williams explained.
“Reseller members can then instantly access credit reports containing this crucial information.”
Williams hopes to attract between 50 and 100 VARs to become members of the unit.
“We are offering a discount to FCS’s members to join and the normal membership fee is based on reseller’s annual turnover,” he said.
Karen O’Brien, credit manager at telecoms VAR Daisy, said: “We were involved with putting the new ser-vice together. A lot of the information currently available to us from Companies House and Experian is very generic.
“The service from Graydon will be more specific for our industry. It will be more detailed and tell us if customers have ever had their services suspended and show us their credit history.”
Michael Eagle, FCS’s manager, said: “Telecoms is a fast growing industry so anything that helps telecoms VARs clarify who they are doing business with and minimise the risk is a good thing.”
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