Rescheduled User s Conference

INSIDE: Status of Release 7.0............. 1 Credit Bureaus Cut Dial Up....... 1 Rescheduled User s Conference.... 1 Before You Upgrade: Notes from Tech Support...2 ESOs that are Moving Into History.. 2 Notice File Maintenance Enhancement...2 Tools to Grow Your Business....... 3 Contacting Tech Support.......... 3 IAT in Partnership with TCM...... 4 Julee is Back...4 New Right Party Contact ESO...... 5 Sales Coupon...5 DEBT$NET Quarterly is published by The Computer Manager, Inc. and is distributed free of charge to our clients and potential clients. Sales : 1-800-552-8397 Fax: 1-360-697-2053 FALL EDITION Vol. 21 Issue 3 October 2008 Status of Release 7.0 Release 7.0 has completed the Beta test phase. The sales department is now looking at first-time buyers and evaluating whether their needs will be better met by Release 6.9, or by choosing Release 7.0 as their starting edition. st November 1 is the offical release date. What this means is that we are also looking to identify current users who are ready to upgrade! Once you have fully evaluated the costs and technical requirements to upgrade to Release 7.0 (see following article), be sure to give us a call and get your name on the list. As always, when doing a major upgrade, our Upgrade Specialist Rachel will help you along each step of the way. Call her today at (800) 893-6335 and make a plan to get up and running on Release 7.0. During st the 1 year of release, 7.0 upgrade packages will be offered at a special rate, so be sure to inquire today. Credit Bureaus Cut Dial Up getting that upgrade and purchasing CB NET to download consumer credit reports via high speed internet. Rescheduled User s Conference As the time approached for this year s User Conference, it became clear to us that it simply wasn t meant to be this year. Many of you are paying extra attention to your own businesses to successfully steer them through these critical times. So, we tabled it this year and are looking ahead to a new date at a better time for all of us. We are currently exploring the idea of holding a series of Regional Training meetings over the coming year. These one-day sessions would be held in various cities around the country, making it easier and less expensive to attend. The sessions would be more focused, specifically covering the new Release 7.0. Web Page: http://www.debtnet5.com Email: sales@debtnet5.com Copyright 2008 The Computer Manager, Inc. All rights reserved. It's official! Reps from all three major credit bureaus have told us that they are no longer supporting dial-up connection for pulling consumer credit reports. For those of you on older versions of Debt$Net, you should consider finally

Before You Upgrade: Notes from Tech Support The switch to Release 7.0 is significant. It is a major shift in technology to an SQL Server environment, which will also result in operational changes to your organization. Because of that, we want our users to spend some time getting to understand the new environment they will enter, as well as the cost impact. Your Network Administrator and/or IT Professional will be able to assist you with meeting the requirements for upgrading to Debt$Net 7.0. These are our recommendations for this upgrade: Hardware: 1. CPU - Pentium III or better; 1 GHz or faster for all editions of SQL Server. 2. Memory - 1 GB of RAM or more recommended for SQL Server, 512MB recommended for Express edition. For workstations, 512MB is recommended. The more RAM on the server, the better the performance. 3. Hard Drive - 2 GB of hard drive space is recommended. For workstations, 1GB of hard drive space is recommended. NTFS File system is STRONGLY recommended when formatting the hard drive. Defragmentation of the Hard Drive is STRONGLY recommended before installation. Operating Systems Server: Windows 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 (SP4) Windows 2008 Workstations: Windows Vista Windows 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 (SP4) (Windows XP Home does not support domains) Considerations for your Network Administrator and/or IT Professional: Your Network Administrator and/or IT Professional will be able to help you with other requirements for upgrading to Debt$Net 7.0, such as choosing the version of SQL Server to use and installation and setup of that version. Make sure you talk with him or her about server remote connections. Technical Support must have access to the SQL Server. We can access the SQL Server directly from the server or from a workstation. The different remote connection types available vary. Terminal Services/Remote Desktop from the server would allow access in the form of a virtual desktop on the server. Many agencies already have this type of connection. Another way to access the SQL Server is to connect using the SQL management tools. This type of connection will require opening specific ports on your firewall and having a static IP address available through your ISP provider. ESOs that Are Moving Into History With the Release of Debt$Net version 7.0 we will see some of our ESOs become footnotes in history. FoxFire!, Pre$Net, and Pitney Bowes will no longer be available. With FoxFire! and Pre$Net, we can offer similar functionality with other products. Pitney Bowes has simply been passed by with other technologies. Notice File Maintenance Enhancement We have added formatting enhancements to Notice File Maintenance for our Release 6.9 users. In the past users have always been able to include a bitmap image, but only at the top of the notice. Included in the 4/17/08 patch update is the ability to add a bitmap anywhere on the notice. This gives agencies the ability to add personal signatures and bottom of page letterhead. Agencies would have to create these bitmaps, then simply insert into the notice using Wordpad. Here are the steps to accomplish that: (1) Open the notice by clicking on the Wordpad button. The notice should already be a RTF (Rich Text Format) file, not a TXT file. (2) Click on the Wordpad INSERT drop down menu and select OBJECT. (3) Select Object Type of BITMAP IMAGE. 4. Select CREATE FROM FILE 5. Click BROWSE to select the correct BMP file. It's best to have this file already in the Debt$Net folder, otherwise network users may not have access to the bitmap when they print the selected notice. 6. Select the BMP file and click the OPEN button. 7. With the Bitmap now inserted, you can resize and save.

Tools to Grow Your Business During this difficult economy, we know that you are struggling with creative ways to maintain profitability. One way of offsetting lower recovery percentages is to look at other ways to grow your business. Fortunately, Debt$Net has several features that can assist you with increasing your collections, through increased collector efficiency and productivity. We also have tools to help you market and add to your client base. Many of these features may already be available to you at no additional cost. Sales Management Sales Management is one feature in Debt$Net that affords the agency the necessary tools to market and track prospective client contacts and to also follow up with active clients. The sales representative has access to contact information, letter printing, notes, extended reference information, contact scheduling and the 'turnkey' ability to create the active client record. Extended Service Options such as Document Imaging further extend the type of data available. Sales, commission and reporting are also tracked by the software. Navigator and Work Scoring Collectors have the ability to rearrange their calling queue based on potential collectability of the account through the Navigator feature. This equates to higher collections for the same amount of collector effort. Agency defined work scores must be setup to make this option available. Both the Navigator and Work Scoring are powerful features added to the Debt$Net 6.9 release. Other features available through the Navigator include debtor deferrals, book marking debtors for later review, internal question and answer communication with agency personnel, and qualify the debtor whether they should be called or not. Administrators can add a quick comment for the collector to see when they work a specific debtor. The quick comment appears on top of the base working screen and can be configured to display each time the debtor is accessed or only one time. Dialer Extended Service Options The use of dialers is another method of increasing productivity. A dialer increases agency productivity by increasing the number of daily contacts and focusing debtors to be called based specific account selection criteria. Typically a dialer installation requires the agency to invest in dialer software and hardware. Sometimes this includes updating your phone system. The use of remote hosted solutions has been increasingly popular because these investments are no longer necessary. Dialer calls are passed back to the agency over existing phone lines or VOIP. The debtor s base working screen can be configured to open for the collector as the dialer transfers the phone call. The Internet Messaging Extended Service Option was originally developed to leave customized messages for debtors. Our dialer vendors have been able to setup remote hosted dialer solutions using this ESO. Debt$Net 6.9 is configured to import dialer result files to the debtor record. The CT Center Extended Service Option is the most feature-rich of our dialer interfaces, but we also have a Predictive Dialer ESO. CT Center includes many automated features such as qualifying if the debtor should not be called, the ability of debtors to call in and obtain automated account balance information, and focused call campaigns. Contacting Tech Support When you need technical support assistance, every minute counts. We want to be sure that when you need us, we are there for you. That s why we want to remind you of the best ways to contact technical support. By Phone: 800/893-6335 - this number is the best one to call any time of day. There is voice mail for after-hours calls that is checked first thing every morning. By Email: support@debtnet5.com - this email is checked all the time. This is your best email option for making sure that we get your message as quickly as possible. As always, please feel free to correspond with our Technicians firsthand, but if they are out or away from their desk, the support email will make sure that your support inquiries are received and responded to. By Error? We hope you love the send error feature in version 6.9 as much as we do. (If you re not already on version 6.9, call us today to learn more about upgrading!) We suggest giving us a call or sending us an email in addition to sending the error to us using this feature. This gives us an

opportunity to get more information on how the error is affecting your business and to gather any additional information that we may need. IAT In Partnership With TCM Helps You Find Debtors Willing to Pay! Slowing economy. Higher delinquency rates. Unemployment up. Scary words for everyone, including debt collectors. And it continues to get worse. In the current economic crisis, there is more paper to collect on, but it is getting harder and harder to find debtors who will pay. Economic woes slow payment of bills More and more consumers are creating delinquency budgets, picking which bills will and will not be paid. This picking and choosing creates more debt, but because many debtors aren t paying all of their bills, your overall collections could be going down. Tight-fisted debtors reached by technology IAT and TCM have integrated their CT Center, CT Impact and Debt$Net systems to help you collect money from tight-fisted, scared debtors. Many Debt$Net customers do not use automated dialing technology. By taking advantage of these integrated options, you have a better chance of contacting debtors more quickly, before another collection agency can claim their last dollars. Hosted Services More Economical If you think site-premised dialing systems are beyond your budget, you may find that CT Impact hosted dialing solutions from IAT, both predictive dialing and broadcast messaging, are more economical. They can help you stay competitive without any upfront hardware costs and with more affordable rates. CT Impact works with any phone system. The capabilities of IAT s hosted solutions and their site-premised system are fairly similar. IAT s integration to Debt$Net makes using CT Impact an even smarter choice. CT Impact Predictive Dialing delivers only live answered calls to collectors, with minimum wait time and a real-time screen pop of debtor account information. Agents are freed from listening to no-answers, busy signals and answering machine messages. As a result, agent talk time increases 300 percent or more over manual dialing. CT Impact Broadcast Messaging makes automated outbound calls, delivering either a simple callback request or a detailed interactive message, with prompts to access or input information and make automated payments. Find wrong numbers in new lists or comb through aging accounts for those ready to pay! There aren t any minimums or maximums on how many calls you can make. Most Everyone can benefit Most Debt$Net customer can profit from a hosted solution, especially those on a tight budget. You can pay as you go. For immediate results with no upfront costs, hosted solutions are an excellent choice. Companies that already have a dialer can use a hosted solution during busier times. Companies looking for a dialer can try out hosted predictive dialing and broadcast messaging before purchasing a system. IAT is unique in offering both site-premised and hosted solutions. Recession, unemployment, higher delinquency rates with an arsenal of technology and services from Debt$Net and IAT, these words shouldn t be as scary. You ll have a much better chance of contacting that debtor first and collecting the debt. We re working together to help you stay competitive, especially in these tough economic times. Watch for information about the combined webinar hosted by IAT and The Computer Manager, Inc. Julee is Back! Some of you may have noticed over recent weeks that calls to Julee have been handled by others. After taking 2 months to stay home with new baby Eli, she is back at her desk. Eli makes the third baby in under a year here at The Computer Manager, Inc. Just so you know, they are the three best looking kids ever!

New Right Party Contact ESO The Computer Manager, Inc. announces the release of a new ESO which provides an interface to CBCInnovis. CBCInnovis belongs to a family of companies established in 1948 which provide risk management services for customers in the business, government, and not-for-profit sector. CBCInnovis s Right Party Contact (RPC) Solutions present Collection agencies with tools that improve the contactability of past due accounts. Using multiple public and proprietary sources, CBCInnovis' Identity Mapping Technology helps collectors locate more debtors, even hard to find debtors, when the collector has exhausted other skip tracing techniques. The Debt$Net RPC Solutions Interface allows agencies to forward debtor information to CBCInnovis, who then processes it using the RPC Solutions product tools. The return file includes updated phone and/or address information. RPC Solutions has consistently outperformed competitive products in head-to-head testing at Collections Departments of major lenders, leading collections agencies, skip specialists and return mail processors. Customers have seen dramatic results using RPC Solutions with contact rate increases of over 10% on early collections queues to 45% contact rate increase for back end collections and older skip efforts. CBCInnovis Collections RPC Solutions are now employed by 20 of the top 25 U.S. financial institutions. For more information concerning RPC please contact your local CBCInnovis Account Manager at 888-824-0026 or email sales@cbcinnovis.com $100 off Take $100 a qualifying purchase. Discount applies to a new purchase of ESO(s), User(s) or Venture Block(s). Coupon may only be used once per company and may not be combined with any other offers. Offer good thru 11/30/08. Call Mark @ 800-552-8397 to take advantage of this coupon.