IA Group works with credit insurers, banks, brokers and exporters to prevent and resolve trade disputes between buyers and sellers. When an insured makes a claim, the insurer is obliged to quickly determine whether the claim is justified and decide whether compensation will be paid. And if so, for how much. The IA Group specialises in investigating claims quickly, clearly and thoroughly. From Peru to China and from Senegal to Russia, local professionals work to assess and recover international debts. Each country has its own laws and a different way of doing business, having a local presence prevents and resolves disputes.
Chanan Hertzberger, CEO of IA Group: "Our family-owned business employs around 120 people around the world. People who, from the head office in Amsterdam and from local offices around the world, work every day to offer recovery, consultancy and legal services to our clients. We have regular contact with Xolv; they seek advice from us to provide their clients with the right information. About the creditworthiness of potential new customers, for example. At the IA Group, we value good, long-term partnerships and we definitely have that in common with Xolv. Open and honest communication and short lines of communication, that typifies both our companies. We are a close-knit family business and, despite our size, we manage to be there for each other and do a solid job together. We deal with very complicated dossiers and we don't stop until there is a realistic solution. For Xolv, we regularly take an independent look at uninsured claims or rejected claims due to an alleged dispute. But we also deploy advice to prevent problems with our consultancy services. Because as a business owner, if you get things right at the front, there is less chance of problems afterwards."
Really different
"What I want to give every entrepreneur: doing business abroad is really different from doing business in the Netherlands. And I cannot emphasise that enough! To give a small example, the requirements for offering and accepting general terms and conditions are not the same everywhere as in the Netherlands. If you don't have a signed agreement, they are often simply not valid. That can go well for a long time, of course, but if problems arise, those problems only get worse if your terms and conditions are not valid. Then your position only gets worse. Each country has its own laws, and you want to establish thoroughly in advance which law you are acting under and which court you are submitting a possible dispute to. These are just a few small examples that can have huge consequences for the entrepreneurs concerned."
Identity theft
"In our work, we investigate fraud cases with great regularity. Right now, identity fraud is a big problem, you really have to arm yourself against it. For example, you might be convinced that a large international supermarket chain is placing an order. Everything checks out, so you decide to take the order and agree to pay afterwards. Then you get a legitimate-looking email that the customer's warehouse is full, asking if you can deliver to another location. You do so and then it turns out from A to Z that this has been staged by scammers. Similarly, you are regularly asked not to transfer the money to A, but to B. It is difficult to judge whether you are dealing with a fraudster. It is the people who look neat and make contact with you at a fair. They gain your trust and strike later. You can avoid this by having research done before you engage. To legitimacy and creditworthiness. It can prevent a lot of misery!"
