How Credit Managers Can Put The Internet To Work
By Michael C. Dennis, MBA, CBF

If you know where to look, the Internet provides can provide credit professionals with plenty of useful information about their customers. Unfortunately, there is so much information on the Internet that you could "surf" for hours without success unless you know where to look. To shorten the search process, some useful websites are listed below:

• Patton Consulting http://www.pcmoney.com This web site contains five years of financial statements, along with analysis of fifteen key financial ratios for the last five years and for the last five quarters for every company in the Standard and Poors 500, and the Dow Jones sector stocks.

• Asia Inc. Online http://www.asia-inc.com This web site connects users to Asia Inc. Online, an interactive business magazine containing business and financial news about Asia countries and companies. The site contains a searchable database of articles.

• Exchange Rate Converter http://www.olsen.ch This site offers currency conversions on 164 foreign currencies.

• Press Release Newswire http://www.prnewswire.com This site contains news stories, as well as recent and archived press releases from participating companies.

• Carlson On Line Services http://www.fin-info.com This site provides information about Canadian public companies for companies listed on the Alberta, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver stock exchanges. It also contains recent press releases, as well as links to the home pages of numerous Canadian public companies.

• Bloomberg Personal http://www.bloomberg.com One of the most useful features of this site is access through the company directory search to information about over 10,000 U.S. companies (as well as some Canadian companies) including a summary of what each company does, stock quotes, SEC documents, and financial information.

• National Fraud Information Center http://www.fraud.org This site includes fraud watch daily reports and archived fraud information reports.

• UPS Package Tracking. http://www.ups.com This site allows you to track the status of packages sent using UPS and order proof of deliver on line.

• FedEx Standard Tracking. http://www.fedex.com This site allows visitors to track the status of any FedEx package - even if the package is still in transit. Users can also order POD on line.

The Internet is a tool, and like any other tool this one can be misused. Credit managers should be certain that anyone given access to the Internet be told what uses are permitted and the activities that are not permitted.