Since inking a deal in April with a Chennai, India, firm to assist with small-balance collection work, Vital Solutions Inc. has been feeding the company 30,000 accounts per month, on average, said Chris J. Gugala, Vital’s executive vice president and chief relationship officer.

The partnership, formed to handle accounts with balances less than $1,000, is a cost-savings measure for Norcross, Ga.-based Vital and its clients, Gugala said. “ It allows us to have an additional collection effort beyond what we would normally do for low balance accounts,” he said. “Getting the person on the phone is the lion’s share of it.”

In most cases, Vital Solutions — via subsidiary Vital Recovery Services Inc. — works the accounts for the first 60 to 90 days. Then the India partner, which Gugala declined to name, takes over. “They work the accounts after that point on our system”, for as few as 90 days or as long as 270 days, he said. “The dialer technology is theirs, and the telecom infrastructure is theirs. The payment systems and payment methods are ours.”

While Vital has only two client that avails itself of the India partnership to date, the company is in talks with at least two others, Gugala said.

Vital’s overseas partnership — and day-to-day tactical operations — fall under the purview of Justin C. Miller, newly hired director of operations. Miller replaced Charles Beam, who resigned in June. Previously, Miller served as operations manager at Nationwide Credit Inc. Miller reports to Jim Hensley, senior vice president of operations.

ON A GROWTH TRAJECTORY

In just more than two years, Vital Solutions has achieved a $1-million-per-month revenue stream, Gugala said. The company employs 162 full-time equivalent collectors among its staff of 190, focusing on auto, credit card, telecom, and utility acounts.

Collectors are evenly spread across the company’s three divisions: contingency, aged warehouse, and first-party. The two former groups, which conduct third-party collections, combine to form Vital Recovery Services. The latter group, which works pre-chargeoff accounts in the credit grantor’s name — including billing, letter-generation, customer service, and collections — is called Vital Outsourcing Services Inc.

The main contingency division collects accounts from initial delinquency to as much as two years past due. After that, the aged-warehouse division revs into action, handling accounts up to seven years old. Through July 2005, Vital has been tasked with collecting $349 million worth of contingency accounts and $952 million of warehouse accounts.
Separately, Vital Solutions hired Kendra S. Morton as training and quality manager, also in June. Prior to joining Vital, Morton was compliance manager for the Law Offices of Ross Gelfand, Roswell, Ga. She also reports to Hensley.