News by SB Informer

Heritage Propane Celebrates One Year of Online Paperless Credit Applications

 

Credentrust Software and Heritage Propane, America's 4th largest propane provider, celebrates their one year anniversary of fast online and paperless credit applications.

By Manar Sleiman
SB Informer Contributing Author
Tuesday, November 21, 2006; 01:28 AM

COSTA MESA, Calif. –Credentrust Software, Inc is proud to celebrate the one year anniversary with Heritage Propane, America’s 4th largest propane provider. Credentrust Software’s online CreditSuite approves new customers instantly, thereby replacing the manual 4 to 5 day credit application process. CreditSuite takes an online application, pulls the credit bureaus information, instantly inputs all the data into a dynamically driven rules engine and outputs documents for approval.

“Credentrust Software is thrilled to be partnered with such an extraordinary company such as Heritage Propane,” said CEO of Credentrust Software, Tom Markel. “The one year anniversary with Heritage is a great event; we’ve worked very hard to make our partnership beneficial for both parties and feel that we’ve accomplished our goals.”    

Credentrust Software’s CreditSuite has replaced the lengthy and tedious credit application screening process of Heritage Propane, with a standardized, seamless and paperless credit application that now takes 15 minutes compared to 4 or 5 days. Heritage Propane’s CreditSuite has processed 30,000 credit applications as of September 2006 with the peak season still ahead. Because of the large volume of credit applications, Heritage Propane has their own server and dedicated platform.

Credentrust’s Credit Suite provides hosted solutions which enable companies to quickly and efficiently process new customer accounts. CreditSuite gives the business the opportunity to easily verify bank and trade references. Credentrust virtually eliminates paper, faxes, copy costs and postage charges in the processing of their new customer and trade credit applications. Moreover, the online application and features, such as integrated credit reports, totally eliminate data re-entry, which is costly, time-consuming and mistake prone. At Credentrust, our mission is to enable corporations to sell more products and services to their customers by providing their customers with seamless connectivity to credit and capital. Our success is based on our ability to empower companies to capture, grow and service their customers by enhancing their financial relationships.    

"In a world that is fast paced and not always tuned into people to people relationships, its nice to know that there is a company, like Credentrust, that expertly combines the technological age with old fashion customer service,” said Susan W. Tarner, Corporate Credit Manager, Heritage Operating LP. “Credentrust’s highly trained staff deliver expert web/software knowledge and problem solving solutions with attention to detail, while always keeping in mind the importance of the person to person interaction."    

Heritage Operating L.P. distributes propane throughout America with a retail network serving over 700,000 customers nationwide from 320 customer service locations in 34 states. Heritage propane started in 1989 and became a publicly traded limited partnership company in 1996. Heritage Propane is one of the integral operating subsidiaries of Energy Transfer Partners, L.P. and recently acquired Titan Propane. The operations include natural gas treating, transportation and storage options in Texas and Louisiana. Heritage has sold 406 million gallons for the fiscal year ending in August 2005. Heritage Propane’s mission statement is, to be the safest, most customer-focused and successful propane company in America.           

ABOUT CREDENTRUST SOFTWARE
In 1997, future Credentrust founder Thomas Markel was approached by the largest private hotel owner in the United States, Gary Tharaldson, to restructure the debt on his hotels. With the proceeds from the successful restructuring deal, Mr. Markel was inspired to launch a new business which would enable companies of all sizes to store and organize their business data into a secure electronic "vault" for the purpose of arranging financing to help them grow their business and reduce their costs. The customer can then provide access to this vault to selected lenders, credit rating agencies, brokers and other parties as necessary, thereby eliminating the inefficiencies and costs of typical paper-based transactions like the consolidation loan for Mr. Tharaldson. The transaction described above cost approximately $37,000. This same transaction through Credentrust today would cost $499.95 - a savings of over $36,500!

Manar Sleiman, Director of Communications technologies for iBank.com, is a Cal State Fullerton graduate with a BA in Communications-advertising and a BA in Liberal Studies. She entered the industry in Summer of 2006, with experience in marketing, and advertising.